Hoping to legalize adult-use cannabis, New York gov plans visits to rec states

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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he will visit several markets that have legalized recreational marijuana in an effort to help develop a plan to get similar legislation passed in his state.

“I’m going to visit Massachusetts, Illinois and California or Colorado,” Cuomo told Watertown TV station WWYN.

New York is such an important market that if it legalized recreational cannabis, other nearby states likely would quickly follow suit.

The Democratic governor and his team plan to visit the states to learn what’s worked regarding legalizing recreational marijuana as well as what didn’t go as planned, areas “where governments usually get into trouble,” he told WWYN.

Cuomo said in his State of the State address in January that legalizing adult use is one of his budget priorities in 2020.

He’s so determined that he met with the governors of three other Northeast states last October in an attempt to develop a regional strategy.