It might quickly be unlawful to smoke marijuana in public if some New York politicians have their method. New York Assemblyman Michael Novakhov and Senator Mario R. Mattera are co-sponsors of a brand new bill that may ban the general public use of hashish except an area authorities opts in to allow such public use. Because it presently stands, anyplace you possibly can smoke a cigarette, you possibly can smoke a joint. Regardless of what you see, smoking in public parks shouldn’t be permissible.
Senate Invoice S7604 was launched with the needs of prohibiting the general public use of hashish and if caught, the smoker would incur a $125 tremendous. Amongst different causes, the justification of the proposed invoice is to forestall kids from being uncovered to seeing hashish smoking at an early age or its scent. Apparently, the invoice cites the secondhand smoke nuisance and potential well being hazards of tobacco, however now seeks to distinguish the place smoking is permissible. It seems that the federal government remains to be okay with out of doors cigarette smoking close to kids, however not hashish; or no less than that the federal government goes after low-hanging fruit whereas hashish laws is in its infancy.
Briefly, this proposed invoice implies that previous to smoking in New York State, the smoker would wish to lookup every metropolis, city, village, or county’s particular laws and if public smoking is banned in that space – what a headache that may be. Furthermore, the sort of invoice simply screams ‘selective enforcement’ and do authorities authorities actually wish to waste vital police sources on fining folks $125 and asking them to maneuver their smoking a number of hundred ft into the subsequent city. Moreover, if smoking outdoor is being made unlawful, the place will people who smoke select to smoke with out concern of a tremendous? They don’t seem to be allowed to smoke indoors and presumably their leases would stop them from smoking of their residences.
This invoice is woefully insufficient and fails to deal with the myriad of points that it will current. Hopefully, when such a invoice is offered to the New York Senate and/or Meeting, there may be significant dialogue on the disparate impacts of such a invoice. If public well being and kids’s well being are such a priority, why restrict to marijuana and never the arguably extra objectionable scent and secondhand smoke issues of tobacco? Keep tuned to the Canna Law Blog for extra developments on New York‘s regulated hashish market.