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In a major shot in the arm for the $4.2bn marijuana industry, New York state officials on Thursday finalised a deal that legalises the recreational drug in the state.
As per an internal memo, this legislation mandates the creation a new Office of Cannabis Management, controlled by the Cannabis Control Board and would eventually allow “New Yorkers over the age of 21 to grow their own plants in their homes, and a 13 per cent tax would be tacked on to retail sales for state and local tax revenue,” CNN reported, quoting internal sources.
The move is expected to create tens of thousands of new jobs and has the potential to become “one of the largest markets in the country.”
Lawmakers in Albany struck an agreement with New York governor Andrew Cuomo to legalise cannabis for adults above 21 years.
Officials are hoping that this will put an end to years of “racially disproportionate policing that saw Black and Hispanic people arrested on low-level marijuana charges far more frequently than white people,” the New York Times reported.
More details accessed by the Times suggest that “the deal would allow delivery of the drug and permit club-like lounges or consumption sites where marijuana, but not alcohol, could be consumed.”
The legislation to legalise recreational marijuana in New York also allows a person to cultivate up to six marijuana plants at home, indoors or outdoors, for personal use.
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However, once approved, the sale of marijuana in the state is going to take time. Reports said that the officials first need to write rules to regulate the market and create a new control board that would oversee the industry.
Just last month, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed bills to legalise marijuana for those above 21 years in the state and decriminalise possession of limited amounts of marijuana.
Crystal D Peoples-Stokes, a Democrat who has spearheaded the legalisation effort in the lower chamber for years, told New York Times: “A percentage of revenue that is raised will get invested into the communities where the people who suffered mass incarceration come from and still live in many cases. For me this is a lot more than about raising revenue: It’s about investing in the lives of the people that have been damaged.”
Meanwhile, for unlawful possession, the new deal also has come up with a range of criminal penalties “including a violation for three ounces of flower or 24 grams of concentrated cannabis and a Class D felony for more than 10 pounds of flower or four pounds of concentrated cannabis,” local reports said.
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