After years of stalled attempts, New York State has legalized the use of recreational marijuana, enacting a robust program that will reinvest millions of dollars of tax revenues from cannabis in minority communities ravaged by the decades-long war on drugs, reported the New York Times.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed the cannabis legislation on
March 31, 2021, a day after the State Legislature passed the bill following hours of
debate among lawmakers in Albany.
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 and one of the few states where
legalization is directly tied to economic and racial equity.
Previous attempts to legalize marijuana were stymied over
disagreements on how the tax revenue from 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 arrested on marijuana charges in disproportionate numbers; the
governor wanted to retain more control over how the money was spent.
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