NY is going for Pot

Status Cuomo ordered a study on the legalization of marijuana and the impact that it would have on NY State.
Forgot a word there. Finances.
Seriously.  How much money would NY make if it legalized and taxed pot.
Secondly, how much would it save if pot were legalized. Savings as in court costs, prison costs, etc.
I'm sure somewhere in there is how much can NY make off of traffic tickets for driving under the influence.

The only way to change a capitalist's mind on an issue is to show him how much money he can make off of it.  Colorado, California, Washington, Oregon, and now Canada being the examples. Might as well jump on the boat early. 

And there's a face saving component for the Democrats here.  If pot is legalized,  it gives them a back door way to end the racist Stop & Frisk policy in NYC. Seriously. If NYC wanted to get drugs off of the street they'd go after white people. A study of Stop & Frisk statistics showed that whites carry more illegal drugs and more dangerous weapons than minorities.

Marijuana should never have been illegal in the first place.  It should have been regulated like alcohol and tobacco products.  Making it illegal was just another way for the state to oppress the poor.

With this legalization, supposedly pot related offenses will be dropped from peoples' records. Also people serving time for pot possession will be freed or have that time dropped from the sentence the state imposed upon them.  No mention of an indemnity paid by the state to the victims of this useless law that should never have been written.

And this is only a state law.  It does nothing to the federal statute against marijuana possession.  It just says that the state will not prosecute or persecute you for possession of small amounts.

The other side of the coin is that it will drive out of business the small producers that can not comply witht the laws that the stage will write. Production will  go to big businesses that can afford the fees & licences that will certainly be a part of this effort by Cuomo.  I will need to find the article I read on how when California made the changes to its law, that was the side effect. Small producers were crushed.

So, while this is an interesting turn of events for Cuomo,  I wonder what his real motivation is. He announced it during an election year, so I am suspect.

But as I said before, follow the money.