Gov. Andrew Cuomo to propose cannabis legalization

[President Johnson]

Good and overdue move.

https://twitter.com/NYGovCuomo/status/1346875793847300097

[NYSforKennedy2024]

Can't wait to buy some.

[dead0man]

so brave!

edit-also, I expect them to screw it up.  Maybe they won't lose $42 million in one year selling weed like Ontario did, but they'll give 'em a run for their...well, your money.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

How about vaccine legalization?

[GP270watch]

 What we really need is Federal legislation so banking isn't a mess and the threat of Federal action isn't repressing larger investment into this space.

[Interlocutor is just not there yet]

And all it took was being bordered by 3 legalization states.

Hopefully it goes better than out here. I believe 3/4 of all California cities still ban cannabis sales of any kind. The snail-like approval of permits/licenses hasn't been encouraging either

[AGA]

Not a weed smoker, but this should be done for the revenue. Hopefully they don't bicker too much about where it goes.

[DC Al Fine]

so brave!

edit-also, I expect them to screw it up.  Maybe they won't lose $42 million in one year selling weed like Ontario did, but they'll give 'em a run for their...well, your money.

Oh it's New York. I'll be surprised if they manage to lose less money than Ontario did.

[dead0man]

he's not off to a good start

How hard can it be to legalize marijuana once the public supports it? In New York, the conflict is over the money, of course. In Cuomo's budget proposal, he's entirely focused on the revenue marijuana sales will bring into the state. He's proposing a 10.25 percent state sales tax, and allowing local sales taxes on top of it. Cuomo predicted that eventually, once the state's system is fully operational, the government will be bringing in $300 million in tax revenue annually.

But unfortunately, it looks like Cuomo's proposal may also have some embedded bad ideas. Last year, when Cuomo started shopping around a legalization plan, it included a complete ban on home cultivation for recreational use. In order to legally access marijuana, you had to buy it from a legal vendor, thus guaranteeing the government gets a sweet cut of the money.

<snip>

Last year's proposal allowed medical marijuana users to grow plants at home. This year's proposal allows cultivation for neither recreational nor medical marijuana users, a ban reportedly urged by major marijuana companies.

<snip>

More bad news about Cuomo's plan came from public defender Eli Northrup of The Bronx Defenders. He noticed that Cuomo's plan actually increases the criminal penalty for anybody caught selling marijuana to somebody who is under 21. It's currently a misdemeanor, but Cuomo's plan turns it into a class D felony with a potential prison sentence of up to two and a half years. The current marijuana legalization bill in circulation in the state's legislature keeps it as a misdemeanor.

Cuomo's proposal shows that he and the state don't actually care that much about the devastating impact that the war on marijuana has had on poor communities. He just wants to make sure that the state still has a solid cash flow once they've stopped locking people up, fining them, and seizing their property. And if anybody attempts to grow or smoke weed without giving the state its cut, he's willing to keep the drug war going.

[Antonio the Sixth]

For once I completely agree with dead0. This is too little, too late. As usual, Cuomo goes fishing for woke points after actively stalling progress for years, and even then he only does too little, too late. He's an embarrassment for NY and for the Democratic party (not to mention a complete failure on COVID and a corrupt piece of sh*t).

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

His free tuition was another joke. Poor students in the SUNY system already had 90% of tuition covered by TAP, but 0% of mandatory fees. They were mostly paying fees, which Cuomo did nothing about. It's sort of like how the UC system technically doesn't charge tuition.