As legal cannabis sales continue to expand across New York, state officials have launched a new public education initiative aimed at helping residents separate fact from fiction when it comes to marijuana use.<\/p>\n
The campaign, called “Cannabis Honestly,” was created by the New York State Office of Cannabis Management to provide information about cannabis and answer common questions about its use.<\/p>\n
The launch comes as New York’s adult-use cannabis industry continues to generate significant revenue for municipalities that allow legal sales.<\/p>\n
According to state figures, local governments on Long Island that permit cannabis dispensaries \u2014 all currently located in Suffolk County \u2014 collected approximately $13 million in cannabis sales tax revenue from products sold between April 2023 and April 2025.<\/p>\n
While supporters point to the tax revenue as a benefit for local communities, some addiction treatment professionals say the growth of the industry raises concerns about public health.<\/p>\n
“Just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s healthy for you,” said Steve Chassman of Wellbridge Addiction Treatment and Research in Calverton.<\/p>\n
Chassman, a licensed clinical social worker, says he and his colleagues have seen an increase in cannabis-related treatment cases since legalization.<\/p>\n
“Here at Wellbridge, and as a licensed clinical social worker for 32 years, we’ve been seeing the increase of THC and cannabis use disorder since legalization that has gone up exponentially,” Chassman said.<\/p>\n
He says public health considerations should remain a priority as cannabis sales and tax revenue continue to increase.<\/p>\n
“I think New York State, with all the billions of dollars, when you pit monetary gain and public health, we don’t want public health to lose,” Chassman said.<\/p>\n
State officials say the Cannabis Honestly campaign is designed to provide science-based information about cannabis, including potential risks, safer-use practices and resources for those seeking help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As legal cannabis sales continue to expand across New York, state officials have launched a new public education…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-297793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}