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Cuomo Moves to Legalize Recreational Marijuana in New York Within Months
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced that he would push to legalize recreational marijuana next year, a move that could generate more than $1.7 billion in sales annually and put New York in line with several neighboring states. The highly anticipated proposal came in a speech in Manhattan on Monday, in which the governor outlined his agenda for the first 100 days of his third term. Mr. Cuomo framed the speech as a reflection on what Franklin Delano Roosevelt — the former president who was once a New York governor himself — would do today, mixing sweeping rhetoric about American ideals with grim warnings about the Trump administration.
The speech, which seemed delivered with a national audience in mind, could prolong slow-burning speculation about Mr. Cuomo's presidential ambitions. It also showed, in striking detail, the governor's leftward evolution in his eight years in office, from a business-friendly centrist who considered marijuana a "gateway drug," to a self-described progressive championing recreational marijuana, taxes on the rich and a ban on corporate political donations.
"The fact is we have had two criminal justice systems: one for the wealthy and the well off, and one for everyone else," Mr. Cuomo said before introducing the cannabis proposal, describing the injustice that had "for too long targeted the African-American and minority communities. "Let's legalize the adult use of recreational marijuana once and for all," he added.
Ten other states and Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational marijuana, spending the new tax revenue on a range of initiatives, including schools and transportation.
Legalizing marijuana is now one of Cuomo's priorities. He's been resisting it for years.
Cuomo's Monday message was his strongest public endorsement of recreational marijuana to date. It marks a substantial shift from his prior opposition, as recently as last year when he called it a "gateway drug." The change in policy stance also follows a bitter battle for the Democratic gubernatorial primary against Cynthia Nixon, who supported legalization.
In 2018, Vermont became the first (and so far, only) U.S. state to legalize recreational use of cannabis by an act of the legislature, following a vetoed attempt in 2017. Lawmakers in New Jersey and Illinois may follow suit, although opposition remains.
Also at CBS.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday December 19 2018, @06:44PM (4 children)
I have long thought drugs should be legalized. The war on drugs has eroded Americans' civil liberties and safety for a long time. There are many health and economic benefits to normalizing them also.
On the other hand, I really don't want my neighborhood inundated in a miasma of eau de skunk or to have to tell my kids to dodge discarded needles on the sidewalk. Thankfully New York was cleaned up a long time before I came to live in it, but stories natives tell me about discarded needles in Tompkins Square Park in the East Village doesn't sound like a family friendly environment.
Have other places solved those problems in other ways without re-criminalizing drugs?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @07:44PM (1 child)
Those problems are a direct result of the criminalisation in the first place. Make something illegal and people have nowhere to go to do it legally. So they have to be sneaky about it. Community supported ‘safe’ rooms for drug injection have done a lot to help clean up the mess in countries/cities that have them. Homelessness is the other issue. Nowhere to live, nowhere to shoot up privately.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @08:14PM
yes and "drug" use and self destructive addiction to dangerous synthetic substances is different behavior and caused by different things. a dangerous lack of pigs kidnapping people's fathers and kids is not the cause of either...
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday December 19 2018, @08:28PM
I've heard this one a lot. Unless you ban smoking tobacco and vaping on public roads (not just in front of hospitals or wherever), it has no relevance that I recognize. Personally, I like the cannabis odor a lot more than tobacco. But my preference is irrelevant.
Unless you live in the middle of nowhere, your kids are already being assaulted in the lung by car exhaust, tire particles, etc. That stuff smells a lot worse to me than cannabis and there's a lot more of it, but you get used to it, to the detriment of your health. It's something that humanity has not dealt with for the majority of its existence (a less modern example would be wood-fired stoves [theguardian.com]). Your kids should be walking around with full face respirators on. [soylentnews.org] But that would probably get them bullied.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supervised_injection_site [wikipedia.org]
https://www.medpagetoday.com/hivaids/hivaids/75871 [medpagetoday.com]
This simple fix could address a lot of problems caused by the "Opioid Crisis", spent needles included.
Our current slow trend towards legalizing a single drug obviously does not go far enough, and there are solutions on the table that will benefit everyone, parents and children included. But old politicians and vested interests prevent sane policies from being implemented, especially when they pertain to the Drug War.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @09:54PM
I think legalization would decrease those problems as well. If shooting dope isn't a social or legal life sentence, today's junkies could be shooting up at home or in a supervised facility and still hold down a job without being harassed by cops or exploited.