New Paltz wants N.Y. to legalize marijuana

Recreational use has unanimous backing of town, village boards

NEW PALTZ, N.Y. » The town and village boards have unanimously adopted a resolution asking state lawmakers to move forward with proposed legislation to legalize the recreational use of marijuana.

The resolution, which also calls for federal action, was approved at a joint meeting of the two boards on Thursday. The vote came in the wake of the town and village being urged to enact local laws legalizing marijuana.

One lawmaker noted that local bodies don’t have that authority.

“We’re open to ideas about what local government can do, but local government can’t legalize marijuana,” Village Board member K.T. Tobin said.

“Advice we got from our attorney is that ... state law pre-empts local governments from regulating controlled substances, which includes marijuana,” she said.

New York currently allows marijuana use only for select medical purposes, and only with a prescription. And the legal medical marijuana in the state is an ingestible oil, rather than smokeable.

State legislation, though, could change that. The New

Paltz resolution asks state lawmakers to pass two bills — A03506B in the Assembly and S03040B in the Senate — that would legalize the sale and use or marijuana for recreation purposes.

The resolution says the time and manpower spent enforcing existing laws could be better used combatting the epidemic of opioid abuse. It also cites a potential financial benefit of legalizing recreational marijuana.

“Marijuana tax revenues have exceeded projections in states that have already legalized recreational marijuana, and it is estimated that a legal marijuana industry would generate an estimated minimum of $132 billion in tax revenue and a million new jobs across the United States in the next decade,” the resolution states.

It also states that “Americans’

support of recreational marijuana legalization is at a record high.” An April 2018 poll the Siena Institute found 68 percent of registered voters between the ages of 18 and 34 support legalization, according to the resolution.

New Paltz town and village officials were asked by residents earlier this year to have local police ease their enforcement of marijuana laws. But “at the end

of the day, [police] are not allowed to ignore an illegal act,” Tobin said. “So as long as marijuana is illegal according to the state of New York, police can’t ignore it.”

Tobin said local records show there were a total of 787 tickets issued for marijuana possession in the town and village of New Paltz from January 2014 to September 2017, and that all but 25 of those cases were

“adjourned in contemplation of dismissal.”

“Basically, it’s the judge saying, ‘Stay out of trouble for a certain period of time, and it will be wiped from your record,’” she explained.

Of the 787 tickets, Tobin said, 41 percent were issued by local police, 31 percent by state police, 24 percent by SUNY New Paltz campus police and 4 percent by the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office.