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Lack Of Agreement Slows Pot Legalization

There is a reason everyone has questions about New York state’s legalized marijuana policies — there isn’t enough agreement on the nuts and bolts of the policy to give it to the public to review.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo made headlines recently when he said he doesn’t expect to see legalized marijuana included as part of the state’s 2019-20 budget that is due on April 1. He elaborated on the problems during an appearance last week with Alan Chartock of WABC in New York City.

While there is widespread agreement among Democrats in state government that marijuana should be legalized, Cuomo said there isn’t agreement about what exactly that means. And, doubts about marijuana legalization are leading to further revenue shortfalls in the state budget.

“Well, you have to do it right,” Cuomo told Chartock. “And that means you have to write a program that does it. That’s government. You know, the politics is easy. And that’s the, what you’re seeing especially with the Senate Democrats, you know, this is the first time in really 40 years that they have been in charge of government. And the politics is easy. I support legalizing marijuana. Yay. Ok, everybody claps. Now, how do you do it? Now you have to govern as opposed to just do a bumper sticker political slogan and how you do marijuana is very important. You want to make sure you don’t sell to young people, that there is a legal market and that’s what they haven’t worked through. I don’t believe they get it done by the budget, which means we have a revenue shortfall because my plan was to use the revenue from marijuana for part of the MTA funding.”

Other states have had an easier time with marijuana legalization because it was done with a public referendum, something the governor says means there was a public process that brought the public’s input as well as the need to generate a full plan for the public’s approval. Using marijuana legalization as an election-year issue may have galvanized Democratic voters, but it did not result in the necessary background work to get a program running quickly. The inability to have a program ready for inclusion by the April 1 budget deadline has led Cuomo to move on to other issues.

“All these guys have said is in a campaign, ‘I support legalizing marijuana,'” Cuomo said. “Okay, and now I have some follow-up questions on the governmental side when you actually have to write a law. How much marijuana do you allow a person to have? How do you regulate the business? Who is going to be in the business? How many licenses? Are they close to schools? How do you empower communities that have been disenfranchised? What do you do with people who have been locked up on marijuana charges and how do you now expunge those records? This is the devil’s details in a governmental program and they have not yet gotten past the slogan because it is complicated.”

Cuomo’s appearance on Chartock’s radio program came on the same day the New York State Association of Counties stated its opposition to legalized marijuana because of uncertainties of costs that could be passed along to counties with increased social services, mental health, public safety, addiction, public health education, traffic safety, enforcement and other local services that aren’t reimbursed with state funding.

“Public policy ought to be about doing the public good. No harm to the public should be done,” said Stephen Acquario, said NYSAC executive director. “Will taxpayers once again end up subsidizing the long-term effects of this industry in our communities? If the state opts in to authorize adult use cannabis, counties need state resources to support any policy change from day one of the implementation.”

Locally, County Executive George Borrello sent a letter to Cuomo with his own list of questions and suggestions about a legalized marijuana policy. His concerns include:

¯ that there should be limitations on how marijuana would be sold as well as when and where it can be used;

¯ marijuana should have its own open container law similar to the way alcohol consumption is currently regulated;

¯ consuming marijuana in any establishment with a liquor license should be illegal;

¯ selling marijuana-laced food products should not be permitted;

¯ the use of marijuana in any public assembly venue should be illegal;

¯ the state should consider reimbursement to train police officers to identify people operating motor vehicles under the influence of marijuana.

“Our communities and businesses are already heavily burdened here in New York,” Borrello wrote to the governor. “Adding legalized marijuana into the mix will add to that burden and, in my opinion, the potential revenue will not cover the cost to our communities. If this legalization is poorly thought out and rushed through the process we will pay a heavy price both economically and socially.”

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