After initial high hopes for legal cannabis in the state of New York in 2019, progress in the Albany statehouse was paralyzed when Gov. Andrew Cuomo undercut the pending measure with his more restrictive one, appended to the state budget. There has been no progress since the budget was approved at the end of March \u2014 without Cuomo\u2019s measure. Now, just weeks from the end of the current legislative session, a compromise bill has been introduced in a bid to break the logjam.<\/p>\n
The new bill \u2014 an amended version of the measure drafted by lawmakers, the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA<\/a>) \u2014 was introduced May 24 by Sen. Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat. The new version, now slugged\u00a0Senate Bill S1527<\/a>, is clearly crafted to appease Cuomo while still keeping support from lawmakers and advocates.<\/p>\n One key issue in the\u00a0Albany stalemate<\/a> has been how much control the governor, as opposed to the state\u2019s Senate, will have in overseeing legal cannabis. Here, Krueger\u2019s bill gives Cuomo what he has been demanding. Her legislation would create a governor-appointed Office of Cannabis Management, under the State Liquor Authority.\u00a0<\/p>\n But this is balanced by provisions demanded by advocates and opposed by Cuomo, so it will still be a challenge for Krueger to get her amended MRTA approved by\u00a0the end of session on June 19.<\/p>\n On the issue of expungement of convictions<\/a>, Krueger\u2019s bill sides with activists. While Cuomo\u2019s version would have merely sealed the records of those who were convicted of quantities now to be legalized (meaning they could, theoretically, be one day unsealed and come back to haunt the convicts), Krueger\u2019s version would expunge them \u2014 meaning the records would actually be wiped. That\u2019s the policy favored by both Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, but opposed by Cuomo. <\/p>\n Krueger\u2019s bill would also raise the tax on cultivators to $1 per gram, from 62 cents in the original MRTA. It would commit to spending $3 million over three years on training police officers to spot motorists under the influence of cannabis (deemed by many activists a\u00a0dubious proposition<\/a>). Perhaps most significantly, the quantity that can be legally possessed would drop to three ounces, down from the previous version\u2019s two pounds. It would keep the age for adult use at 21.<\/p>\n Despite these compromises, activists are lining up to support Krueger\u2019s bill. One community group that had fought for the MRTA,\u00a0Bronx Defenders<\/a>,\u00a0tweeted<\/a>\u00a0in support of the new version: \u201cMarijuana prohibition is often used as the pretext to feed black and brown people into President Trump\u2019s deportation machine. We join fellow NYC defenders in calling for the state to pass the revised Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act.\u201d<\/p>\n Cuomo, however, basically punted when queried for his position on the compromise bill in a May 28 interview on WNYC Radio<\/a>. He would not discuss the actual provisions of the legislation, saying: \u201cThe issue isn\u2019t going to be on the merits, it\u2019s on the politics\u2026 The senators say on the record that they don\u2019t have the votes to pass it\u2026 And I think that\u2019s the problem here: the political reality that you don\u2019t have the votes in the Senate.\u201d <\/p>\n Seeming to speak more generally of legalization, he added: \u201cI support it, I proposed it. But we\u2019re getting down to the final three weeks or so, and they\u2019re still saying they don\u2019t have the votes.\u201d<\/p>\n This merely raises the question of whether his support for the new measure might swing enough recalcitrant senators. But in attempting to explain their hesitation on legalization, Cuomo committed a howler: \u201cThe opposition Senate position is there is no state that has passed it without a referendum. It\u2019s never been done just by the legislature\u2026 So that\u2019s what the senators who oppose it say, they think it\u2019s an overreach by the legislature.\u201d<\/p>\n This is, of course, not true. Last year, Vermont became the\u00a0first state in the Union<\/a> to legalize cannabis (though no legal marketplace) by an act of the legislature rather than by popular vote. So, New York doing so would not be without precedent. Unfortunately, WNYC host Brian Lehrer did not call Cuomo out on his error.<\/p>\n Another question to arouse controversy is the demand by several more conservative counties around the state that they be allowed to opt out of allowing cannabis businesses, or even personal consumption, within their borders. Six counties have already indicated they would not allow marijuana sales locally: Nassau and Suffolk in the Long Island suburbs, Rockland, Putnam and Columbia in the Hudson Valley, and Chemung in the Southern Tier. Cattaraugus in Western New York and Oneida in the Mohawk Valley also say they are likely to oppose local sales. <\/p>\n Cuomo\u2019s measure included a county opt-out provision, but Krueger\u2019s does not. She noted that giving counties this power could override the autonomy of municipalities within those counties. She especially mentioned Buffalo, in Erie County, which has\u00a0big plans for a legal cannabis industry<\/a>. \u201cThere might be individual towns in upstate New York who don\u2019t want it, but clearly the city of Buffalo will want it,\u201d Krueger\u00a0told reporters<\/a>\u00a0last month. \u201cSo you wouldn\u2019t want to put it at the county level. You\u2019d want to put it at the municipal level.