WATCH | New York and Virginia take steps to legalise marijuana
/ Our Today
administrator
(Reuters)
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill today (March 31) to legalise adult use of marijuana, making it the 15th U.S. state to allow recreational use of the drug, while Virginia moved to legalise possession of small amounts by July.
Cuomo said the bill, which was approved by the state Assembly late on Tuesday night, would also wipe the slate clean for many people previously charged with marijuana crimes.
“The bill creates automatic expungement of previous marijuana convictions that would now be legal,” Cuomo wrote on Twitter, announcing that he had just signed the legislation.
“This is a historic day.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam proposed moving up the legalisation of simple possession of marijuana to July rather than wait until 2024.
Northam said racial disparities in prosecution of marijuana-related crimes prompted him to accelerate the timetable. He cited a report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission which found that Black residents were more than three times as likely to be arrested for possessing small amounts of the drug.
“Our Commonwealth is committed to legalising marijuana in an equitable way,” Northam said in a statement.
NORML, a pro-marijuana group, earlier welcomed the news from New York state, saying that tens of thousands of New Yorkers were arrested every year over petty marijuana offenses, and that most were young, poor, and people of colour.
“The legalisation of marijuana is a racial and criminal justice imperative, and today’s vote is a critical step towards a fairer and more just system,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement.
New York state’s official website recently projected that tax collection from the adult-use cannabis program would reach US$350 million annually and also create 30,000 to 60,000 new jobs across the state.
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