Setting HIGH expectations? Gov. Andrew Cuomo announces feasibility study into legalizing recreational marijuana in New York

  • In the state budget on Tuesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo asked lawmakers to fund the study to examine the costs, benefits, and legal risks of legalizing marijuana  
  • Cuomo has previously opposed legalization warning it was a 'gateway drug'
  • But with ten states plus the District of Columbia having already legalized recreational use, and New Jersey on its way, Cuomo is under pressure to act
  • 'This is an important topic and it would be nice to have some facts in the middle of the debate,' he said
  •  'Once the states around you start to regulate an activity or allow it, there is leakage... and so we want to see what goes on,' said Cuomo's budget director
  • Study will be carried out by the state Health Department with the NYPD

New York is to launch a feasibility study into legalizing recreational marijuana, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday.

Nine states and the District of Columbia have already legalized small amounts of marijuana for recreational use in recent years.

And with New Jersey's incoming governor vowing to legalize the drug during his term, the pressure was on Cuomo to take the next step to making weed legal in New York.

New York is to launch a feasibility study into legalizing recreational marijuana, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday (pictured)

New York is to launch a feasibility study into legalizing recreational marijuana, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday (pictured)

In his annual address on the state budget on Tuesday, Cuomo - who has previously opposed legalizing cannabis - asked lawmakers to fund the study to examine the costs, benefits, and legal risks. 

'This is an important topic and it would be nice to have some facts in the middle of the debate,' Cuomo said.

The study would be carried out by New York Health Department in partnership with the NYPD.

New York is already one of 29 states to allow marijuana use for medical purposes. But the state has some of the toughest restrictions on access to the drug, which is only sold in creams, oils and pills, to patients with life-ending or debilitating conditions.

Nine states and the District of Columbia have already legalized small amounts of marijuana for recreational use in recent years. Pictured is marijuana on display at Harborside dispensary in Oakland, Calif, where its recreational use is now legal

Nine states and the District of Columbia have already legalized small amounts of marijuana for recreational use in recent years. Pictured is marijuana on display at Harborside dispensary in Oakland, Calif, where its recreational use is now legal

Marcos Morales, co-founder of pot company Legion of Bloom, inspected his crop in Glen Ellen, California, as the state geared up for legalization which came into force this week

Marcos Morales, co-founder of pot company Legion of Bloom, inspected his crop in Glen Ellen, California, as the state geared up for legalization which came into force this week

Many of those restrictions came from Cuomo himself who said as recently as last February that he was against legalizing recreational marijuana.

'It's a gateway drug, and marijuana leads to other drugs and there's a lot of proof that that's true,' he warned last year, according to New York Magazine.

STATES POT IS LEGAL FOR RECREATIONAL USE

Colorado - first state to legalize it, with law coming into effect Jan 1, 2014

Washington state - as of July 8, 2014 

Alaska - as of February 21, 2015

Oregon - as of October 1, 2015

Nevada - as of July 1, 2017

California - as of January 1, 2018

Maine - legalized use in 2017 but laws on production and sale are still to be amended

Massachusetts - legalized in 2016, first shops expected to open July 1

District of Columbia - legalized but Congress has effectively blocked that decision 

Vermont - to legalize from July 2018 

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'There's two sides to the argument. But I, as of this date, I am unconvinced on recreational marijuana.'

But public opinion on cannabis has changed.

Support for the legalization of marijuana among Americans is now at 61 per cent, according to a recent CBS News poll released on the drug's 4/20 holiday - that's the highest in its 38-year trend and a five point increase from last year. 

That enthusiasm crosses all ages, genders and political demographics, according to a poll of 1,011 adults who were asked 'Should marijuana use be legal?'

The company first started asking the question in 1979, at which point just 27 per cent said they were in favor of legalization. 

Recent studies have found that the majority of New Yorkers approved of legalizing the drug. 

Taxes on legal consumption were also the most popular suggestion for addressing New York's $4.4 billion budget deficit.

Incoming New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has also said he supports legalization and, in his inauguration speech, revealed that his vision for a 'stronger and fairer New Jersey… includes a process to legalize marijuana,' as part of his criminal-justice reforms.

With neighboring states now moving closer to legalization, Cuomo has had little choice but to reassess New York's stance on the drug.

'Once the states around you start to regulate an activity or allow it, there is leakage, there are criminal justice impacts, there are economic impacts, and so we want to see what goes on,' said Cuomo's budget director Robert Mujica. 

Incoming New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (pictured)  has also said he supports legalization

Incoming New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (pictured)  has also said he supports legalization

The study will assess the effect of legalization in Massachusetts and Vermont - which voted to legalize it last month and will make it legal from July this year - as well as New Jersey if and when it passes, and see what the impact would be on New York.

It would also take into account a move by the Trump administration earlier this month, to cancel a policy that kept federal prosecutors at bay from the fledgling cannabis industries and vowed to uphold their state laws.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Justice Department was rescinding the Obama-era policy that eased enforcement of federal marijuana laws amid a wave of legalization in states from Pennsylvania to Alaska. The shift came just three days after California launched the world's largest regulated commercial market for recreational marijuana.

State officials said the move amounted to meddling in states' affairs and ignored more pressing priorities like the opioid crisis.

 WHERE MARIJUANA IS LEGAL IN AMERICA

 

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