WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – Watertown could be changing course when it comes to allowing cannabis dispensaries to operate within city limits.
The issue of selling marijuana legally in the city came up last Thursday at the 7NEWS town hall forum.
Currently, the city doesn’t allow for dispensaries.
But after council candidate Colin Burns said he wants the city to reverse course, current council member Lisa Ruggiero, who is running for reelection, agreed with Burns.
She said she thinks the city should rethink its position now that more is known about how the program works, and that other local towns are potentially seeing a quarter-million dollars in new revenue through the taxes.
Ruggiero explained why the city passed on the idea previously, saying once a government says yes, it can’t ever change back. And while Ruggiero feels there are 3 votes on the current council to get this done, we also heard from the mayor, who spoke favorably about allowing dispensaries to open up within city limits.
“The reason why we opted out in the first place was once you opt in to sell it, you can never opt out, and the state did not have anything in place. No regulations, no nothing. It was so unknown, we felt it was safe to opt out until we knew more. So I think now is the time,” said Ruggiero.
“I think there’s nothing wrong with revisiting it and seeing, is this something that makes sense for the city? And also, getting the public feedback now that these have been out in communities, what does the public think at this point now that they’ve seen it,” said Mayor Sarah Pierce. (See more of Pierce’s interview here)
As for the other current council members, Cliff Olney and Ben Shoen are more open to making the change.
Council meets Monday night. There’s no resolution to vote on, but we’ve learned Ruggiero wants to act quickly.
Copyright 2025 WWNY. All rights reserved.
Watertown could be changing course when it comes to allowing cannabis dispensaries to operate within city limits. Read More
