{"id":1188,"date":"2013-01-11T08:38:55","date_gmt":"2013-01-11T08:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/?p=20563"},"modified":"2013-01-11T08:38:55","modified_gmt":"2013-01-11T08:38:55","slug":"ny-governor-cuomo-using-spotlight-to-highlight-state-marijuana-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/ny-governor-cuomo-using-spotlight-to-highlight-state-marijuana-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"NY Governor Cuomo Using Spotlight to Highlight State Marijuana Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/ny-governor-cuomo-using-spotlight-to-highlight-state-marijuana-reform\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"225\" height=\"225\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/cuomo.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"cuomo\" title=\"cuomo\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-20564\" href=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/news-and-articles\/ny-governor-cuomo-using-spotlight-to-highlight-state-marijuana-reform\/attachment\/cuomo-2\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-20564\" title=\"cuomo\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/cuomo-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>It has been a busy few months for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.governor.ny.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\">New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo<\/a>.\u00a0 The Obama ally maintained a high profile during the election (he seems to be poised to make his own run for the White House) and campaigned for the president.\u00a0 Governor Cuomo has also been vocal in his criticism during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy which includes attempting to break up <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lexisnexis.com\/community\/insurancelaw\/blogs\/hurricanesandy\/archive\/2012\/11\/08\/cuomo-decries-lipa-monopoly-amid-post-sandy-power-outages.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">LIPA&#8217;s energy monopoly<\/a> and has demanded that Congress appropriates money to the region to help rebuild.\u00a0 He has also gotten out in front of the gun debate and is seeking to make pass one of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2013\/01\/09\/cuomo-to-propose-assault-weapon-ban_n_2438879.html\" target=\"_blank\">country&#8217;s toughest assault weapon ban<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>However, Governor Cuomo has also taken on another important issue.\u00a0 When Mr. Cuomo first ran for governor he maintained a traditional skepticism to marijuana reform.\u00a0 He even sounded harshly against any progressive legislation in this area.\u00a0 Over the course of the past two years his public comments have softened considerably.\u00a0 Last spring, the governor informed the public that he was seeking to eliminate New York&#8217;s controversial <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nyclu.org\/issues\/racial-justice\/stop-and-frisk-practices\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Stop and Frisk&#8221;<\/a> policy.\u00a0 This loophole, goes against the spirit New York&#8217;s marijuana decriminalization laws that were passed in the 1970s.\u00a0 Possession of under 25g (concealed) is supposed to result in a civil citation ticket.\u00a0 However, if marijuana is in &#8220;plain sight&#8221;, then the charges escalate to a much more severe misdemeanor.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this week, Governor Cuomo re-affirmed his stance.\u00a0 On Wednesday, in a public speech he said &#8220;The legislature finds that arrests, criminal prosecutions, and criminal penalties are inappropriate for people who possess small quantities of marihuana for personal use. Every year, this process needlessly scars thousands of lives and wastes millions of dollars in law enforcement resources, while detracting from the prosecution of serious crime.\u201d\u00a0 He also said marijuana arrests that &#8220;stigmatize and criminalize must end now.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Advocates for marijuana reform have been pleased to see Governor Cuomo trying to fix the controversial loophole.\u00a0 &#8220;Stop and Frisk&#8221; is used primarily within New York City&#8217;s jurisdiction and unevenly targets Blacks and Hispanics, many of whom are teens.\u00a0 Gabriel Sayegh, New York state director for the<a href=\"http:\/\/www.drugpolicy.org\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Drug Policy Alliance<\/a>, said \u201cWe cannot have the same laws applied differently to different groups of people when the dividing line is race.\u201d\u00a0 While New York City is known as a progressive haven, the rest of the state has been resistant to making any changes to marijuana laws.\u00a0 However, with mounting debt and new financial priorities after Hurricane Sandy, New York can no longer afford to lock up so many people who pose no public threat.\u00a0 Many residents are angry over their tax dollars being used to fill up jails with teens.