The Village of Munsey Park banned the manufacturing and sale of marijuana and any products containing cannabis or THC Monday night, making it the first village in the Town of North Hempstead to do so.
The law, an amendment to the prohibited uses section of the village code, passed unanimously, with both Mayor Frank DeMento and Trustee Jennifer Noone absent for the vote.
It bans the drug regardless of whether it is meant for recreational or medicinal purposes.
Trustee Lawrence Ceriello said the ban is meant to be preemptive.
“There is no business in the village right now that is licensed to dispense drugs, period,” he said. “But there may very well be.”
The law is more restrictive than all three of the marijuana-related laws that the Town of North Hempstead passed recently, which zone medical marijuana dispensaries, ban them from selling recreational marijuana and ban recreational marijuana stores altogether.
Village resident John Boyle questioned why the Board of Trustees was regulating medical marijuana, voicing concerns during the public hearing preceding the vote.
He argued that the dictionary defines the word “dispense” as including the act of prescribing a medicine. By banning marijuana from being dispensed in the village, the village is banning doctors from prescribing the drug, Boyle said.
Ceriello said he disagreed with the definition Boyle cited.
“The law as written is exactly what the board intends it to say,” he said. “We are prohibiting the sale and anything that might constitute a sale.”
Munsey Park borders Northern Boulevard, the epicenter of a controversy that began when cannabis company MedMen applied to open a medical marijuana dispensary there.
In December, the company told Blank Slate Media that it had abandoned its plans, citing opposition from the residents and town officials.
At the time, the town had already passed its first two marijuana laws, one of which would have prevented MedMen from selling recreational marijuana even if it became legal in New York.
On Monday, Munsey Park also passed a law that would allow it to supersede the state’s 2 percent tax cap if it should choose to do so.
The town adopted the same law last year but decided to stick with the 2 percent cap, Ceriello said.
In other developments, ExteNet, a telecommunications company, submitted a formal application to the village Feb. 5 to install a small cell node, Trustee Anthony Sabino announced.
The node would be in a new flagpole in a triangle of village property between Manhasset Woods Road and Park Avenue.
The flagpole would be 50 feet high, replacing the shorter existing one.
“It is bigger and it’s thicker,” Ceriello said. “It’s clearly not just a flagpole.”
Because it is not in front of a home, the new flagpole would not affect property values, Sabino said.
ExteNet had originally wanted to place the cell next to a nearby home, he said.
The board is evaluating ExteNet’s application, Sabino said.
