Social Entrepreneur, Speaker, Author, Triathlete
Are you waiting for the right time?
That might feels strategic and thoughtful, but it’s not.
It’s easy to land in a place where you’re always waiting … for the right moment, for things to be perfect, for everything to feel just right. It’s easy to convince yourself that you’re not ready and if you wait just a little longer than things will be easier.
Waiting rarely makes things easier.
Most of the time, waiting makes things harder and even less clear.
The right time is now.
Somewhere between the 1936 “Reefer Madness” film that demonized marijuana and today’s popular notion that weed is a solution to all our problems, economic, social and otherwise, lies reality. Now that state lawmakers have legalized possession, use and sale of the drug, advocates on both sides of the issue need to work together to ensure that Long Island reaps the benefits promised by pot proponents and avoids the pitfalls that worry skeptics.
Economics drove much of the debate in cash-strapped Albany and Governor Andrew Cuomo estimated that New York would enjoy $350 million annually in new marijuana tax revenues. That sounds like a lot of money, yet constitutes only .17% of the state’s $212 billion budget and nobody expects to see a dime for at least 12 months as regulators roll out the necessary infrastructure. There wasn’t much discussion about the costs; beyond the $35 million it will take to create a new Office of Cannabis Management, there will also be tax collection and administrative expenses, new law enforcement costs, reimbursement for data collection and reporting, and several required impact studies. How much money will be left over for public schools, for promised social justice grants and whether the monies designated in the new law for drug treatment and public health education is anyone’s guess.
Nobody, of course, expects New York’s cannabis program to lose money, but it’s entirely possible to wind up in the red if we don’t pro-actively address some potential big-ticket expenses with focused public health safety education now.
Traffic safety and impaired driving emerged as key concerns in the marijuana debate, and Long Islanders are especially vulnerable given our suburban reliance on cars and the fact that Suffolk County leads the state in highway fatalities, with Nassau close behind.
Car crashes are expensive, costing the US more than $242 billion annually, inclusive of lost productivity, medical costs, legal and court costs, emergency medical service costs, insurance costs, congestion costs, property damage, and workplace losses, with about $59.4 billion of those expenses stemming from alcohol-related collisions.
The bad news is that cops don’t have a breathalyzer to detect a driver’s level of marijuana impairment and consumer education is challenging because several factors influence intoxication onset, intensity, and duration, including the type of marijuana product consumed, how it’s ingested, its potency based on THC content, and user characteristics. Thankfully, car crashes are entirely preventable and the combined use of technology, tough laws and public education have successfully reduced DWI injuries and deaths. We need emergent technology to measure cannabis intoxication objectively, and a focused driver education campaign to promote highway safety so we don’t lose ground.
Drug treatment and social services aren’t nearly as expensive as car crashes, but they’re not cheap. Marijuana use accounts for most of New York’s adolescent substance abuse and mental health treatment admissions, figures prominently in many school suspensions, and child welfare cases have climbed in states that have launched recreational marijuana programs. Pediatric emergency department visits and poison control center calls have skyrocketed in other states post-legalization as toddlers have ingested their parents high-THC edibles.
A statewide public health campaign that educates the general public, including parents, consumers and retailers, on the potential health consequences associated with cannabis use, the importance of preventing youth access, the importance of safe storage and preventing exposure to second-hand smoke, information for pregnant or breastfeeding women and warnings about the overconsumption of edible cannabis products would make a significant difference.
Car crashes, pediatric poisonings, school expulsions and failures and family chaos all come with immense economic costs, but they also have immense human and social costs that can be averted. Let’s get a running head start now, before a single cannabis store opens in New York State.
While fired cop Derek Chauvin was convicted on charges for murdering George Floyd, several other shootings of unarmed black folks by cops has driven protestors back into the streets, and the systemic problems plaguing our nation’s criminal justice system are once again laid bare. A steady stream of police body cam footage and amateur videos has shed light on catastrophic contacts between police and civilians, especially those who are black or brown.
