In a report by NBC, according to cannabis legalization advocates, recreational marijuana may be a reality in 2019 for New York residents.
The advocates are expecting the state’s Governor Andrew Cuomo to call on legislature to legalize the drug recreationally during his first budget address next year.
“We’re drafting legislation,” Rich Azzopardi, said a spokesman for the governor to NBC News.
Cuomo has already launched a working group to make legislative recommendations based on a multi-agency study on “regulated marijuana” which was unveiled this past July.
Kassandra Frederique, New York State director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), has said, “There’s a lot to hope for in the legislative session. I think it puts the governor’s office in the hot seat. What they put forward is supposed to be reflective of what they heard.”
“We’re ready with a checklist to hold them accountable,” Frederique added.
“We need to move beyond our completely broken prohibition model on marijuana to a sensible tax-and-regulate model,” Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard N. Gottfried, D-Manhattan said via email to NBC.
“Continued criminalization does not prevent marijuana use but destroys the lives of thousands of people a year and creates an illegal drug market that costs millions of dollars in law enforcement and other resources while disproportionately affecting minority communities,” he added.
“I look forward to working with the Governor and the new Senate leadership on legislation to correct this historic abuse of the drug war.”