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the recalcitrance and obstacles, Krueger sounds determined. Contacted by Cannabis Now for a comment, the senator had this to say: \u201cThe amendments we\u2019ve included in the new MRTA bill reflect the ideas and concerns the came up through the budget process. As a result of these amendments, we have both a stronger bill, and one that is more likely to gain broader support. There is still time left in the session to see this bill pass, and see adult-use cannabis legalized with a strong commitment to restorative justice for the communities hit hardest by the war on drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a less ambitious bid to at least expand New York\u2019s very restrictive medical marijuana program has also been launched. A bill introduced this month by Assemblyman Richard Gottfried and Sen. Diane Savino, both downstate Democrats, would incorporate some provisions concerning medicinal use that had been in Cuomo\u2019s legalization measure.\u00a0<\/p>\n The bill would allow health care providers to recommend cannabis for patients, increase the number of dispensaries statewide and eliminate patient registration fees. Critically, it would also eliminate the ban on sale or use of herbaceous cannabis \u2014 that is, actual smokable marijuana bud.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things that\u2019s been abundantly clear from the very beginning is that this was a narrow program that only served a small number of patients,\u201d Savino told the\u00a0Albany Times-Union<\/a>. \u201cWe saw some improvements over the years, but now we\u2019re trying to really close those remaining gaps.\u201d<\/p>\n New York legalized \u201cmedical marijuana\u201d (although not actual herbaceous marijuana, even for medical purposes)\u00a0in 2014, but the program wasn\u2019t launched until January 2016. The state\u00a0Department of Health<\/a> has now certified 100,283 patients for the program \u2014 a less than impressive number. Florida, by comparison, has approved nearly three times as many patients (294,700) in half the time. (The Florida program was only instated<\/a>\u00a0in 2017.) The New York program allows only 40 dispensaries statewide, with only 35 currently operational. Eligibility is limited to 13 medical conditions, and patients can only access 30 days\u2019 supply at a time, a burdensome restriction for residents in more remote areas of the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n Under the new bill, private physicians could make a determination on whether a patient could benefit from cannabis without being restricted to the listed conditions. Anyone authorized to prescribe a controlled substance, including a dentist or podiatrist, could recommend patients for the program. \u201cIt would basically be between you and your doctor, as it should,\u201d Savino told the Times-Union.\u00a0<\/p>\n With time running out, many medical users would doubtless be happy to take what they can get in Savino\u2019s bill. But Krueger and the activists supporting her effort are still holding out for a general legalization in New York state.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, do you think New York state will successfully legalize cannabis for adult use?<\/p>\n The post Activists Back Last-Ditch Bid for New York Cannabis Legalization in 2019<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
After initial high hopes for legal cannabis in the state of New York in 2019, progress in the Albany statehouse was paralyzed when Gov. Andrew Cuomo undercut the pending measure with his more restrictive one, appended to the state budget. There has been no progress since the budget was approvedContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2252,10163,50,216,3920,90,6854,208,3584,10164,10165,10166],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35743"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35743"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35744,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35743\/revisions\/35744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Compromise Bill Wins Activist Support<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Cuomo Still Fumbling<\/h4>\n
Conservative Counties Demand Opt-Out<\/h4>\n
New Medical Marijuana Bill Also Introduced <\/strong><\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Activists Back Last-Ditch Bid for New York Cannabis Legalization in 2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"