The “Cannabis Law” legislation would create a new cannabis management office (CMO) controlled by a cannabis control board, according to an internal legislative note obtained by CNN.
The proposal would eventually allow New Yorkers over the age of 21 to grow their own plants at home and would add a 13% tax on retail sales to earn state and local tax revenue.
In New York, board officials would issue licenses for different stages of the supply chain: agriculture, processing, distribution, dispensaries, and retail “consumption” sites, the note says. The new state office would oversee the regulation of adult and medical cannabis use programs.
Some CMO officials would be tasked with focusing on social equity, including the goal of awarding 50% of licenses to “social equity applicants,” such as those from communities affected by social equity. the ban on cannabis and minority and female-owned businesses, according to the note.
Percentages of program revenue would go to the State Lottery Fund for Education and the Public Drug Treatment and Fund. Another portion would go to the Community Grant Reinvestment Fund for “grants for qualified community organizations and government entities approved to reinvest in communities disproportionately affected by state drug and federal policies,” the note says.
The plan would allow law enforcement to justify the suspicion of cannabis odor poisoning, but would ban the use of odors as a justification for searching for a contraband car, the note says. “Cannabis deterioration” would be included in the “Driving while impaired” offense, which is the lowest grade of the “Driving while intoxicated” status.
The new program will also include a new range of criminal penalties for illicit possession and sale of cannabis, including an offense for three ounces of flower or 24 grams of concentrated cannabis and a Class D offense for more than 10 pounds of flower or four. free of concentrated cannabis.
Municipalities could opt for the program if residents vote to pass a local law banning adult dispensaries within the jurisdiction. Residents could override these laws at the polls through the permissive state referendum process, according to the note.
New Jersey marijuana legalization followed a 2020 vote that allowed New Jersey to vote on recreational marijuana legalization. State lawmakers, unable to get enough support to pass a bill to fully legalize marijuana, agreed to put the question directly to voters: “Do you approve amending the Constitution to legalize a controlled form of marijuana called ‘cannabis’?”
Like New Jersey, Arizona also voted to legalize recreational marijuana, and Montana voted to set age 21 as the legal age to buy, possess, and consume cannabis through constitutional amendments and legalize marijuana for recreational use. South Dakota passed legalization for recreational and medical use (the first state to pass medical and recreational marijuana measures at the same time) and Mississippi voted to legalize medical marijuana, becoming one of the first southern states to do it.
CNN’s Brian Vitagliano, Caroline Kelly, Lauren Dezenski and Alicia Wallace contributed to this report.