New York on the verge of Legalization

March 25th, 2021

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NORML Action Fri 3/19/21 NEW YORK Legalization

March 19th, 2021

The MRTA with justice and home grow is winning. Click on this link to easily send your letter today! The decisions are being made now. Thank you.

My editted version:
I’m writing to you today, and sending you this letter as a constituent with the utmost urgency requesting that you formally co-sponsor and support the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, (S.0854 / A.1248).

Never in modern history has there existed greater public support for ending the nation’s nearly century-long experiment with marijuana prohibition. According to statewide polling data, two thirds of New Yorkers endorse regulating the adult use of marijuana. It’s past time we legalize this plant and use the adult use industry in New York to promote equality, community reinvestment and social justice.

It’s not a giant market, but with hemp, it could be.

You have to allow home grow. It’s antithetical to our American democratic capitalism, that laws and law enforcement be used to favor corporate interests over the consumer. Home grow does not undercut the legal market. Home grow is equity. All enforcement will fall on the poor and people of color. In the name of personal freedom, do not make New York the legal state that doesn’t allow home grow, they way they had a no-flower medical program which was the laughingstock of the nation. Do the right thing, New York. We’re the seventeenth state now. This isn’t rocket science.

As you’re well aware, the Governor has his own separate legislation, tucked deep into his budget proposal in the article VII bills he submitted to the legislature, which he recently amended. While this will be the third attempt the Governor has made to put forward this proposal, I wanted to let you know that the Governor’s proposal falls short in many aspects.

It is essential that New York’s marijuana legalization law includes the following core consumer-centric tenets:

1- The legal option for adults to cultivate personal use quantities of marijuana in private residences;
2- Reduced barriers of entry for those seeking to participate in the legal adult use marketplace;
3- Licenses facilitating on-site consumption, which is especially important for those who don’t own their own residence;
4- Provisions facilitating the automatic review and expungement of past criminal records, and addressing the collateral consequences those records caused with other agencies in relation to Immigration, Family Services, Housing and Education;
5- Provisions prohibiting employers from discriminating against workers in the practices of either hiring or firing solely because their off-the-job cannabis use;
6- Dedicated and adequate funding of social and retroactive justice initiatives through Community Reinvestment Grant fund; and
7- Prevent creating new policies that criminalize use or possession, such as cannabis odor constitutes probable cause.
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Cannabis Legalization is more than just legalizing and regulating commercial activity of a controlled substance. It should be a public policy rooted in a willingness to comprehensively reverse the harms criminalization caused. Please support efforts to legalize and regulate adult use marijuana in a way that ensures safe, affordable, and equitable access for all New Yorkers. Thank you. These are difficult times. All the best.

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DTRTNY Watch and Write 2

March 4th, 2021

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