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Still, Make Sure the Law Is on Your Side

It all depends on where you live.*


*Or If You’re in New York:
In July, Governor Cuomo signed a law making New York the 23rd state to legalize medical marijuana. But blazers beware: The law doesn’t allow New Yorkers to smoke marijuana. Instead, New Yorkers are left with vaping or consuming pot-infused products. The law also limits the number of dispensaries across the state to just 20, a lower per-capita dispensary-population ratio than any other state. In the city, meanwhile, Mayor de Blasio announced in November that anyone caught carrying (not smoking!) less than 25 grams of marijuana will get off with just a summons and a $100 fine for a first offense. The policy is actually the enforcement of a law that has been on the books since the 1970s but rarely followed. New York might be a better place to smoke than it used to be, but not all potheads here are treated equally. According to the NYCLU, African-Americans in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and a handful of upstate counties are about nine times more likely to be arrested for possessing marijuana than whites.


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