Politics
New York Governor Will Outline Plan To Legalize Marijuana On Monday
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) will lay out his agenda for the upcoming legislative session in a speech on Monday, and that will include details on his plan to get an adult-use marijuana legalization bill through the state legislature in 2019.
In an interview with radio station 1010 WINS on Friday, the governor confirmed that a proposal to end cannabis prohibition would be one of 15 pieces of legislation he’ll discuss in the speech. He said the current “political atmosphere” is “unlike anything we’ve ever seen before,” and the timing is ripe to promote a bold agenda.
Listen to Cuomo confirm plans to reveal marijuana legalization details on Monday, about 5:00 into the clip below:
(In the exchange, the host mistakenly asks about “medical” marijuana, which is already legal in New York.)
In a separate interview on WCNY’s Capitol Pressroom, Cuomo said the Monday speech “is going to get to the meat of the specific legislative issues. This is not going to be a lot of rhetoric and retrospective.”
“We have an incoming [Democratic majority] legislature and I wanted to say, ‘these are the 15 things I’m trying to get done this year, and these are the 15 bills you’re going to see.'”
While reforming marijuana laws hasn’t always been a top priority for the governor, who as recently as a year ago called cannabis a “gateway drug,” 2018 has seen Cuomo’s position on the issue evolve dramatically. In August, he formed a working group to draft a legalization bill after the state Department of Health released a report finding that the benefits of legal cannabis outweigh the consequences.
Cuomo is also rumored to be considering putting cannabis legalization in his 2019 budget, which is set to come out next month. If he did so, New York could have a “fiscal framework for the program” by April, according to Crain’s.
It remains to be seen whether Cuomo will talk about a proposal to use revenue from legal marijuana sales to improve New York City’s subway system—a notion that’s put some lawmakers and advocates at odds—or if he will address details such as cannabis businesses licensing structures or whether he believes home cultivation should be allowed.
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Photo courtesy of Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
