N.Y.’s Cannabis Program Needs Genuine Equity
As a Black man raised in Flatbush, who attended New York City public schools, and who now represents parts of Crown Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens and East Flatbush in the state Assembly, I know firsthand that the war on drugs and the draconian Rockefeller Drug laws disproportionately and adversely impacted my constituents, my neighbors, my friends and my family.
It is well-documented that marijuana has been a driver of mass criminalization in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of people who look like me have had their lives impacted by these arrests each year. New Yorkers of color — the majority being Black and Brown — comprised 94% of cannabis-related arrests and summonses in 2020, according to an analysis of NYPD data by the Legal Aid Society. Many young people have been deprived of educational opportunities and a future by virtue of being arrested for marijuana possession.
Right now, thanks to the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, which my colleagues in the Legislature passed in 2021, New York is racing toward legalizing adult-use marijuana with an eye toward implementing a new gold standard for social equity. Unfortunately, New York’s track record on marijuana legalization has been lacking, which is why I am concerned but still optimistic.New York’s medical marijuana program set a bad example we will see how this program. The program has been riddled with complaints that it is complicated, time-consuming and costly, which makes it less accessible especially to disadvantaged communities. New York’s medical program only has 10 Registered Organizations, and many of the 38 dispensaries are in places like Park Slope and the Upper East Side. Thankfully, the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act includes a provision to expand the medical program and move it from the Health Department to a new Office of Cannabis Management.
It is imperative that we fix the medical marijuana program and ensure that the adult use program does not replicate the same access and equity problems we unnecessarily created in the medical program. A growing body of academic research suggests that access to medical and recreational cannabis results in reduction in use of and subsequent harms associated with opioids, alcohol, tobacco and other substances. If we had dispensaries extending health care, we would be able to create key opportunities for early intervention into these harms, which is something that is sorely needed in underserved communities.
To jumpstart this, the state should begin by immediately expanding the medical program to include Registered Organizations owned and operated by people who have been most impacted by the war on drugs.
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