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New York has lagged behind the majority of other states with fully comprehensive medical marijuana programs and legal recreational pot use. But the topic has finally come before the state assembly. Is New York about to legalize recreational marijuana? This morning, 26 people testified before a committee to discuss New York’s future in regards to recreational marijuana legalization. We sat through the entire hearing so you wouldn’t have to.
Here were the most pertinent and compelling testimonies:
Dr. Julie Holland, MD
Dr. Julie Holland has been a practicing psychiatrist for 25 years. Nine of which as the attending physician of the psychiatric emergency room at New York’s Bellevue Hospital. To begin her testimony in favor of legalization, she pointed out that all Americans consume drugs on a daily basis to change their consciousness. Drugs such as “caffeine, nicotine, anti-anxiety meds, antidepressants, sleeping pills, pain medications, alcohol and even sugar”. She likened the sugar cycle of crash and cravings to a “muted imitation” of a cocaine high.
Dr. Holland emphatically stressed that cigarettes and alcohol both kill Americans en masse, whereas cannabis is non-lethal. She pointed out while cannabis is detected in urinalysis, more dangerous synthetic cannabinoids such as Spice or K2 are not and are being consumed by active members of the military. Therefore, she says that “our current drug policy is irrational.”
She says that a broad legalization of cannabis in the state is necessary to combat substance abuse, especially in light of the opioid epidemic which affects the entire nation.
Kassandra Frederique
The State Director of the Drug Policy Alliance cited some alarming statistics. In 2016, the police arrested 23,000