New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday explicitly said for the first time that he supports marijuana legalization in his state — and will make it a legislative priority in 2019.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo just made marijuana legalization a top priority
Cuomo named marijuana legalization as one of his priorities in the first 100 days of 2019.
“Let’s legalize the adult use of recreational marijuana, once and for all,” Cuomo said in a speech outlining his administration’s priorities for the first 100 days of 2019.
The governor did not reveal any specific details of what his legalization bill will entail, but one person working on the legislation told me that it may be introduced as soon as January.
This isn’t the first time Cuomo has suggested he will legalize marijuana. In August, Cuomo set up a working group to write a legalization bill that implements recommendations from the state Department of Health to legalize and regulate cannabis.
The Department of Health’s report concluded that marijuana criminalization “has not curbed marijuana use despite the commitment of significant law enforcement resources.” The report noted that marijuana-related arrests and prosecutions over the past two decades “have disproportionately affected low-income communities of color,” even though these communities aren’t significantly more likely to use pot. And it found that legalization would let the state “better control licensing, ensure quality control and consumer protection, and set age and quantity restrictions,” as well as provide hundreds of millions in tax revenue to the state every year.
But the speech on Monday is the first time Cuomo has explicitly said he supports marijuana legalization.
It’s a big shift for the governor. As Tom Angell reported for Marijuana Majority, “As recently as a year ago he called marijuana a ‘gateway drug.’ But 2018 has seen Cuomo’s position on the issue change dramatically, beginning amid an unexpectedly strong primary challenge from Cynthia Nixon, a progressive candidate who ran on a legalization platform.” Cuomo is also rumored to be considering a 2020 presidential bid, although he said in November that he’s ruled out a run.
One reason Cuomo may feel comfortable pushing legalization now: Democrats will control both houses of the New York state legislature for the first time since he became governor in 2011. Democrats are generally more supportive of legalization than Republicans.
If New York fully legalizes marijuana, it will become the 11th state — and the second most populous, after California — to do so. Medical marijuana is already legal in the state.
For more on marijuana legalization, read Vox’s explainer.
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