Scroll down for detailed results from the Newsday/News 12/Siena College poll of the 4th Congressional District race. The poll, conducted Sept. 10 to 15, surveyed 596 likely voters via landline and cellphone and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
To see raw data, click here.
Democrat Kathleen Rice holds an early 18-point advantage over Republican Bruce Blakeman in their race for Nassau’s 4th District congressional seat, with the spread largely driven by her higher level of name recognition and cross-party support, according to a Newsday/News 12/Siena College poll.
Rice, the third-term Nassau district attorney, led Blakeman, a former county legislative leader, 55 percent to 37 percent among 596 likely voters — with 8 percent saying they were undecided or had no opinion. The candidates were close among independent and minor-party voters, but 32 percent of Republicans said they backed Rice, while only 12 percent of Democrats went for Blakeman. The two are vying to succeed Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola).
The poll was conducted Sept. 10-15, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. To see more results, click here.
Among national issues, respondents identified jobs, taxes, and wars and turmoil in the Mideast as the three most important. A majority of them said they have an unfavorable opinion of both Democratic President Barack Obama (54 percent) and the Republican-controlled House (57 percent).
But when it came to Rice and Blakeman, the poll showed vastly different name recognition. Only 13 percent of respondents said they did not know or had no opinion about Rice, the top county prosecutor since 2006.
She is viewed favorably by 59 percent of the likely voters and unfavorably by 28 percent.
But 52 percent said they didn’t know or had no opinion about Blakeman, who, as presiding officer of the county legislature, last held elected office in 1999. Blakeman, a lawyer who has also run for state comptroller, New York City mayor and U.S. Senate, had equal 24 percent “favorable” and “unfavorable” responses.
“When 52 percent [of likely voters] do not have an opinion on you, it’s a tough place to be,” Donald P. Levy, director of the Siena Research Institute, said of Blakeman. “Rice has a well-known record and his name recognition just doesn’t stack up.”
Levy called the low number of respondents who said they didn’t know Rice “dramatic” for a non-incumbent. But noting the poll’s early timing, he said Blakeman has time to build his profile and lower Rice’s favorable ratings.
Blakeman released his first television ads last week, but 72 percent of poll respondents said they had yet to see or hear a commercial, or be contacted by, the Blakeman campaign.
“Long Island is a tougher market to get your message across,” Levy said, “but, in a sense, he can only go up.”
The poll, which will serve as a benchmark for a follow-up in mid- or late-October, was conducted with 36 percent Democrats, 33 percent Republicans and 25 percent independent or minor-party voters — reflecting the political makeup of the 4th Congressional District, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by 34,000.
Nearly half of respondents identified themselves as political moderates, rather than liberals or conservatives.
Rice spokesman Eric Phillips said “the race is breaking this way because Kathleen has been focused on how to create jobs, reduce middle-class taxes and make college more affordable.”
On her name recognition, he added: “It’s clear that voters know Kathleen’s record and they trust her independence.”
But Blakeman spokesman Matt Coleman countered that beyond head-to-head results, respondents’ focus on the economy — and rejection of Obama — indicates that “voters share Bruce’s vision for the future.”
“This poll clearly shows that neighbors want a representative who will change Washington — not be a rubber stamp for the Obama-Pelosi status quo,” Coleman said.
Asked who they thought would do a better job on several specific issues, respondents chose Rice each time, including 48 percent to 32 percent on health care, even though more (47 percent to 41 percent) back repealing the Affordable Care Act, which Blakeman wants to do, over keeping it as the law.
Blakeman performed best on the tax question, with Rice being chosen by only a 6-point margin, 42 percent to Blakeman’s 36 percent.
But Levy said “perhaps the most hopeful” poll question for Blakeman was when the survey asked which party respondents wanted to see in control of the House. Forty-six percent chose the GOP and 46 percent chose Democrats, with 7 percent saying “don’t know/no opinion.” Among independent or minor party voters, 58 percent favored a GOP-led House.
“He’s got to demonstrate that he’s the guy they’re thinking of when describing the composition of Congress,” Levy said of Blakeman. “He’s got to introduce himself emphatically and aggressively to the voters, against someone who is well-known and well-liked.”
