In January, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said legalizing recreational marijuana in New York was one of his priorities during his State of the State address. Cuomo cited how cannabis laws disproportionately affected communities of color as a reason to change New York’s legal code. It is true cannabis codes hit these communities hardest. Eighty percent of New Yorkers arrested for marijuana violations in 2016 were black or latino, despite cannabis use being common across demographics, according to the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA.) However, while the status of his plans remains unclear, as legalization was not included in the 2019 state budget, New York lawmakers must address how they will handle New Yorkers with legal records of marijuana offenses.
While it is rare for a society to embrace an activity it previously punished, marijuana is an uncommon situation. Despite the federal government outlawing cannabis use for over 80 years, surveys conducted in 2017 by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, found that 52.7% of respondents ages 18 to 25 had tried marijuana in their lifetime, and 34.9% used marijuana in the past year. The NIDA surveys show only 0.6% of Americans in the same age range used heroin in their lifetime, 3% had tried methamphetamine, 12% cocaine and 1.3% crack cocaine. Older Americans use marijuana as well, with the NIDA survey finding 47.5% of Americans over 25 years old tried it in their lifetime and 12.2% within the last year. Marijuana use is not like other drugs, as American adults use cannabis on a much larger scale, particularly while college-aged.
New York decriminalized simple possession of marijuana in 1977, where possession of small amounts of marijuana would carry a fine of $100 for first offenders rather than a criminal arrest and prison time. While New York’s decriminalization was a step in the right direction toward correcting the problem of a common act hitting certain communities hardest, public-view possession remained a misdemeanor and an arrestable offense. According to DPA, New York state is the cannabis-possession arrest capital of the world, with almost 800,000 arrests for small possessions of marijuana over the last two decades. Decriminalization that leads to 800,000 arrests comes across as a token effort. If New York intended to change how it handled marijuana, it failed.
These alone are excellent reasons to investigate how New York handles marijuana codes, but current New York laws leave college students particularly vulnerable. According to the website of Daniel A. McGuinness, a criminal defense lawyer practicing in New York City, state drug laws can have a big impact on student gateways to success because anyone convicted and incarcerated in the U.S. becomes ineligible or unlikely to receive government financial aid for college while in prison. However, drug offenses have additional hurdles, such as ineligibility for federal aid after release and requirements including rehab or passing drug tests. The first offense costs a student a year of ineligibility and eventually permanent ineligibility after the third offense. Losing a year or more during a four- or five-year college program can be devastating.
Offering American students financial aid with some stipulations is reasonable, but the problem lies with how New York handles marijuana. According to McGuinness’ website, marijuana possession in New York is not a crime but is still treated as a drug violation by the federal government and makes New York students ineligible. New York laws make this possible, so New York lawmakers are expected to fix it.
New York ostensibly treats marijuana possession as a fineable offense, but a traffic offense often carries a fine greater than $100 without potentially costing students the thousands of dollars they rely on to attend college. Losing financial aid for a year can mean students simply cannot attend college for that year, which could cripple their chances of finishing their degree.
Cuomo and New York lawmakers have taken steps to make college available to disadvantaged students, creating programs such as the Excelsior Scholarship. This scholarship offers free tuition to state colleges for students from lower-income families, provided the students adhere to certain academic requirements and stay in the state for a period after graduation. If lawmakers find merit in accessible college and providing paths to a degree, allowing that path to be shattered by something ostensibly non-criminal brings doubt to their dedication to New York students.
If New York lawmakers want to legalize marijuana statewide and increase access to college, they must address the New Yorkers who are facing consequences for something that would now be legal and acceptable. New York students are getting left behind. From clearing the records of New Yorkers carrying state drug charges to reducing another barrier to education facing New York students, state government can change that. Even if lawmakers cannot help New Yorkers in this situation already, their constituency deserves to hear how they can stop it from continuing.
