NEW YORK STATE lawmakers and marijuana advocates are scrambling to make progress on marijuana legalization before the end of the year's legislative session Wednesday.
Talks between Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office and the leaders of the Democrat-controlled New York Legislature took place this weekend over a measure to legalize possession and sale of cannabis, though there are reports that those talks hit a snag Sunday night over how marijuana tax revenue would be distributed.
New York State is within 48 hours of joining the ranks of 10 other states where recreational marijuana is legal, or doing the same thing its neighbor New Jersey did during this legislative session -- coming incredibly close to passing a legalization measure, only to see it shot down.
"I am cautiously optimistic," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Monday morning about the prospect of a recreational marijuana legalization measure passing.
More than a year ago, this page came out in support of the legalization of recreational marijuana, on the ground that keeping the drug illegal fed indefensible racial disparities in policing and punishment, with no public health benefit.
As I’ve often said, there are several central things that legalization must include if it is to live up to the name. One of the main components legalization must come with is allowance for home growing.
As lawmakers in New York continue to battle over adult-use legalization as time runs out, one of the new bills put forward would include home growing of up to six plants by those 21 years of age and older – something not included in Governor Cuomo’s legalization plan.
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.
In New York state government news, lawmakers are wrapping up the 2019 legislative session with big decisions on proposals to legalize recreational marijuana and authorize driver's licenses for immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally.
The Democrat-led Senate and Assembly plan to adjourn their six-month session Wednesday.
Supporters of legal marijuana and granting the licenses are optimistic their efforts will pay off, but opposition could still doom both measures.
At the start of the year, New Yorkers were promised that cannabis legalization was on the agenda for lawmakers in the state and that the issue would be addressed in the early part 2019. Now, six months later we are finding that legislators are continuing to put off efforts to reform cannabis policy for numerous reasons. However, while lawmakers debate on the logistics, it appears that more than half of voters in the state are ready for legal marijuana.
New Yorkers love to joke about its little brother New Jersey, ribbing any and all of that state’s shortcomings, but the pair are two peas on a pod when it comes to marijuana reform. Just as New Jersey did before, New York poised itself as the next state to legalize recreational marijuana but lacks enough support from lawmakers to do so.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is citing a lack of political action in Trenton as one of the factors in Albany's unwillingness to give the green light to legalize weed in New York state.
"When New Jersey didn't pass it, some of the wind came out of the political sail," Cuomo said Monday.
He told reporters that he doesn't believe there is sufficient support to pass the measure in the state Senate.
A mother and her two daughters who run the only women-owned medical marijuana dispensary in the state say it's time for New York to legalize recreational marijuana.
Amy, Hillary and Keely Peckham operate Etain Health in Yonkers.
"I definitely think that's where we're heading. If you look at Massachusetts, which is a bordering state, they've already opened their recreational program and so I think it would be an opportunity, an economic one at that, for New York state,” says Hillary Peckham.