High times: Pot legalization a burning issue
BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
Recreational pot could become
legal in New York State in less
than one month from now, on
April 1. And that’s no April Fools’ joke
— it’s a real possibility.
In January, Governor Andrew
Cuomo announced in his State of the
State speech that legalizing adult-use
marijuana was one of his priorities. He
also slipped his own pot-legalization
bill into the state budget — meaning it
could become law on April 1, when the
budget is scheduled to be approved.
Against that rapidly approaching
backdrop, Assemblymember Harvey
Epstein led a forum on pot legalization
on Sun., March 3, at the Boys and Girls
Republic, on E. Sixth St., between Avenue
D and the F.D.R. Drive.
Among the top issues voiced was the
idea of “Equity on Day One” — namely,
ensuring that local black and Latino
entrepreneurs don’t lose out to national
corporations when licenses for pot
dispensaries are given out. Also, there
are actually two bills — one by the Assembly
and state Senate, in addition to
the one by Cuomo — and the consensus
among those at the forum was that
Cuomo’s is too restrictive.
About 75 people attended the event.
In addition to Epstein, Congressmember
Carolyn Maloney and Manhattan
Borough President Gale Brewer also
spoke, as well as Kassandra Frederique,
New York State director of the Drug
Policy Alliance.
Epstein is a co-sponsor of the Assembly’s
Marijuana Regulation and Taxation
Act a.k.a. MRTA (pronounced
“Marta”). Cuomo’s bill is known as the
Cannabis Regulation and Taxation Act,
or CRTA (“Carta).
In his opening remarks, Epstein
stressed of legalization, “We have to see
how it affects our community — especially
low-income people of color.” The
process of legalizing weed, so far, he
said, has been “mostly geared toward
private-equity fi rms and rich white
guys. If we legalize it, how do we fi ght
the corporate takeover of legalization?
How do we fi ght the barriers to local
people getting involved?”
‘From seed to sale’
What is needed, he said, is a range of
initiatives, “from seed to sale,” including
commercial training and affordable
rent, among other things.
“I strongly believe it’s time to legalize
marijuana for recreational use in the
United States,” Maloney said. “It is also
absurd that the Drug Enforcement
Administration still lists marijuana as
a Schedule 1 drug along with heroin.”
Maloney noted she is part of the Cannabis
Caucus in D.C. and is working on
a federal legalization bill. Sounding a
frequent refrain during the event, she
At the March 3 forum on pot legalization, budding pot entrepreneurs
from High Mi Madre, Emily Ramos, left, and Pilar DeJesus, second
from right, posed with Assemblymember Harvey Epstein, right, and a
fellow legalization advocate.
said pot revenue should be invested
in communities “that were harmed,”
referring to excessive arrests of blacks
and Latinos for low-level pot offenses.
Going into that subject in depth,
Frederique of the Drug Policy Alliance
recapped the history of pot enforcement
in New York since 1971, when, as
she put it, “Richard Nixon declared the
War on Drugs.”
“New York State was the fi rst to do
mandatory penalties for low-level possession,”
she noted.
Outcry from parents — specifi cally,
white parents — led to criminal penalties
for low-level pot possession being
dropped in 1977, she said. Getting
caught with a small amount of pot was
typically just a $100 ticket back then.
However, under Mayor Rudy Giuliani
in the 1990s, pot arrests spiked
massively and stayed high until only
recently, she explained. Previously, police
could only make an arrest if the pot
was in plain view or burning. But, by
using a new technique — stop-and-frisk
— cops could pull pot out of a person’s
pocket, then arrest him for it.
“It was intentional, it was strategic,”
she said.
As recently as 2011, there were
50,300 pot arrests in the city, Frederique
noted, adding that would nearly
fi ll all the seats in Yankee Stadium.
“Eighty-fi ve percent of those arrests
were black and Latinx,” she said, using
the gender-neutral term for Latino.
