ALBANY — A sobering reality settled over the state capital Wednesday as lawmakers admitted they won’t be legalizing marijuana any time soon.
State Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) issued a statement as elected officials spent their final day in Albany passing a flurry of other items, saying the legislature “came very close to crossing the finish line, but we ran out of time.”
The bill, which would have allowed marijuana to be legally grown, sold and used for recreational purposes, was recently tweaked to more closely resemble Gov. Cuomo’s own pot proposal in an effort to remedy some discrepancies over revenue, local opt-ins and expungement of past pot arrests.
An eleventh-hour push to re-spark the debate ahead of the end of session was bolstered by joint talks between the Senate, Assembly and the governor’s office in recent days, sources said over the weekend. But the chance of legal weed went up in smoke as the conversations burned out.
“Throughout months of negotiation and conversation with the governor’s office and my legislative colleagues, we made great strides to improve our bill and bring more people on board,” Krueger said. “I will continue to push for a tax-and-regulate adult-use program with all the right safeguards in place, one that centers on restorative justice and reinvestment in the communities most harmed by decades of failed prohibition policies.”
Focus shifted Wednesday to other weed-related bills that would decriminalize cannabis and expunge records for certain past marijuana criminal offenses, as well as expand the existing medical marijuana program and aid the growing hemp industry — but stop short of legalizing the sale of adult-use pot.
One bill would make possession of small amounts of marijuana punishable by small fines, and would classify them as violations, rather than crimes.
Gov. Cuomo gave the proposal an ounce of last minute assistance by offering a “message of necessity to expedite passage.”
“Communities of color have been disproportionately impacted by laws governing marijuana for far too long and it has to end,” the governor said.
Several Democrats in both the Senate and Assembly told the Daily News they’d be more comfortable passing a scaled-back bill and leaving legalization to a later date.
“It’s all of the good things without all of the drama,” one Democratic insider said.
Krueger said the Senate planned to discuss the bill later in the day, but the fate of the last-minute push to decriminalize seemed uncertain as lawmakers worked into the night on a host of other issues.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) made clear the decriminalization effort has the interest of his chamber.
“In Albany, you just don’t know how things are going to end up,” Heastie said Tuesday. “If we can’t come to an agreement on adult use, the very least we could do is make sure people who have suffered under these laws, (that) their records are expunged and they can take the stain off of their lives and can get housing and jobs and things like that.”