In interviews, a sampling of poll respondents largely echoed the overall results: They had already formed an opinion on Rice, positive or negative, but do not know Blakeman.
Elena Velasquez, 74, of Hempstead, is a registered Democrat and a retired real estate broker, who said she is unhappy with all politicians.
“I am not impressed by Rice, but I don’t know anything about this Blakeman guy,” Velasquez said. “I’ll try to learn more about him, but if I can’t, I may not even vote.”
But John Rezak, 57, of North Bellmore, a registered Republican and information technology director at a local school district, said that he supports Rice.
“She has more experience. I like her stance on justice, going for higher punishment and overall doing a good job,” Rezak said. “I really don’t know much about Blakeman.”
Poll methodology
The Siena Research Institute interviewed 596 likely voters in New York’s 4th Congressional District, who were selected at random from a pool of registered voters.
Researchers polled voters from Sept. 10 to 15 via landline telephones and cellphones. They collected responses from a sample of voters reflective of the district — 36 percent Democrat, 33 percent Republican and 25 percent independent or some other party.
The margin of error for the poll is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
With Sid Cassese
Long Island’s multimillion-dollar marijuana industry — both illegal and potentially legal — is booming, experts say, with criminal arrests up, demand rising, a thriving underground market, and an ever-widening number of commercial and medical uses proposed for a weed kept for many years in society’s shadows.
A Newsday and News 12 Long Island investigation shows that in both Nassau and Suffolk, marijuana arrests have reached the highest levels in 10 years, creating a cat-and-mouse game between users pushing for legalization and police combating illegal pot farms and indoor “grow houses” where marijuana is cultivated in greenhouse-like conditions by middle-aged entrepreneurs.
“Growing marijuana has become a very lucrative business,” said Suffolk Chief of Detectives William F. Madigan about the string of marijuana busts of large-scale growing operations found in suburban homes since 2012. Madigan said Long Island’s illicit marijuana market was a motivating factor in three Suffolk homicides last year.
Despite a steady increase in criminal cases over the past decade, the lure of big money has spurred increasingly sophisticated illegal growers to jump into the market, with some importing pot from states where it is legal, experts say. Users who get caught rarely face a significant penalty.
Last year, 57 percent of the total 2,694 marijuana-related cases on Long Island wound up in some form of dismissal, an analysis of state court records shows, with very few going to jail or prison. Most found guilty of marijuana offenses received only a fine.
(Almost 7 percent of cases moved ahead with charges unrelated to marijuana.)
Total: 2,694 cases
Critics say this comes at a time when marijuana enjoys a greater public acceptance than ever before on Long Island and nationally. New York has passed legislation to legalize medical use of marijuana, already in place in more than 20 other states. And recreational use for adults — approved in the states of Colorado and Washington — may be only a few years away here, some say.
“I think the market for marijuana has grown significantly — among young people but also among older folks too,” said Jeffrey Reynolds, who until last month was executive director of the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, who is opposed to the drug’s legalization.
“Marijuana has been identified as a key investment opportunity for entrepreneurs. And locally folks have looked at this and said, ‘If they lessen the criminal penalties, and there is a lot of money to be made, why wouldn’t I enter this market?’”
Although no one knows for sure just how much pot there is on Long Island, several growing operations of various sizes have been discovered by law enforcement authorities in the past two years. For example, at a Brookville nursery last September, two men were arrested for growing more than 150 marijuana plants — some as tall as 15 feet — hidden from view from the owners. In June 2013, three men were caught by police growing marijuana inside two bedrooms of a Yaphank house equipped with high-powered lighting, water filtration and a special ventilation system. And last September in Commack, police arrested a man for growing marijuana outdoors in a local sump.
Doug Greene, legislative director for Empire State NORML, a pro-marijuana advocacy group, estimates there are “several dozen” pot farms and indoor “grow houses” on Long Island. He says millions of dollars in local, state and federal law enforcement is wasted each year in a futile fight against marijuana — an illegal drug that he says should be instead regulated and taxed like alcohol and tobacco.
