Smoking and cannabis at the 2022 New York State Fair: What you should know

Haileigh Marle of Fulton and a couple of friends found a somewhat secluded and slightly shady spot to take a break at the New York State Fair one day last week. It was one of the fair’s new designated smoking areas.

Inside, Haileigh vaped some some legal recreational marijuana. Her friend Emily did too, enjoying being out of the sun for a few minutes. At the opposite end of the enclosure, a few other fairgoers lit up some cigarettes.

“I don’t mind having to come in here,” Marle said of the designated smoking area just outside the Expo Center. “It’s actually a nice place to sit and relax.”

This is the first year the fair has restricted smoking and vaping, both tobacco and marijuana, to designated enclosures. There are six of them on the grounds (see map below). They are open at the top, with wide entrances but otherwise enclosed behind brightly colored screens. There are also benches inside.

In the past, smoking was allowed in most outdoor areas of the fairgrounds (but not inside buildings or covered pavilions). In 2021, the first fair after marijuana use became legal in New York, complaints from non-smokers increased.

The new policy took effect this year. Remember: You must be 21 to smoke weed, and you can carry no more than three ounces with you.

It’s still possible to detect some smoke, and the distinctive scent of weed, while strolling anywhere on the fairgrounds, syracuse.com reporters found during the fair’s first few days last week. And you’ll occasionally encounter someone grabbing a quick smoke behind a building or other non-designated areas.

The designated areas were being used, but none seemed overly crowded, at least not during the day.

That suited Breanna Gauger of Auburn, who also stopped into the smoking area near the Expo Center for a cigarette break one day last week.

“I usually smoke just before I come in (to the fair),” she said. “But after a little while out here, it’s nice to have this place available.”

CBD and cannabis

While you can smoke marijuana at the fair’s designated areas, you still can’t legally buy it on the fairgrounds or anywhere else in the state (except certain Indian reservations). The state is just now taking applications for what will be the first licensed marijuana retailers, some of which could be in business later this year.

But CBD and other forms of hemp cannabis that do not contain THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana, are available at the fair, although there seem to be fewer vendors than in the past few years.

One example is High Falls Extracts, which has a booth in Center of Progress Building. It offers “full spectrum” extracts, and even some hemp flower.

Meanwhile, there’s another stand that features two of Syracuse’s potential future marijuana businesses, The Higher Calling and Mother’s Medicinals.

The joint stand is located on a cross street in the open area between The Eatery (former International Building) and the Expo Center.

It doesn’t offer consumable products (not even CBD), but does have shirts, hats, other apparel and more items related to using CBD or marijuana. The operators are also there to offer advice, insight and other details about the state’s new cannabis businesses.

“We’re really here for exposure, to let people know who we are,” said Mike Golden, who owns The Higher Calling with Anthony Byron Cage. “We’re also answering a lot of questions people have.

”We’re happy to do what we can to ‘stop the stigma’ (of marijuana use),” Golden said, pointing to a banner with that motto on it.

Tina Holava-Hughes, who runs Mother’s Medicinals with her daughter, Samantha, agrees.

“Being here lets us spread the word about this wonderful new business we’re about to grow,” she said.

Mother’s Medicinals plans to be a marijuana growing and selling business. The Higher Calling’s plans include what could be the first local marijuana consumption lounge, where people can get together to consumer products.

The fair, Golden said, might even one day be a place where The Higher Calling could set up a temporary consumption lounge.

“We could maybe even have deep-fried joints,” he said with a laugh.

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Don Cazentre writes for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook.