The legalization of cannabis is causing great discomfort to Saugerties residents who don’t smoke it, Tom Cafaldo said at the Saugerties Town Board meeting on Wednesday, June 13. People who are irritated by the smoke are subjected to it in public places, he said, asking what the town could do to protect non-smokers who are affected by secondhand smoke. “It’s a quality-of-life-issue,” Cafaldo said. The law now says that people have a right to smoke marijuana recreationally, “but when did I lose the right to not deal with that?”
Saugerties supervisor Fred Costello said that there have been a number of complaints about the legalization of cannabis. While it is legal in most places, in places where smoking tobacco is illegal, smoking marijuana is as well.
Police chief Joseph Sinagra said that the town could look at limiting marijuana smoking with laws similar to the prohibition on open burning. “When the state legislators pass a law, they really need to think of the repercussions they have on society. Cannabis does have physical effects; it also has therapeutic effects, but it also has effects that people enjoy it. But when we’re imposing it upon on their neighbors, I think government does have a right to step in at some point.” The chief said that when smoke is wafting over into children’s play areas, “That’s a concern for every parent.”
Sinagra recommended contacting local legislators to try to get the law amended: “Laws can be changed.”
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