For much of his time in office, Governor Andrew Cuomo was dismissive of the calls to legalize recreational marijuana. He once derided weed as a “gateway drug” and only seemed to pivot when Cynthia Nixon ran a long-shot primary against him last year. Now Cuomo is a convert to the cause and a newly empowered Democratic State Senate appears ready to make New York the eleventh state to legalize marijuana.
But many roadblocks remain, and what once seemed inevitable is anything but. Cuomo announced recently he was dropping a proposal to legalize marijuana from his executive budget. On Tuesday morning, however, Cuomo assured Brian Lehrer, "Let's be clear, it is on the table and we're still talking about it."
In practice, this means hopes legalization advocates had of achieving their goal before the new fiscal year on April 1st are in jeopardy. There will be time in April, May and June during the legislative session to round up the votes to pass a bill, though more time is not necessarily a good thing.