Sources tell CBS2’s Marcia Kramer three-way talks about marijuana legalization were conducted between Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office, the Senate and the Assembly on Saturday.
Talks resumed on Sunday, but a deal has not been reached.
New bills are required to age for three days before a vote, so if a deal is not printed by Monday the governor would have to issue a message of necessity to bypass the usual process and allow lawmakers to vote by the Wedensday deadline.
If New York legalizes marijuana, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday that he wants it to become a small business community-based industry.
While he noted he certainly has concerned about the health and safety aspects of legalized marijuana in New York, he’s more worried about the potential corporatization of the drug.
"My goal is that we avoid the corporatization of the marijuana industry,” the mayor told an audience, including two Albany lawmakers on Thursday.
This weekend, the New York Police Department implemented a new marijuana policy intended to finally put a stop to the disproportionate enforcement of prohibition laws against communities of color.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo took a step closer to voicing full-throated support for legal marijuana on Friday, embracing elements of a state Health Department report that favored legalization.
Mr. Cuomo, addressing reporters after an unrelated speech in Brooklyn, said New York would no longer have the option of trying to simply prevent the flow of the drug into the state now that its neighbors in Massachusetts and New Jersey are moving forward with plans to legalize the drug.
The health commissioner’s comments reflect a growing consensus among New York government officials. Last month, the New York Democratic Party adopted a resolution that endorsed that regulation and taxation of recreational marijuana.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has made statements revealing an evolution in his views on cannabis reform in recent weeks. The governor, who formerly referred to marijuana as a “gateway drug,” said the “facts changed on this issue and the facts changed quickly.”
To say that Mayor Bill de Blasio is under a lot of pressure to reform policing in New York City would be an understatement. Among the myriad issues and complaints against the NYPD, a recent report shows that New York’s finest has arrested a disproportionate number of minorities for marijuana possession. In response to public uproar, De Blasio announced last week that the NYPD will be making major changes. First and foremost, they will no longer be arresting people for possessing small amounts of weed.
Unequal Policing in New York City
Mayor de Blasio will tell the NYPD to stop arresting people for public pot smoking — and launch a new group to officially prepare the city for the outright legalization of marijuana in New York
De Blasio, who has long opposed making recreational pot legal, now says he thinks legalization is inevitable and is creating an official task force to get ready for the day when that happens and implement the new law.
While pot remains illegal, Hizzoner will direct the NYPD to give summonses to people they catch smoking in public instead of arresting them, his aides said Sunday.
Black and brown New Yorkers continue to face marijuana arrests at rates nearly 10 times those of whites, despite early promises from Mayor Bill de Blasio to close the racial disparity.
While marijuana arrests have dropped significantly since the mayor took office, 86 percent of the people arrested for marijuana possession in the fifth degree during 2017 were people of color; 48 percent were black and 38 percent were Hispanic. Only 9 percent were white.