New York's Health Department Plans to Recommend Legalizing Marijuana [View all]

Source: NYT

ALBANY — A study commissioned by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo will recommend that “a regulated, legal marijuana program be available to adults in the state,” the New York State health commissioner said on Monday.

The announcement by the commissioner, Howard Zucker, comes after a fast evolution in the thinking of Mr. Cuomo, a second-term Democrat who said as recently as last year that marijuana was a “gateway drug.”

In more recent months, however, Mr. Cuomo has said that “facts have changed” around the drug, and in January he commissioned a report with the mission of determining the consequences from legalization efforts in New Jersey and Massachusetts, and “what would that do to New York because it’s right in the middle.”

“We looked at the pros, we looked at the cons, and when were done, we realized that the pros outweighed the cons,” Mr. Zucker said, adding, “We have new facts.”

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