Legal Marijuana? Not in New York

New York governor Andrew Cuomo wanted legal marijuana, at least in small quantities, in his state but resistance by the state's Republican politicians has blocked the bill. At least its blocked for now. The bill would have made it legal to possess small amounts of marijuana and was backed by Democrats, police and prosecutors throughout the state. The push for legalizing the drug came after thousands of New Yorkers took the streets in protest over how current marijuana laws are targeting minority groups.

Even though the current legislative session does not end until Thursday, the required waiting period for new laws means an agreement would have had to be reached by Monday evening. It seems that New York's Republicans are just fine with how the current marijuana laws target innocent minorities throughout the state.

Over the past year, police stop-and-frisks have been up over 600 percent since before Mayor Bloomberg took office. Of the nearly 700,000 people stopped, 88 percent were innocent. What looks even worse is that 87 percent of those stopped were either black or Latino. The overwhelming number of minorities stopped is concerning to anyone who sees it. Well anyone except the state's Republicans. Simply changing laws in favor of legal marijuana would easily change these statistics.

Join the Conversation	You are following this conversation | stop following follow this conversation by email