There has been a great deal of back-and-forth in the state of New York when it comes to the potential of legalizing cannabis for adult use. While it appears that most voters are in favor of legalization, it still didn’t have enough support in the legislature for a bill to be passed in 2019. But that doesn’t mean lawmakers are giving up hope or focus.
Even formerly anti-legalization Governor Andrew Cuomo is still talking about legalization. However, this week he hinted that he’s still not in favor of smoking and feels that alternative consumption methods would be the better option post-legalization.
“No,” he said, adding that his administration is “not in favor of smoking marijuana” and that there are “ways to get THC without smoking marijuana.”
This all started when the governor was being interviewed by MSNBC, where he was asked if the recent deaths that appear to be linked to vaping had him reconsidering legalization. While Cuomo assured interviewers that lawmakers in the state weren’t turning their backs on legalization, it was his additional comments about smoking that provoked the question – would New York legalize cannabis, but ban smoking it?
“People are vaping THC, yes that is true,” Cuomo said. “We think that from a public health point of view, that is not something that we recommend and we think it’s dangerous—smoking of any kind.”
It sounds like Cuomo thinks that smoking and vaping is a public health concern, and therefore doesn’t recommend it. This falls closely in line with his previous attempts to ban smoking of medical marijuana in the state back in 2014 – but that was presumably to ensure the program couldn’t be taken advantage of by people looking to use the law as a way to smoke legally.
“You can legalize marijuana and sell THC in compounds that do not require you to smoke the marijuana, and we do not support smoking of marijuana,” he said. “There are compounds that have the THC, which is a compound in marijuana, that you don’t smoke.”
Chances are, there’s not going to be a ban on smoking recreational cannabis should it be legalized in New York in the future. However, if they were to try and push such a ban – especially considering the recent deaths linked to vaping – it likely wouldn’t go over well.
Smoking bans on medical marijuana have been met with court battles from more than one angle, and patients, consumers, businesses and advocates would all rally to fight such a ridiculous restriction.
Thanks for the article Julia.
In my opinion Cuomo is just another clueless politician only interested in their own power and prestige thinking they need to make the decisions for the little people.
Vaping products (nicotine or THC) which are professionally produced by licensed and inspected companies are safe. If someone wants to smoke a joint instead of vaping then more power to them. It’s the individuals right to decide how they live their life and what they consume.
Politicians always try to lump nicotine and THC vaping in with smoking, but the end game is to tax them as they do cigarettes since they are loosing A LOT of money in cigarette tax revenues. They will say the vaping tax money is for educating kids, it’s for cannabis research, it’s for sensation programs, it’s for global warming, etc., etc.
Adults should be able to make their own life decisions without a government acting like an over protective parent, but then again I grew up in the 80s when personal responsibility was just a given and many of us didn’t trust the government. I’m not knocking younger people at all but the culture has changed for a lot of people to one of trusting the government and the corrupt power hungry class running it (Left and Right).
Hope this clown doesn’t get in the way of a positive cannabis regulated market. It would really do more harm than good ultimately. Making it legal should mean that all of cannabis is legal and not some ridiculous belief about something that’s untrue.
Cuomo is a goomba and his kind should be banned from office. We sit here with a 19th century subway system and no democracy of any kind in this state while he just approved a big bridge project dedicated to naming the bridge after his goomba father. Big Israel and Wall Street money control it. There won’t be any real cannabis culture in NY. And I agree, adults need to get government away from our bodies and our decisions. These liars approve every deadly chemical on the market, they are promoting 5G, which is even deadier (see the 5gsummit.com for more — seriously!) and spraying us daily with a mix of coal ash, polymers, aluminum, and other toxic metals, which is killing all life (see geoengineeringwatch.org). And they pretend they care about safety. What they care about is their own pocket and nothing more. They are nihilists in the extreme.