“There’s a demand for marijuana, and as long as people want marijuana, there will be people who supply marijuana whether growing it indoors or growing it in a sump,” he said.
One of the largest marijuana networks investigated by authorities in the past two years involved homes in Seaford, Medford, Middle Island, Manorville and Riverhead, where “millions of dollars” was made from growing and selling weed, according to court papers filed by Suffolk police and the Internal Revenue Service.
In October 2013, inside a large Osborne Avenue “grow house” in Riverhead, police found more than 1,600 marijuana plants — worth an estimated $3.8 million alone, according to court records — as well as 50 “grow lamps,” multiple fans, fertilizer and packaging material used to produce a “Bad Dog” brand of marijuana.
Investigators say grow houses on Long Island are usually hiding in plain sight, located in comfortable suburban neighborhoods. Many produce just a few plants needed to support personal use. But those who’ve turned marijuana into a lucrative business can sometimes be detected with telltale signs. At the Riverhead house, the marijuana grower had illegally tapped into electric lines, stealing $275,000 worth of power, police discovered. Heat and light generated from this grow house also made it conspicuous in winter. “Despite the heavy snowfall in the area, I observed that all those roofs were covered in snow except one,” said John J. Jacobsen, a Suffolk detective working with the IRS task force, in court papers.
These investigations were largely the outgrowth of the 2012 investigation of John P. Franz, who lived in a huge Medford home that contained its own indoor swimming pool and an extensive marijuana growing operation. In court papers, authorities said Franz had been dealing marijuana heavily for “at least approximately the last 10 years and has never had a real job.”
Inside Franz’s house, the basement contained 10-12 tables with 50 marijuana plants each, with about 15 high-powered lamps shining on them, court papers say. At any given time, between 3,000 and 5,000 plants were raised inside the house at various stages of the growth cycle, enough every three weeks to yield $170,000 in value, authorities said.
At another grow house Franz controlled in Middle Island, police said, the basement walls were painted white, with many tables holding the green-leafed plants. Because marijuana carefully tended indoors often gets the best price, each stem was watered, fertilized, trimmed and ultimately harvested and then taken by Franz to his Medford house, court records say.
There, Franz packaged the carefully cut up and prepared marijuana buds into 1-gallon zip-lock bags, ready for sale. Surrounding the large property, he kept several video cameras for surveillance. Authorities said Franz relied on bottles of air-fresheners meant “to mask the strong marijuana odor” coming from the house and avoid detection by neighbors.
A similar but even bigger marijuana operation also took place at a third house controlled by Franz in Manorville, court papers say.
Franz’s indoor grow houses resembled high-end greenhouses, with some strong, healthy female marijuana plants (called “mom” plants) carefully cloned to create new plants, the documents say. Careful attention also was paid to nutrients added to the water and a natural bug insecticide to maximize the quality and the THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the main intoxicant in marijuana) for users, court papers say.
“We had three children to put through college and survive here on Long Island, and John offered him a job. Basically the economy went down and John made him an offer that was kind of hard to refuse.” — Margaret Mastroeni on her husband’s sentencing
When police finally arrested Franz on drug conspiracy charges after a lengthy investigation in April 2012, they also charged his next-door neighbor in Medford, Richard Mastroeni, 58, a local car dealer, with aiding the large-scale grow house operation. Both men pleaded guilty in the case and are awaiting sentencing, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Burton Ryan.
Legal for recreational use
Legal for medicinal use
Not legal
Alabama, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin all have laws that allow limited access to marijuana products, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. * Minnesota allows for limited, liquid extract products only. ** New York’s law does not allow products to be smoked, and ingested doses may not contain more than 10 mg of THC. Source: ncsl.org
On a recent afternoon, Mastroeni’s wife, Margaret, 49, ruefully described how her husband, a nonuser, fell into the marijuana business. She said her husband was paid $1,000 a week to water the marijuana plants at one of the Franz’s grow houses — an offer he accepted because of the recession and family bills to pay.
“We had three children to put through college and survive here on Long Island, and John offered him a job,” Margaret said. “Basically the economy went down and John made him an offer that was kind of hard to refuse.”
At first, the Mastroenis weren’t sure what their neighbor did for a living, but then realized Franz was a major marijuana grower, she said. “That’s how we kind of figured it out, because he was like a vampire and only came out in night,” Margaret said. “He was never up all day.”
Margaret Mastroeni is bitter that her husband is imprisoned while others continue to grow and sell marijuana.
“Dozens definitely,” she said, when asked about the number of grow houses on Long Island. “They are everywhere. You just had one in Yaphank get hit. They are everywhere. There are two right here I know about and nobody would ever know. And it looks just like this — a normal home.”
On a Friday evening, a Suffolk narcotics detective showed a reporter and cameraman the grow home used by Franz and another nearby in Brookhaven where marijuana was dispensed until police made arrests. “This was set up as a retail house for selling marijuana,” said the detective, who asked not to be identified by name because he works undercover. “There was no furniture in the bedrooms. They had a table set up and two guys were selling marijuana.”
Like any market with supply and demand, Madigan said, marijuana — sold on the street for about $250 for an ounce — is more expensive these days than either heroin or pills. He said many marijuana charges are part of more serious crimes committed by defendants.
But Madigan said it’s wrong to consider marijuana harmless. “The large amount of money that’s involved in the marijuana trade can be a contributing factor in many of our violent crimes,” he said. Among three killings in Suffolk last year believed to involve the trade, Madigan pointed to the Christmas Day 2013 fatal shooting of a 19-year-old Bridgehampton man during a marijuana robbery.
Last year, U.S. Justice Department officials — faced with legalization of marijuana in states such as Colorado and Washington while federal law still makes it a crime — issued a strong warning about “diversion of marijuana” from legal states to places like New York where it is illegal. Newsday/News 12 Long Island’s investigation also shows the Long Island underground market for marijuana — traditionally supplied by smuggled exports from Mexico, Canada and other foreign nations — is now coming more domestically from other U.S. states where various marijuana uses has been approved.
“I think in a lot of cases the [Mexican] cartel has been losing out because there is a lot of very high-quality marijuana that is being produced all over the country, especially in California and Colorado,” said NORML’s Greene. “The Mexican cartel has lost business to a greatly improved domestic market over the years.”
In Colorado, where both medical and recreational marijuana use is legal, growers and sellers say they recognize that some of their product is winding up illegally in places like Long Island.
“Unfortunately it [marijuana diversion to New York] is collateral damage over legalization inside a new state,” said Luke Ramirez, co-owner of the Walking Raven, a Denver-based firm that both grows marijuana in a large warehouse and runs a storefront dispensary for retail customers. “There’s obviously heavy motives to grow in Colorado and sell it to a market that has a heavy demand. In a state like New York, where people can’t buy safely from counters inside stores, they have to buy from the black market. There’s an increase dollar … [profit] in the black market than in the legal market. So people in Colorado and Washington have a heavy motive to actually sell on the black market.”
Ramirez said his $4 million annual business is careful with security and other safety measures to avoid improper sales so that he doesn’t lose his state-approved license. But because of state tax that hikes the cost of legal marijuana by about 30 percent, Ramirez said there is still a flourishing underground market in Colorado.
“There’s a pretty large market of folks who are looking to buy from outside the store at a cheaper price,” he explained. “We unfortunately as a store have to pay very high taxes. So, of course, there are folks who want to avoid those taxes and purchase … [marijuana] in the underground market. Most of the underground market has turned to export, from Colorado to the outside states.”
On Long Island, users said they depend on these out-of-state domestic sources, rather than Mexico or elsewhere. Lee Salisbury, 62, a retired carpenter, says he relied on marijuana to self-medicate for bladder cancer, which is now in remission, and now he uses it simply to relax. Puffing on a marijuana joint, Salisbury said he’s too old to worry about the legal consequences.
“One or two [dealers] who I know and those are the ones I get it from,” he explained. “And they get it from California and Colorado and New Hampshire — those are the three places that have been identified to me as the sources of the pot that I get here in New York.”
