New York towns have just two weeks left to ban cannabis stores and consumption lounges from their communities, triggering a flurry of local government hearings in the final days of the year in which the safety and benefits of legal marijuana is being debated anew. 

So far, elected officials in 28 percent of New York’s more than 1,500 municipalities have opted out of allowing dispensaries, while 32 percent opted out of consumption sites, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government, which is tracking the votes, though no clear pattern has emerged. Communities that have voted no span the political and geographical divide.

But the contours of the debate underway is similar throughout the state: Supporters want tax revenue from cannabis stores and see marijuana as alcohol's less harmful little cousin. Opponents voice concern over what effect marijuana will have on children.

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