A bottle of red. A baggie of weed.
As lawmakers in Albany draft a bill to legalize adult use of marijuana, a coalition of wine and liquor store owners is campaigning for the right to stock their shelves with the product.
Organizers of The Last Store on Main Street (LSMS), which recently fought to keep wine out of grocery stores, said the effort is motivated in part by the fear of losing business.
A joint study conducted in part by researchers from the University of Connecticut and Georgia State University concluded a reduction in the nation’s overall alcohol consumption, from 2006 to 2015, was related directly to increased availability of medical marijuana.
“We have employees, and if sales go down we’d have to let people go,” said John Ha, owner of City Wine Cellar in New Springville, and a member of the coalition.