Gov. Andrew Cuomo is moving ahead with a tristate summit Oct. 17 to seek common policies on marijuana and vaping across New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. But how will the governors and legislators of three states find it any easier to come to a rational consensus than the leaders of each state separately?
Cuomo claims the states are forced to go it alone because the federal government isn’t acting, but that’s not quite right.
On marijuana, the real history is of states gradually defying federal law — and the feds deciding to mainly overlook it.
Pot is still officially banned in the entire country, but decriminalization, medical-marijuana laws in 33 states and now outright “legalization” in 11 states plus the District of Columbia have steadily eroded that.