That didn’t take long before somebody decided that a social equity approach to the NY Program wasn’t in the interest of the “industry”
Isn’t that the point !
So who is it who isn’t happy ?
The NY Post gleefully reports..
Sen. Diane Savino (D-Staten Island) called Hochul’s appointment of former state Assemblywoman Tremaine Wright “mystifying” during a hastily assembled confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee last week.
Savino, who helped draft New York’s medical marijuana law years ago, said Wright is an “accomplished lawyer” who has experience in advocating for “social equity” adding, “so this is not a reflection of you.”
But then Savino put it bluntly.
“I’m somewhat mystified as to why the governor decided to put in charge of the cannabis board a person who has no experience in cannabis,” she said while questioning Wright at what had been an otherwise friendly confirmation hearing.
“You have experience in a lot of things,” Savino added, “but I’m concerned you don’t have direct experience in cannabis itself.”
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature in March legalized recreational use and sale of marijuana — and now Wright is faced with the gargantuan task of setting up from scratch a legal weed industry from seed to sale, including drafting regulations.
Wright, a former Brooklyn assemblywoman and Democrat who most recently served as an executive with the state Department of Financial Services, said her small business experience included running a neighborhood coffee shop and serving on the local Brooklyn community board.
Despite her misgivings, Savino said she ultimately supported Wright’s nomination and vowed to work with her.
That sounds more like she can’t wait to turf out Wright and put in a cannabis industry insider who’ll chase the mighty dollar and make all the same mistakes that have been made in countless states around the country
Meanwhile, over at the NY Daily News they already know all the answers.
The smoke clears: How Gov. Hochul’s cannabis regulators should approach their new jobs
What Wright and Alexander will have to avoid as they put fairness first and get growing and selling up and running is becoming cheerleaders of a drug that still has the capacity to do serious harm when abused, especially the high-potency cannabis that’s increasingly available. (No, we’re not talking reefer madness; other negative health effects are real.)
The state agency “has the ability to regulate the concentration, serving size, types, and forms of cannabis products which may be manufactured or processed.” The pot-o-crats must be conservative.
In short, Alexander and Wright must behave more like the liquor or tobacco control authorities than craft beer or wine or tobacco enthusiasts. “Legalize it” is catchier than “regulate it,” but the latter is their job now.
Mortimer Zuckerman owner of the NY Daily News also funds THE ZUCKERMAN INSTITUTE at Colunbia University who publish articles with titles like
Early exposure to cannabis boosts young brains’ sensitivity to cocaine, rodent study finds
Cannabis use makes young brains more sensitive to the first exposure to cocaine, according to a new study on rodents led by scientists at Columbia University and the University of Cagliari in Italy. By monitoring the brains of both adolescent and adult rats after giving them synthetic psychoactive cannabinoids followed by cocaine, the research team identified key molecular and epigenetic changes that occurred in the brains of adolescents — but not adults. This discovery reveals a new interplay between the two drugs that had never previously been directly observed in biological detail.
Make of that what you will !
