March 31, 2021
After years of stalled attempts, New York State has legalized the use of
recreational marijuana, enacting a robust program to reinvest
millions of dollars in minority communities ravaged by the decades-long war on drugs.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed the cannabis legislation on Wednesday, a day after the State Legislature passed the bill following hours of debate among lawmakers in Albany.
With his signature, New York became the 15th state to legalize the recreational use of cannabis, positioning itself to quickly become one of the largest markets of legal cannabis in the nation.
Previous attempts to legalize marijuana were stymied over disagreements on how the tax revenue from marijuana sales would be distributed. Democratic lawmakers, especially those who are nonwhite, insisted that a large portion of the money be earmarked for communities where Black and Latino people have been disproportionately arrested on marijuana charges; the governor wanted to retain more control over how the money was spent.
The lawmakers prevailed. Forty percent of the tax revenue from pot sales will be steered to those communities, and people with marijuana-related convictions that are no longer criminalized will have their records automatically expunged. The law also seeks to allow people with past convictions and those involved in the illicit cannabis market to participate in the new legal market.
"Unlike any other state in America, this legislation is intentional about equity," Crystal D. Peoples-Stokes, the Democratic majority leader in the Assembly who sponsored the bill, said on the floor of the lower chamber. "Equity is not a second thought, it's the first one and it needs to be, because the people who paid the price for this war on drugs have lost so much."
Certain parts of the law went into effect immediately.
Individuals are now allowed to possess up to three ounces of cannabis for recreational purposes or 24 grams of concentrated forms of the drug, such as oils.
New Yorkers are permitted to smoke cannabis in public wherever smoking tobacco is allowed, though localities and a new state agency could create regulations to more strictly control smoking cannabis in public. Smoking cannabis, however, is not permitted in schools, workplaces or inside a car.
Other changes will go into effect in the coming months when officials create the regulatory framework that will govern every aspect of a brand new, highly regulated market.
People, for example, will eventually be able to have cannabis delivered to their homes, consume cannabis products at lounge-like "consumption sites" and cultivate up to six plants at home for personal use. Dispensaries won't open until more than a year from now, and localities could opt out of allowing such businesses.
