Long held as the metropolis of the American dream, the starting point for the American experience, NY and specifically NYC has long been one of the most diverse places on the planet. Few, if any culture in the world, aren’t represented in NY. “Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses yearning to be free” reads the famous statue in the harbor but for years, this goal of freedom didn’t include cannabis. One is pretty much free to do anything in NY. Want a gorilla suit at 4 am? no problem, the doorman knows a guy who delivers. Most cities don’t have one Malaysian restaurant, I had two on my block in Brooklyn and one was a gay Malaysian restaurant. Criminalizing cannabis is counter to the diversity of thought, culture, and experience of the New Yorker. As a side note, NYC remains the largest consumer of cocaine in the world, really, we’re worried about pot?
The Truth is, NY should have been the first to lead the way with cannabis reform and all the other issues connected to it. Not the least of which is the social justice considerations. The greening of America marched up and down the west coast, leaving NYC shaking down black and brown kids in the park smoking weed. Queens native, Andrew Cuomo, dragged his feet and kept the status quo of “defacto decriminalized cannabis use, for white people” as legislation to include all New Yorkers collected dust on his desk.
All that changed this week when NY state legislators reached an agreement to legalize adult use cannabis. Here’s what’s great about it: a market of 17 million potential customers just opened up. That’s helpful to the state. One of the things that criminalizing cannabis means is drug dealers don’t pay taxes. Now they aren’t “drug dealers’ they are entrepreneurs and they will pay taxes that help fill the coffers of the state. NY state just cut illicit drug use in half and offered the people a safer than alcohol form of intoxication in the process. People who were “criminals” no longer are and not just white people. An aging population can now access cannabis for help with ailments more safely than they could by going to CVS and filling a tradition prescription. Perhaps most importantly, the law ends the drug use nanny state and places the choice to use cannabis or not, squarely with the individual, you know, those “yearning to live free”. Hey welcome to freedom NY, now the City that never sleeps might be able to get a good nights rest with a safe and simple edible.