Neither Donald Trump nor Joe Biden could claim a clear victory Tuesday night, but marijuana won resoundingly, as voters in four disparate states — Arizona, South Dakota, New Jersey and Montana — overwhelmingly approved measures to legalize the drug’s recreational use, and two states okayed marijuana’s use as medicine.
Those ballot victories mean the drug is now legal to use for recreational purposes in 15 states and Washington, D.C. — areas home to 109 million Americans, about a third of the U.S. population — and medical marijuana is allowed in 35 states, New York included.
The Empire State should now go the distance to full legalization.
Unfortunately, the Democrat-dominated Legislature and Gov. Cuomo have whiffed on approving recreational pot for two years running. Self-proclaimed progressives here should be embarrassed they now trail blue and red states alike in dismantling marijuana laws that disproportionately hurt Black and Hispanic people, who bear enforcement’s brunt despite using pot at rates similar to whites.
Cuomo recently waxed enthusiastic about legalization, musing how tax revenue from pot sales could mitigate the state’s $14.5 billion and growing budget deficit. Surely every penny helps, but it’s folly to think that cash would come close to closing the gap. In fact, as weed is legalized, some funds must be set aside for people and communities badly damaged by the war on drugs, as well as to prevent addiction and ensure robust regulation.
This is about basic justice, not dollars and cents.
Meantime, the feds must stop classifying a drug that is no more harmful than alcohol as a terribly addictive Schedule 1 narcotic with “no currently accepted medical use,” alongside heroin, LSD and methamphetamine.
As an American president once said: Turn the page.