Federal law-enforcement authorities remain concerned about the flow of diverted marijuana from states where it is legal or loosely regulated to places such as New York, where recreational use will continue to be banned.
Locally, Madigan said illegal pot often comes from local growers but adds: “We have seen marijuana that has come in from other states, pretty much from California and the State of Washington. They were either shipping it by mail or, in some cases, they were actually picking it up and bringing it back by fairly good-sized vehicle.”
New York’s current law-enforcement system against marijuana is often overwhelmed by a seemingly endless supply, a rising public acceptance and the rush to cash in by secret weed growers, said Touro Law School professor Richard Klein, a criminal-law expert who has followed the marijuana scene for years.
“I think marijuana is easier to purchase now than alcohol was during the Prohibition days,” Klein observed. “These … [marijuana growers] are business people. It doesn’t mean that only a pothead is going to grow marijuana. People who just see this as a way to make money — completely independent of their own use of marijuana — are going to enter the trade of marijuana.”
While some big-time growers such as Franz may face serious prison time, most marijuana users and sellers who are arrested by Long Island’s police face little risk of severe penalty. Each year, more Long Islanders get arrested for pot, but fewer are going to jail.
An analysis of state criminal records shows a steady rise in Long Island marijuana cases for possession and sale during the past decade. In Nassau County in 2004, there were 671 marijuana cases; by 2013, the number had steadily risen to 943 cases. Though the counties are similar in population, the number of Suffolk marijuana cases has been more than twice as much as in Nassau during the past decade, reaching a high in 2012 of 1,825 cases.
Marijuana cases per 100,000 people
Graphic by Nathaniel LashIn both counties, those arrested on marijuana charges last year received an outright dismissal by a court or an “ACD” (adjournment in contemplation of dismissal) more than half the time, records show. For example, of the 1,751 total marijuana cases in Suffolk, there were 1,014 winding up in dismissal. And of the 561 given a sentence last year in Suffolk, 90 adults were convicted on misdemeanor charges but another 445 on noncriminal offenses. While 24 went to jail and five went to prison, the vast majority of those convicted — 476 — wound up with just a fine.
Similarly, in Nassau County last year, of the 943 total marijuana cases, 508 wound up in some form of dismissal. And of the 405 given a sentence last year in Nassau, 113 adults were convicted on misdemeanors but another 271 on noncriminal offenses. While 55 went to jail and two to prison, the majority of those convicted — 209 — received just a fine.
Law-enforcement authorities such as Madigan say they are obligated to uphold the law as it currently exists, even if societal attitudes about marijuana are changing. And a spokesman for Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice said the law for first-time offenders often demands a dismissal, a decision generally not up to prosecutors. Rice said she favors legalizing medical marijuana but is opposed to recreational use.
Critics such as Klein say these statistics reflect the inconsistency of actively pursuing marijuana as a crime at the same time lawmakers in Albany were making medicinal use of it legal. He said the negative consequences for those caught in the current marijuana legal system can last forever.
“One of the real negative consequences of us continuing to criminalize marijuana is the impact that it can have on someone’s life,” Klein said. “It starts people down a path making it harder for them to get employment, if they’ve had to miss their jobs because they were arrested.”
Even those such as Reynolds who are against legalization say New York seems at a turning point with marijuana. He warned that the end of a decades-long prohibition on marijuana could lead to greater addiction problems, more need for costly treatment and hospitalization, more dangers on the roadway and unforeseen health and psychological problems with long-term use.
“The argument is ‘the war on drugs has failed, let’s try something else,’ and they’re right — the war on drugs has failed, our current approach is not working,” Reynolds said. “But I don’t know that we can simply throw everything away, and say we’re losing anyway and just legalize everything and let the chips fall where they may without suffering some consequences.”
The underground marijuana trade is booming on Long Island…but at what cost? News 12 and Newsday examine the legal, medical and financial issues surrounding marijuana and how it could impact the future of Long Island. Cash Crop: Marijuana on LI – a News 12/Newsday special report. News 12, as local as local news gets.
For more information: Related links.Marijuana prosecutions have been rising on Long Island in recent years, but falling in New York City. About 57 percent of cases brought on Long Island last year were dismissed.
