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Marijuana Will Be Legalized in New York in 2020, Cuomo Vows

Rocky Mtn Squid

EL CID SQUID
Veteran
Legalizing the drug would pour hundreds of millions into the coffers of a state facing a $6 billion budget gap, he said.

merlin_166842714_fd0de248-0c8f-410d-91a1-a7653bb02855-articleLarge.jpg


ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo vowed on Wednesday to legalize marijuana in New York, prioritizing a push that fell apart last year amid tensions over who should be allowed to sell the drug and where the revenue should go.

The governor described the effort as a long overdue criminal justice reform that could help salve wounds in communities affected by the decades-long war on drugs.

“For decades, communities of color were disproportionately affected by the unequal enforcement of marijuana laws,” Mr. Cuomo said in his annual State of the State address. “Let’s legalize adult use of marijuana.”

The effort comes as the state faces down a $6 billion budget gap; on Wednesday, Mr. Cuomo, a third-term Democrat, said that legalized marijuana program could bring in $300 million a year in tax revenue, and billions of dollars more in economic activity when fully implemented, though that could be years away.


The governor’s proposal was part of a lengthy agenda that included bids to boost environmental spending, support small businesses and address a range of social ills, from overpriced feminine products to a lack of diversity on the state’s farms.

Little mentioned, however, were specific answers to how to solve the looming budget deficit, which is largely a result of overspending on Medicaid.

Mr. Cuomo did not say whether he supported raising taxes on the wealthy — a proposal popular with progressives in his party, including the Democratic-led State Assembly — or cutting spending to tackle the fiscal imbalance. Instead, Mr. Cuomo said that he wants to slice tax rates for small businesses by a third, something he said would help some 36,000 taxpayers.

At the same time, Mr. Cuomo retained his penchant for higher-priced infrastructure projects, proposing to invest $300 million to repurpose the Erie Canal to attract tourists, $9 million to build a drone facility upstate and an unspecified sum on an ambitious plan to revamp Penn Station to accommodate an additional 175,000 riders by building eight new tracks.

Again and again, Mr. Cuomo sought to position such projects — and other accomplishments from more than nine years in office — as an example of his brand of pragmatic progressivism, which he says emphasizes results over idealism.

The governor said, returning to a common theme and citing his father, the former governor, Mario M. Cuomo.

The governor’s address kicks off the start of the year’s legislative session, and comes on the heels of a historic year in Albany, where lawmakers passed major new laws on rent, climate change and congestion pricing, among other issues.

Last year was also a period of transition for Mr. Cuomo: For the first eight years in office, Mr. Cuomo worked with a Republican State Senate, which often backed his pleas for fiscal austerity and batted back progressive reforms.

That changed in the 2018 midterm elections, when Democrats took control of the Senate with the help of a number of young, liberal candidates who repeatedly challenged Mr. Cuomo, sometimes leading to heated conflicts.

That rift has already surfaced this year, as the governor and other Democrats grapple with the political fallout from a new law that sharply reduced the use of cash bail. The law went into effect on New Year’s Day, and since then, concerns over a spate of anti-Semitic incidents and other recent alleged crimes committed by those released have led to calls for changes in the law, including by Mr. Cuomo himself.

Mr. Cuomo made no mention of the bail reform on Wednesday during his speech, which included quotations from George Washington, Henry David Thoreau and the singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, and an extended nautical theme, with mentions of rocky shores, rough seas, and a “political and social superstorm” of anger and divisive rhetoric.

Considering the state’s financial straits, Mr. Cuomo leaned heavily on proposals that would need little or no state funding, like banning gun ownership for people who have committed certain misdemeanor crimes in other states, banning foam food containers and outlawing synthetic opioids similar to fentanyl.

The governor’s marijuana proposal came with numerous caveats: He said that he intended to coordinate New York’s plan with similar efforts in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut, though his office later clarified that the state would not wait on other states to pursue its own plan.

He also proposed that New York’s state university system be enlisted to do research on marijuana and its effects, likening the drug’s potential peril to that of opioids.

“The federal government failed Americans with opioids,” Mr. Cuomo said, in a briefing book released with the governor’s speech. “And we cannot allow that to happen with cannabinoids.”

The governor’s agenda — entitled “Making Progress Happen” — also outlined a robust list of social proposals, with many geared at improving women’s status in the state, including studies to increase representation for women on corporate boards (California just enacted a law guaranteeing that) and $20 million in grants for female entrepreneurs. Mr. Cuomo also promised to take aim at the so-called pink tax, by which businesses charge women more for services and personal care items.

Mr. Cuomo has trumpeted his actions on gay rights — including legalizing same-sex marriage in 2011. His top-line proposal for the L.G.B.T.Q. community — permitting paid gestational surrogacy — had failed to gain enough support in 2019, after some advocates for women’s rights and religious groups argued that such surrogacy commodifies the body.

On Wednesday, even before Mr. Cuomo’s speech ended, the state’s Catholic Conference, said “surrogacy is a dangerous policy that will lead to the exploitation of poor, vulnerable women, and has few safeguards for children.”

Mr. Cuomo also said that he supported paid sick leave for workers of businesses with five or more employees, and wanted to codify benefits and protections for workers of the growing gig economy, although he did not offer specifics.

Other ideas were recycled, like an equal rights amendment to establish factors such as sex and sexual orientation as protected classes; a law change to allow movie theaters to sell alcohol; and a law to allow automatic voter registration.

That idea passed last year, but was waylaid by technical legal concerns; the legislature will pass it again on Thursday. The governor also brought out a revised version of an idea that he recently vetoed: legalizing e-bikes and scooters.

