Elections always bring a fair share of bills and new legal precedents to contend with. This election season was notably light on measures for the public to vote on in New York. Instead, the big news came from three separate states legalizing marijuana and two making same-sex marriage legal through popular vote. These historic shifts in attitude are likely to spread state to state as the years go by. For New York, where same-sex marriage is already legal, there might be some serious consideration given to the legalization, and subsequent taxation, of marijuana. This of course all depends on how the implementation in these testing states go.
While there is no clear move towards full legalization of marijuana in New York legislative history, over the past few years attitudes have changed and laws have moved along as well. Andrew Cuomo, as recently as June, has called for a complete decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana in public view. While the current concerns of local legislators is more focused on immediate concerns stemming from budgetary wrangling, post-hurricane cleanup, and implementation of new national healthcare laws, it is not hard to picture New York “going green” in the next few years.