This database gives details on dispositions for five regions – Long Island, Nassau and Suffolk individually, New York City and the state. Those listed as jailed include defendants sentenced to a combination of jail and probation, as well as those sentenced to just the time served before sentencing. Dismissals include some who were put into a diversion program before charges were dismissed. A discharged sentence is one in which no punishment is imposed. The records come from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. There are a small number of “other” cases – for 2013 there were 25 on Long Island and 178 statewide – in which the outcome could not be classified.“This is not a Cheech-and-Chong bill.” — Patrick McCarthy, former top aide to Gov. George PatakiWhile some lobbyists represent growers or packagers, D’Amato’s firm represents “Ideal 420 Technologies,” a firm with offices in New York and New Hampshire that sells a sort of Miracle-Gro for pot. “We have developed the world’s first true marijuana soil,” boasts the company, with a reference in its name to “420,” a common phrase that means “marijuana friendly” among users. “Our soil — a carefully selected blend of vital nutrients and one that only requires watering — grows the highest quality marijuana in the marketplace.” D’Amato, who as a U.S. senator once posed famously for a photo as an undercover cop in the 1980s war on drugs, recently acknowledged he’s had a change of heart. “I know it’s a tough pill to swallow, and if you asked me five years ago if I would ever consider supporting legalizing medical marijuana, I would’ve say, ‘Not a chance,’” wrote D’Amato in a February column in the LI Herald, a local publication. “But times are changing, and marijuana has become a viable form of alternative medicine for those suffering from many debilitating diseases such as ALS, multiple sclerosis, cancer and others. When traditional medicines fail to offer relief, why not give patients alternatives?” Overall, Ideal 420 is prepared to pay D’Amato’s firm as much as $200,000 this year for its lobbying work, said co-founder Richard Yost, who hopes to become a key supplier for medical marijuana in New York. “You have to understand New York politics,” explained Yost about his lobbying effort for the medical marijuana bill. “It’s a Republican issue in the Senate, and Park Strategies has a strong relationship on that side.” The debate about a new marijuana industry for New York — worth potentially as much as $250 million in tax revenue, according to proponents — created a strange set of bedfellows who say they’re happy to be working together. Already in the first six months this year, Park Strategies was paid $90,000 to lobby for Ideal 420, state records show. A spokeswoman for Park Strategies declined to comment. “Business interests are definitely looking at this and hiring lobbyists to work in Albany, primarily around the issue of medical marijuana, because we are a lot closer on that,” said Doug Greene, legislative director for Empire State NORML, which also advocates that recreational use of marijuana (or “nonmedical,” as he prefers) be legalized. “Historically, we are at the point where we are finally having a conversation about the regulation and taxation of marijuana.” Erik A. Williams, a spokesman for Gaia Plant-Based Medicine, said a coalition of business interests, lobbyists and advocacy groups worked to help make marijuana legal in New York for the first time. “The more voices across the board that are involved, then that’s fantastic,” Williams said. “The bottom line on this issue is that it’s nonpartisan. It’s one of the most nonpartisan issues in this country.” In the near future, Williams said he foresees warehouses in Hauppauge or outdoor farms on the East End could be growing marijuana legally. “There’s an absolutely amazing economic boom that can come from this,” he said, walking through a cavernous warehouse facility in suburban Denver where various marijuana plants, at different stages of growth, are cultivated for sale. “Right here in this facility, we employ 60 persons already. What we’ve seen here in Colorado is millions of square feet in retail and warehouse space have been rented. The jobs are incredible. The taxes are incredible.” On Long Island, some are already in the marijuana business in a sense. In a bottom-floor suite in a Plainview office building, the staff of MarijuanaDoctors.com is busy handling telephone calls to doctors and patients in the more than 20 states where medical marijuana is legal, acting as a middleman referral agency and database for those who spot their colorful Internet ads and toll-free number online. Since it began in 2010, the company says some 300 physicians, 500 clinics and 93,000 patients have used its services. Through its website, the firm connects patients with licensed professionals in their area who legally prescribe medical marijuana. “A doctor basically comes to us, tells us what he’s looking for, what type of patients he wants to add to his