Like last year, Mr. Cuomo made the environment a cornerstone of his agenda: He proposed leveraging $3 billion in bonds to restore wildlife habitats and mitigate flood risks, while offering plans to preserve 4,000 acres of land in the Mid-Hudson Valley and upgrade the wastewater treatment plant at Lake George, a popular vacation spot.

“No economic strategy, no social justice reform, no education policy will be worth a damn if we don’t have a planet that we can live on,” Mr. Cuomo said.

Mr. Cuomo also took aim at sexual predators, proposing legislation to ban high-risk sexual offenders from New York City’s subway and prohibit them from using social media, dating apps and video game chats.

If 2019 was any indication, Mr. Cuomo tends to get what he wants from his yearly wish list. The overwhelming majority of his proposals were approved last year, except for marijuana legalization.

The governor suggested he would insist on more accountability from local governments in the way they manage Medicaid programs, setting up a potential clash with New York City and Mayor Bill de Blasio, the governor’s intraparty rival, who called the proposal concerning.

Cuomo administration officials later said that they did not intend to ask local governments to pay more, but rather root out “waste, fraud and abuse within the system.”

In recent years, Mr. Cuomo had chosen to unveil his budget during the State of the State address. But facing a budgetary quagmire this year, the governor decided he would present his budget separately later in the month.

“It’s the $29 billion elephant in the room and he knows it,” said Andrew Rein, the president of the Citizens Budget Commission, a fiscal watchdog, referring to the state’s projected cumulative budget gap of $28.8 billion through 2023.

“When you have a structural problem, the longer you delay addressing it the larger it becomes,” he added.


Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/08/nyregion/state-of-the-state-cuomo-ny.html


RMS

:smoweed:
 

soil margin

Active member
Veteran
I love how politicians see cannabis as a magic remedy for their inability to be fiscally responsible. Putting 15, 20, and even 30% tax rates on recreational weed is not how you build a thriving legal market. New York is gonna learn the same lesson as Cali that you expect too much tax revenue and you end up getting even less than you should because you’re driving people to the black market.
 

TychoMonolyth

Boreal Curing
If you can't beat them, ...

Snapped this last summer in Midtown Manhattan (NYC). Right next to a Food Truck. :laughing:
Cookies, brownies, lollipops and gummies.
picture.php
 

MedFaced

Active member
Love it....too funny.

How does this biz get away with this when weed was not legal in the state.....?

Inquiring minds want to know.

RMS

:smoweed:

NY has a medical program. They can stop the shops, but they can’t stop “caregivers” from driving around to serve patients.
 

realgaarg

New member
I think that this is a rather controversial topic for the public, many for and many against. It is enough to read the works of people on this subject studydriver.com/marijuana-legalization-essay/, and you will immediately see how divided the opinions are. Personally, I am for legalization. It will be beneficial to everyone, people will be able to calmly and without fear of buying, and the state will remove the dealers and it will become a monopolizer of the market. Everyone will benefit. This has long had to be done, why is marijuana more dangerous than the same alcohol from which people die regularly?
 

geneva_sativa

Well-known member
bet it never happens,,, or if it does,,, bet it sucks pretty badly,,

watch them go after the ny sourpatch kids,, because nobody wants to buy that crap they peddle in "legal shops"
 

yesum

Well-known member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Cuomo is about the most regulation driven type of douche you can find, Newsome over here in cali is on par. Both will free the weed though, can give them that and not much more.

If you came here illegally or live on the street then not much of the billion laws apply to you, so there is freedom in California and New York for them.

The local pot shop is doing brisk business here. Take out food, pot and booze continue to be allowed to carry on trade. I was thinking they might close the liquor stores and pot shops, but not for now, and I think not at all going forward. Gives the people a mental break from isolation and boredom.
 

geneva_sativa

Well-known member
yeah cbd products,,,

nothing like the cartoon network, bodegas, juice bars, etc etc that have operated for decades in the city
 
ask canada, it doesnt work cause most people dont want to pay taxes and the GOV can never go cheaper then black market due to regulations and safety measures, and most people only care about cost and quality not safety
 

Lester Beans

Frequent Flyer
Veteran
I figure he will make it legal but illegal to grow at all at home. Which makes it the same as it has always been in NYS. People get busted here everyday. Especially in the outdoor season. Impossible to grow outdoors where I am due to the helicopters.

I don't grow outdoors for that reason but it didn't stop the losers from hovering over my tomato field and rotor washing my crops. That just wasn't fair play on their part and it happens again I'll be getting a lawyer.
 

JustSumTomatoes

Indicas make dreams happen
Last year I made it out to NYC for the first time. What I thought was great was how the police seemingly didn't give a shit about people smoking out in the open, at least in Manhattan. I was in the Lower East Side and a couple was smoking a jay on one side of the street and a cop was on the other, and could care less. Saw a dude smoking crack a few blocks from Times at a subway entrance. Really interesting place that made me realize there are so many fragrances of garbage that a city has to offer.
 

Bud Green

I dig dirt
Veteran
Last year I made it out to NYC for the first time. What I thought was great was how the police seemingly didn't give a shit about people smoking out in the open, at least in Manhattan. I was in the Lower East Side and a couple was smoking a jay on one side of the street and a cop was on the other, and could care less. Saw a dude smoking crack a few blocks from Times at a subway entrance. Really interesting place that made me realize there are so many fragrances of garbage that a city has to offer.

They haven't given a shit about a joint in a long time...
I use to visit buddies in north Jersey and have them take me to the city...

This was in 1975,,, smoke a joint across the street from a cop..
He's looking right at you and wouldn't bother crossing the street...

...

Cuomo might make it "legal, but you still won't be able to grow your own... betcha a Grand on that...

..
 

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