Changing the outcomes of those interactions requires multiple strategies and closer to home, Nassau and Suffolk counties recently submitted reform plans to New York State for building trust and increasing transparency in their police departments, pledging more inclusive recruitment, better training, and improved civilian complaint handling. Crafted with stakeholder input, the written plans were required by Governor Andrew Cuomo’s June 2020 executive order and tied to future state funding.
Another recent move by lawmakers in Albany – the legalization of recreational marijuana – has been hailed by pro-pot advocates as a strategy that will dramatically reduce the overall number of police contacts, thereby diminishing the possibility of violent encounters, advancing fairness in law enforcement and promoting social justice.
That would be good, because according to state data compiled by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), there were more than 900,000 marijuana arrests in New York between 2000 and 2018, 82% of which were among Blacks or Hispanics, despite similar rates of marijuana use among whites. About 47,000 of those arrests were on Long Island, where Blacks were seven times more likely to be arrested than whites.
Beyond the trauma that accompanies being placed in handcuffs and into a police car before being fingerprinted and photographed, low-level marijuana arrests create permanent criminal records that can be uncovered by employers, landlords, schools, credit agencies and banks. Getting a school loan, landing a decent job, maintaining a business or professional license, securing housing, and even adopting a child gets harder – for already disadvantaged populations.
Voting to make New York the 15th state to legalize weed, Democratic lawmakers touted the fact that 40% of the net tax revenues from pot sales will be earmarked for social equity purposes, that people convicted of marijuana-related offenses that are no longer illegal will have their records automatically expunged and that those with past convictions will be able to participate in the new legal market.
That’s more than other states have done and perhaps a more comprehensive approach will better reduce stubborn disparities.
Washington legalized marijuana in 2014 and a study five years later found that while overall marijuana arrests dropped markedly, relative disparities grew from a rate among African American 2.5 times that of Whites to a rate that jumped 5 times higher.
In Oregon, which legalized marijuana in 2015, an analysis found that cannabis allegations increased 28% among all youth, with rates highest for American Indian/Alaska Native and black youth. Pre-legalization rates for black youth were double that of whites, but the disparity fell after legalization. For American Indian/Alaska Native youth, rates were higher than whites before legalization, and this disparity remained unchanged.
Racial disparities also persist in Alaska, which legalized marijuana in 2015, in Washington DC where 90% of those arrested for marijuana offenses are Black and in Colorado where a 2016 study found that the marijuana arrest rate for African Americans is almost three times that of Whites.
That fewer people of all races across the US are being arrested for marijuana offenses saves precious public funds, allows police to focus on more serious crimes and increases the likelihood of successful futures for an entire generation of young people is a tremendous victory, but let’s be clear: marijuana legalization alone doesn’t eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system.
Lawmakers here in the Excelsior state aspired do it better. Signing the marijuana legalization legislation approved by both houses on March 31st, Governor Cuomo called it “a historic day for New York – one that rights the wrongs of the past.” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins echoed the sentiments, calling the move “a momentous first step in addressing the racial disparities caused by the war on drugs that has plagued our state for too long,” while Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said that passage of the bill “brings to an end, decades of disproportionately targeting people of color under state and federal drug laws.” Let’s hope they’re right.
Now that state lawmakers in Albany have legalized recreational marijuana, it’s time to ensure that public safety, public health and quality of life concerns are addressed as part of the rollout process. The stakes are high. If implementation is hurried or goes awry, the dreams of those who pushed for legal weed will go up in smoke and the worst fears of opponents will become reality. Then we all lose.
Here are some pro-active things lawmakers should do in the next 30 days to ensure that one of the
biggest policy changes in New York’s history is a success:
Finally, and most importantly, while all this is going on and whether or not you choose to get involved in these community conversations, please talk with your own kids and family members about marijuana and drug use in general. Just because it’s now legal doesn’t make it suddenly safe. As we navigate this policy change, we need to do a little more to keep our families and communities safe and healthy.
A version of this article first appeared in the Long Island Herald.