All Over Albany

Marijuana: Justice, Equity, Reinvestment at Albany Capital Center

A conference called Marijuana: Justice, Equity, Reinvestment will be at the Albany Capital Center December 11 and 12. It's backed by the New York office of the Drug Policy Alliance. Conference blurbage:

Creating a system to tax and regulate marijuana use by adults over the age of 21 is a sound economic investment for the state of New York. In the states with existing regulated markets, previously static economies have experienced a new small business boom coupled with technological advances that benefit a variety of industries. Additionally, legalization presents an opportunity for New York's agrarian community to foster the development of a new crop that is sustainable, resilient, and widely consumed. Similar to the rise of New York's craft wine and beer industries, a regulated marijuana market could also provide opportunities for small businesses in small towns across the state to cultivate a business model that is not reliant on access to large amounts of capital but is instead dependent on local resources as well as their own ingenuity and creativity.

The state of New York is well positioned to make a significant impact on the developmental trajectory of the nascent legal industry in a way that strongly favors diversity and inclusion. The history of marijuana prohibition in New York and lessons learned from other states have produced a wealth of information that can be used to preemptively address potential barriers to progress as the state transitions away from the failed experiment of prohibition.

That link above includes the conference schedule. The lineup includes all sorts of speakers: elected officials, advocates, academics, business owners, doctors.

It's free to attend, but registration is required.

Race, Gender, and Legalization in New York
Related to the conference: That Tuesday evening there will be conversation at The Linda -- "Race, Gender, and Legalization in New York" -- featuring Wanda James, the first African-American woman to own a dispensary in Colorado/advocate for legalization and decriminalization, and Mary Pryor, an advocate for an inclusive cannabis industry. It's at 7 pm and free, though registration is required.

Increasingly it looks like New York State is headed, eventually, toward recreational marijuana legalization. A majority of the public appears to be open to the idea, and the state Department of Health released a report this year that argues the case for it. And Democrats will control both chambers of the state legislature in the next session, which also probably makes legalization more likely.

Albany County
Just last month Albany County DA David Soares announced that his office will, starting this month, no longer be prosecuting people for possessing small amounts of pot. (The new policy does not cover cases in which people are openly using pot in public or in a car, or near children.)

The DA's office has a community meeting about marijuana laws and prosecutions December 12 at 6 pm at the Albany Public Library's Washington Ave Branch.

Earlier
+ New York's moving closer to marijuana legalization -- thinking about what could that mean for local communities
+ Scanning that New York State Department of Health report that argues the case for legalizing recreational marijuana