\u00a0 We are glad to see the Governor take initiative and if the second generation governor (his father is former NY Governor Mario Cuomo) with obvious presidential aspirations feels he can get this done without political turmoil, then it is obvious that the reform movement has turned a major corner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"225\" height=\"225\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/cuomo.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"cuomo\" title=\"cuomo\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-20564\" href=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/news-and-articles\/ny-governor-cuomo-using-spotlight-to-highlight-state-marijuana-reform\/attachment\/cuomo-2\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-20564\" title=\"cuomo\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/cuomo-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>It has been a busy few months for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.governor.ny.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\">New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo<\/a>.\u00a0 The Obama ally maintained a high profile during the election (he seems to be poised to make his own run for the White House) and campaigned for the president.\u00a0 Governor Cuomo has also been vocal in his criticism during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy which includes attempting to break up <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lexisnexis.com\/community\/insurancelaw\/blogs\/hurricanesandy\/archive\/2012\/11\/08\/cuomo-decries-lipa-monopoly-amid-post-sandy-power-outages.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">LIPA&#8217;s energy monopoly<\/a> and has demanded that Congress appropriates money to the region to help rebuild.\u00a0 He has also gotten out in front of the gun debate and is seeking to make pass one of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2013\/01\/09\/cuomo-to-propose-assault-weapon-ban_n_2438879.html\" target=\"_blank\">country&#8217;s toughest assault weapon ban<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>However, Governor Cuomo has also taken on another important issue.\u00a0 When Mr. Cuomo first ran for governor he maintained a traditional skepticism to marijuana reform.\u00a0 He even sounded harshly against any progressive legislation in this area.\u00a0 Over the course of the past two years his public comments have softened considerably.\u00a0 Last spring, the governor informed the public that he was seeking to eliminate New York&#8217;s controversial <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nyclu.org\/issues\/racial-justice\/stop-and-frisk-practices\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Stop and Frisk&#8221;<\/a> policy.\u00a0 This loophole, goes against the spirit New York&#8217;s marijuana decriminalization laws that were passed in the 1970s.\u00a0 Possession of under 25g (concealed) is supposed to result in a civil citation ticket.\u00a0 However, if marijuana is in &#8220;plain sight&#8221;, then the charges escalate to a much more severe misdemeanor.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this week, Governor Cuomo re-affirmed his stance.\u00a0 On Wednesday, in a public speech he said &#8220;The legislature finds that arrests, criminal prosecutions, and criminal penalties are inappropriate for people who possess small quantities of marihuana for personal use. Every year, this process needlessly scars thousands of lives and wastes millions of dollars in law enforcement resources, while detracting from the prosecution of serious crime.\u201d\u00a0 He also said marijuana arrests that &#8220;stigmatize and criminalize must end now.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Advocates for marijuana reform have been pleased to see Governor Cuomo trying to fix the controversial loophole.\u00a0 &#8220;Stop and Frisk&#8221; is used primarily within New York City&#8217;s jurisdiction and unevenly targets Blacks and Hispanics, many of whom are teens.\u00a0 Gabriel Sayegh, New York state director for the<a href=\"http:\/\/www.drugpolicy.org\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Drug Policy Alliance<\/a>, said \u201cWe cannot have the same laws applied differently to different groups of people when the dividing line is race.\u201d\u00a0 While New York City is known as a progressive haven, the rest of the state has been resistant to making any changes to marijuana laws.\u00a0 However, with mounting debt and new financial priorities after Hurricane Sandy, New York can no longer afford to lock up so many people who pose no public threat.\u00a0 Many residents are angry over their tax dollars being used to fill up jails with teens.\u00a0 We are glad to see the Governor take initiative and if the second generation governor (his father is former NY Governor Mario Cuomo) with obvious presidential aspirations feels he can get this done without political turmoil, then it is obvious that the reform movement has turned a major corner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1174,1175,391,739,9,50,392,51,671,394,1,3],"tags":[3744,3745,2969,3312,2630,2970,2631,3244,2972],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1188"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}