Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

New York to Become 23rd Medical Marijuana State, Source: http://blog.coxandkings.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/shutterstock_57571180.jpgA coalition of New York community advocates led by Drug Policy Alliance joined Senator Liz Krueger (NYC) and Assemblymember Crystal Peoples-Stokes (Buffalo) to support a bill that would establish a legal market for cannabis in New York State.

The newly reintroduced Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA, S.3040A/A.3506A) would effectively end marijuana prohibition in New York State and create a system to tax and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol for adults over the age of 21.

Its sponsors expect the significant amendments to legislation originally introduced in 2013 to fuel renewed conversation around the need for marijuana reform, as prohibition continues to take a high toll in both human and financial terms statewide.

Revised version of legislation

This updated legislation incorporates lessons learned from the four states currently operating recreational marijuana markets, making this bill the new “gold standard” for comprehensive marijuana reform. By ending marijuana prohibition, the amended Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act establishes a comprehensive regulatory system geared toward improving public health, reducing criminalization stemming from use and possession, and limiting youth access.

Supporters are also launching the Start SMART NY campaign – Sensible Marijuana Access through Regulated Trade – supported by organizations and advocates dedicated to criminal justice reform, civil rights, public health, and community-based organizing. The campaign is dedicated to ending senseless marijuana arrests and citations, creating a public dialogue on collateral consequences and the hyper-criminalization of communities, and building economic power across the state.

“A smart, responsible policy”

“Marijuana prohibition is a failed and outdated policy that has done tremendous damage to too many of our communities. Allowing adult personal use, with appropriate regulation and taxation, will end the heavily racialized enforcement that disproportionately impacts African American and Latino New Yorkers, locking them out of jobs, housing, and education, and feeding the prison pipeline. MRTA is the kind of smart, responsible, 21st century policy that our communities desperately need,” said Senator Liz Krueger.

This push for reform also refutes claims that the harms of marijuana prohibition enforcement are a thing of the past – when in reality New York State has arrested 800,000 for low-level possession over the last 20 years, with arrests climbing as high as 50,000 annually in 2010 and 2011. Marijuana possession arrests still topped 23,000 in 2016 and the collateral consequences stemming from marijuana possession arrests remain. Despite the arrest decrease, the stark racial disparities in arrests remain consistent: more than 80 percent of those arrested are Black and Latino, although the rate of marijuana use is similar across racial lines.

“I introduced the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act because it’s time we reform our state’s marijuana policy to end biased marijuana arrests and drive responsible economic development across the state – both of which are especially needed in Buffalo,” said Assemblymember Crystal Peoples-Stokes. “Communities of color have been devastated by bad drug policies and hyper-criminalization for the last 40 years. Prohibition is an approach that has never worked and has caused significantly more harm than good to our communities and to our families—we can do something different, and it’s time that we do.”

Social justice prioritized in bill

The MRTA underscores marijuana legalization as a criminal justice reform initiative, as it will eliminate one of the top misdemeanor arrests from the state’s penal law; expand resentencing and reclassification of crimes for people previously convicted for marijuana, increasing opportunity for thousands of New Yorkers; and remove a positive marijuana test as justification for violating a person’s parole or probation.

It will also address the devastating impacts of marijuana prohibition in the fields of immigration and family law, and protect against discrimination in housing and employment based on a prior marijuana arrest or off-the-clock marijuana use.

Small business friendly policies

The updated legislation also includes substantial small business–friendly amendments. It will create a micro-license structure similar to New York’s rapidly growing craft wine and beer industry that will allow small-scale production and sale plus delivery, reducing barriers to entry for people with less access to capital and traditional avenues of financing.

The MRTA also ensures diversity and builds inclusivity in New York’s marijuana industry by only explicitly barring people with business-related convictions (such as fraud or tax evasion) from receiving licenses. To increase gender diversity in ownership within the marijuana industry, the MRTA requires entities that receive a license to outline specific actions they will take to produce a workforce that resembles the community in which the license is used, in line with New York’s Minority and Women-Owned Businesses initiative.

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