Regulating Marijuana: What New York Can Learn from Other States

Listen on iTunes here, or stream it on the web here.

In defense of American federalism, Justice Brandeis once touted the states as laboratories for social experimentation. With Colorado and Washington legalizing marijuana in 2012, and others following or poised to follow their example, legal professionals, policymakers, and businesspeople are now tasked with the challenge of reconciling overlapping and often contradictory laws.

In this forum on May 21, 2015, we explored this emerging, tangled legal terrain. Along with focusing on the effect of inconsistencies between federal, state, and local cannabis law, we will ask whether states and municipalities can influence higher levels of government and, if so, how. Over the last two decades, numerous local governments, including Oakland, Denver, Montclair NJ, and the District of Columbia, have been experimenting with cannabis legalization policies to widely varying degrees. Are they outliers, or do they illustrate the catalytic role cities play in the federal laboratory? Join the Committee on Drugs & the Law and the New York City Affairs Committee to learn from those who have addressed these questions firsthand.

Speakers:
Hon. Liz Krueger New York State Senate, 28th District
Hon. Mark Levine New York City Council, 7th District
Malik Burnett M.D., Policy Manager, Drug Policy Alliance,
Washington, D.C.
William J. Caruso, Of Counsel, Archer & Greiner P.C.;
Steering Committee member, New Jersey United for
Marijuana Reform; former Executive Director, New Jersey
Assembly Majority Office
Robert Raich, Cannabis Attorney, Oakland, California
Rachelle Yeung, Government Affairs Manager at Vicente
Sederberg LLC, Washington, D.C. (formerly Denver,
Colorado office)

Moderator:
Eric Sterling President, Criminal Justice Policy Foundation

Sponsoring Association Committees:
Committee on Drugs & the Law Heather J. Haase, Chair
New York City Affairs Committee Cathleen A. Clements, Chair