Bill Further Decriminalizing Pot Signed By NY Governor

NEW YORK — Criminal penalties for carrying a joint in New York will soon go up in smoke with a bill Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed Monday to further decriminalize marijuana.

The state Legislature passed the measure last month after failing to fully legalize the drug despite strong public support for doing so.

The law, which will take effect in 30 days, makes possession of up to two ounces of cannabis a violation that comes with a fine instead of a misdemeanor that carries possible jail time. It also establishes a process for New Yorkers with certain pot convictions to have those records expunged.

Lawmakers cast the changes as a way to assuage the toll that marijuana criminalization has taken on black and Latino New Yorkers, who have faced disproportionate enforcement of the laws despite research showing that different ethnic groups use the drug at similar rates.

"Communities of color have been disproportionately impacted by laws governing marijuana for far too long, and today we are ending this injustice once and for all," Cuomo, a Democrat, said in a statement.

Under the new law, possession of up to an once of marijuana will be a violation that can come with a $50 fine, down from the current penalty of $100.

The offense of holding one to two ounces of pot will be downgraded from a misdemeanor to a violation with a possible penalty of $200. Violations are less serious infractions that are not considered crimes under state law.

The law also gets rid of languge defining smoking pot in public as a misdemeanor, meaning New Yorkers won't be charged with a more serious offense just for lighting up.

The measure also sets up a process for the state to expunge old low-level marijuana convictions. That means the raps would be cleared from New Yorkers' records altogether, and possibly destroyed, rather than just sealed from public view.

The provision is expected to get rid of more than 202,000 convictions for unlawful and criminal possession of marijuana, leaving 24,409 New Yorkers without any criminal record at all, THE CITY has reported.

The state reportedly still has to work out the details of how to clear those records. But legislators called the new provisions an important step toward righting the wrongs of past laws.

"Decriminalizing marijuana and expunging records for those with low level offenses will go a long way towards helping our communities, and especially people of color, who have been devastated by them," state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Bronx Democrat, said in a statement. "By removing the barriers and stigma that come with these records, we clear the path for many New Yorkers to find a job, housing and go on to live successful and productive lives."

But the law will not address the "collateral consequences" of marijuana's continued illegality, said Emma Goodman, a staff attorney with the Special Litigation Unit of the Legal Aid Society's Criminal Defense Practice.

New Yorkers will still face parole or probation violations, possible immigration enforcement or intervention from child protective agencies for basic pot possession, Goodman said.

"While in some regards this legislation is a step forward — including its automatic expungement of low-level marijuana charges — it still fails to address the radically disparate enforcement of marijuana possession laws or any of the collateral consequences created by marijuana prohibition that almost exclusively affect black and Latinx communities," Goodman said in a statement.