Proposal would legalize marijuana in New York

New York would be the third state to legalize marijuana if a new bill makes its way through the state legislature.

State Sen. Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat, proposed a law that would legalize ”“ and tax ”“ pot in the state. There are 1.9 million New Yorkers who have smoked up in the last year, according to the senator, and legalization could mean a new $3 billion industry.

The law would prohibit sale to anyone under 21, tax $50 per ounce, limit home growing to six plants and allow an “opt-out” sale for local communities. A portion of the tax revenue would go to subsidize substance-abuse programs, Krueger said.

Krueger said that legalizing the drug and treating it similar to alcohol would not only add a new revenue line to the state”™s budget but comes with a racial justice piece. Although whites and blacks have similar percentages of marijuana use, those arrested are overwhelmingly black or Hispanic users.

“Prohibition of marijuana is a policy that just hasn”™t worked, no matter how you look at it, and it”™s time to have an honest conversation about what we should do next,” Krueger said. “We”™re spending taxpayer money to ruin lives, disproportionately for those from communities of color, with no real public policy goal to be found in any of it.”

Even in the unlikely event the legislation passes in the state Senate, which is controlled by a coalition of Republicans and an independent Democratic caucus, it would likely go up in smoke once it reaches the desk of Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Matthew Wing, a spokesman for the governor, told the Rochester Democrat and Chonicle that the bill is a “non-starter.”

Previous efforts to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes have previously passed through the Democratic-controlled state Assembly but not made it through both houses. Cuomo himself had pushed to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana earlier this year but was unable to strike a deal with Senate Republican leadership.

Colorado and Washington are the only states to approve marijuana sales for recreational use and both states expect retail stores to open in 2014.