In 2016, there were fewer pot arrests,
though still quite a lot — around
22,000 — “the capacity of Barclays
Center,” she noted.
Basically, Frederique, and others, argued
that because cannabis convictions
have been so unfairly skewed against
blacks and Hispanics, “pot decriminalization
has to be as comprehensive
PHOTO BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
as the damage that was done.”
Currently, pot convictions can also
impact parents in child-welfare cases,
cause evictions and put immigrants at
risk, she noted.
Offering insight into the legislative
process, Frederique noted that “controversial
bills” are often stuck into the
state budget “because it gives them cover.”
(Like the pot-legalization bill, the
congestion-pricing bill is also packed
into the state budget.) If the pot bill is
pulled out of the state budget, then it
still could be passed before the end of
the legislative session in June. The activist
was skeptical, though, if the pot
bill gets bumped into the next legislative
session, which starts in January
2020, that it would pass then.
“If the people are shaky now,” she
said, “it’s an election year next year,
they’re not going to pass it next year.”
Epstein: Shoot for June
Epstein said he actually hopes legalization
is not passed with the current
budget “because then we can have a
conversation” about problematic aspects
of the bill.
“If it doesn’t get passed in the budget,
then we want to pass it by June,”
he asserted.
Borough President Brewer said she is
“nervous” about big money horning in
on the legal pot trade.
“The Harlem community board had
a meeting on starting up pot businesses,
and all these national corporations
showed up,” she said.
Brewer added there are also still
more than a few questions, such as on
enforcement against driving stoned.
“Breathalyzer — how would that be
done?” she asked.
Next, the forum broke down into two
groups, one focusing on decriminalization,
the other on starting up pot businesses.
In the latter session, there was
discussion of MRTA, the Legislature’s
bill, versus CRTA, the governor’s bill.
“The focus is to get the governor’s
proposal off the table,” Epstein stated.
“There’s no home-grown in CRTA,”
objected Paul Gilman, a Yippie and
Green Party member.
“You have community grow rooms!”
a woman chimed in, grinning broadly.
“You have community gardens! This is
what it’s about now, it’s not about judges
and lawyers anymore.”
Dan Hogle, of the group We Rise To
Legalize, later said that MRTA would
allow up to six pot plants to be grown
in a private residence at any one time.
But, he noted, there could be unforeseen
consequences — such as, if everyone
in a 200-unit apartment building
was growing pot plants, it could cause
a spike in electrical use.
“To grow marijuana, the fi rst six
weeks, you need grow lights 24/7,” he
explained.
Asked why the plants can’t just be on
a windowsill, he said the bill states they
can’t be visible from the street.
Reefer madness
While most at the event were obviously
pro-pot, one Stuyvesant Town
resident came because she thinks weed
stinks — literally. She complained afterward
about pot smoking in Stuy Town.
A woman on the fi rst fl oor is fi lling the
lobby with smoke, said the resident, a
retiree who withheld her name.
“I know New York State is going to
make a ton of money off this, but what
about those of us who don’t want to
smell this stuff?” she said. “It stinks!”
Asked if Stuy Town has a lot of university
students who might be getting
high, she said, “We’re fl ooded with students.
I don’t think it’s us older people
who are smoking.”
She feared, with legalization, her
“refer madness” would only worsen, as
more people would be puffi ng on the
street and on Stuy Town’s grounds, and
she would not be able to open her windows
due to the uptick in toking.
But Michael Schweinsberg, of the
504 Democrats, a political club whose
members have disabilities, and who is
familiar with the bills’ language, was
listening in. He told her it would still
be illegal to smoke a joint on the pavement
or in a park — just like with public
drinking. Similarly, it would be illegal
for people under age 21 to have or
use pot, he added. Of course, it would
depend on enforcement.
Assemblymember Richard Gottfried,
chairperson of the Assembly’s
Health Committee, previously told
this paper vaping could reduce the pot
smell. Asked about that, Epstein agreed
it might help.
8 March 7, 2019 TVG Schneps Media