practice, and we prequalify and screen those patients for him,” explained the firm’s CEO, Jason Draizin, who collects a fee from each participating physician. Many of them deal with patients who suffer from cancer, HIV and other chronic illnesses and believe marijuana can ease their pain and suffering. Despite the company’s name, Draizin insisted, “I run a computer company,” which a few years ago began buying up the rights to several domain names related to marijuana — “the future brand names of the industry,” he said — so his firm could capitalize as medical marijuana became legal in some 20 states throughout the nation. “We think we’ve successfully created the first brand in the industry,” said Draizin, who also oversees another website, PotLocator.com, which provides a wide variety of marijuana information, from where to find smoke shops in states where it is legal to more generalized blogs and social media devoted to the topic. Inside the Plainview office, next to staffers on headsets and computers dealing with incoming calls, Draizin keeps a supply shelf full of promotion giveaways, from vaporizers for inhaling marijuana fumes to complimentary caps, socks and even underwear with a marijuana-related logo. Though his firm doesn’t lobby, Draizin said MarijuanaDoctors.com is riding the wave of popular sentiment favoring legalization of marijuana, which he says is “similar to the original Prohibition” a century ago when banned alcohol sales were eventually legalized. Like other entrepreneurs in the marijuana business, Draizin predicts that legalization soon will bring even bigger players into the industry, willing to spend millions for television, radio and other forms of advertisement similar to those now enjoyed by beer, liquor, tobacco and even pharmaceutical companies. “It grows exponentially,” he said of the burgeoning pot industry around the nation. “In the belief of our company, medical marijuana should be a natural form of Bayer aspirin — so what’s that worth?” Petkanas runs his firm from a home address in Huntington and advertises KannaLife Sciences on a website. Currently, its biggest marijuana effort is a research project at a biotech center in Bucks County, Pa., studying the effect of certain cannabinoids (the chemical compounds in marijuana) on hepatic encephalopathy (brain damage caused by a diseased liver). Under an exclusive license granted by the National Institutes of Health, KannaLife is seeking to develop drugs from the nonpsychoactive compounds in the cannabinoids (in other words, the stuff in the plant that doesn’t make the user high) to help treat patients “without the adverse side effects associated with smoked marijuana,” said Renate Myles, chief of NIH’s news section. “It should be noted that the [government approval] is for the use of cannabinoid compounds similar to and including those that naturally occur in marijuana, but not for the whole marijuana plant.” While that biotech research is taking place, Petkanas has his eye on making money from other legal uses of marijuana. Right now, he estimates that sales of marijuana — both legal in some states and illegally through the underground market — is between $20 billion and $30 billion annually. In the past two years, his firm has announced various partnerships with other marijuana or hemp-related firms, including one in Colorado looking to develop “health and wellness” products. The marijuana biz is a new venture for Petkanas after a career spent with financial and investment firms. His current website touts his business background but doesn’t mention his previous “Wolf of Wall Street” connection or other past difficulties with Wall Street regulators. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority records show he agreed to a $4,000 fine in 2004 for a violation while working with another investment firm, without any admission of guilt. Belfort and other Stratton Oakmont officials got into trouble with federal authorities and went to prison. When asked about his “Wolf of Wall Street” background, Petkanas said he enjoyed the movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio. “As far as Jordan’s involvement [in the marijuana business], I don’t think he’s going to be involved,” he said with a smile, recalling their previous relationship. Joined by Newsday and News 12 Long Island on a recent trip to Denver, Petkanas visited a large grow warehouse and marijuana dispensary operated by Gaia, the same weekend that many in the marijuana business were displaying their wares at the second-annual U.S. Cannabis Cup. Held on the April weekend of 4/20, it was a huge trade show devoted to medical and recreational use attended by thousands at Denver Merchandise Mart. At the U.S. Cannabis Cup, both Gaia and Ideal 420 Technologies — the marijuana soil company represented by D’Amato’s lobbying firm — had display booths. Other vendors promoted virtually every imaginable use for marijuana, from edibles dipped in chocolate for those who like to eat their marijuana to glass bongs and electric powered vaporizers for those who like to inhale. Many firms such as Ideal 420 Technologies hawked hydroponic watering systems, hot lamps, silver-colored reflecting tents, enriched soils and other equipment needed to grow marijuana, both on a large scale and at home. David Holland, counsel to High Times magazine, which was a host of the event, acknowledged that some of this equipment may wind up eventually being used in places such as New York, where there is a wide underground market for the drug. “Now technology has advanced with hydroponics and other systems, so you can grow quality plants in a small space like a closet,” Holland explained. “So people are growing it partly to eliminate the need to go out there for a streetcorner transaction to procure what they need. And there has certainly been an underground market in it that is not going to go away.” At Gaia’s storefront dispensary in East Denver, customers older than age 21 lined up at glass counters, clearly marked for either medical or recreational use of marijuana, served by “bud-tenders” offering various strains of marijuana for sale. With the help of lobbyists and other Albany power brokers, Williams said, Gaia would like to bring similar dispensaries providing marijuana to New York soon. “A lot of New Yorkers don’t understand that there’s a wide variety of marijuana flowers and products that are available to help a wide variety of disease conditions,” he said. But for future investors, any rush to turn marijuana into gold on Long Island will take some sizable investment, experts say. Most expect the new New York legislation to keep the number of state-approved growers to about five and require an indoor growing operation that would be monitored by video security cameras — all costing a lot of money upfront before any profits are realized. Some say tobacco or alcohol firms may also enter the marijuana market, especially if most U.S. states have legalized it. “The resources that are used to grow it in a greenhouse environment, especially indoors, are very costly,” conceded Petkanas. “So it’s a dicey proposition for people who think, ‘I’m going to invest in swaths of land and groves, and that the next Philip Morris is going to emerge.’” Not everyone is willing to wait for the marijuana business to become legal. Many Long Islanders say they use marijuana recreationally or for various ailments — regardless of the criminal risks — and point to great public acceptance of the familiar drug. On a recent afternoon, inside the Nassau County basement apartment of a friend, Kevin Eastwood, 24, turned on an electric vaporizer, which hummed along as marijuana smoke filled a large clear bag attached to it. Then Eastwood took a big breath, inhaling the light gray vaporized fumes into his lungs with a big smile of satisfaction. Vaporizers are one of many accessories sold in the pot trade. “Even if people want to call me a criminal, I’m just trying to survive like everyone else,” explained the Amityville resident. He says smoking weed helps ease his pain from head and other bodily injuries suffered during a 2012 car accident in Seattle that nearly killed him. After months of hospitalization, he now has a polyfiber plate in his skull and 45 titanium screws. Marijuana curbs the “brainstorming” — the sometimes painful mental aftereffects of his injury — that is part of his daily life, he said. “It’ll start coming on and I can feel it,” Eastwood says of his brain pain. “I get one or two or three of what feels like lightning bolts. And with the medical marijuana, it allows me to help focus on just three or four of those ideas, so I can get through my day and be a contributing human being to society.” Others are concerned about the 18-month wait for medical marijuana to become regulated under the new law. For months, Missy Miller of Long Island pushed state lawmakers to approve medical marijuana that she says would help her 14-year-old son Oliver deal more effectively with his frequent epileptic seizures. She’s seeking an emergency waiver from the state to allow her son and others with severe conditions to get marijuana as soon as possible. She’s worried her son’s fragile health may result in him dying before the 18-month wait is over. “Come to my house. Sit with me, sit with Oliver and watch what he goes through,” she explains. “And then you tell me that it shouldn’t be available to the sick people who need it.” Some Long Island-based doctors, like Richard Carleton and Grace Forde, say they’ve wanted for a long time to prescribe medical marijuana to certain patients but were afraid of losing their medical license unless it becomes legal. “I would definitely prescribe it,” says Forde, who works in Nassau County, a few weeks before the law’s passage. “I had experience with medical marijuana when I trained in California and I found it to be very effective in a lot of chronic pain conditions, as well as neurological conditions. So I would definitely prescribe medical marijuana if it were legal in the State of New York.”
