Opponents of the campaign to legalize marijuana blasted Gov. Cuomo’s decision to administer the drug to seriously ill patients in hospitals — saying Sunday it’s the first step to sanctioning recreational use.
Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, a Republican who is considering a challenge to Cuomo’s re-election bid, slammed the Democratic governor’s “back-door tactics” as “extremely disappointing.”
“Let’s be honest,” Astorino said, “Once this door is opened, increased drug abuse and a push for further drug liberalization will follow.
“With so many people out of work and fleeing our state, this is tops on the governor’s to-do list?”
State Democratic Party spokesman Peter Kauffmann shot back, “Rob Astorino is now a little hand puppet for Mike Long,’’ referring to the state Conservative Party chairman, who also opposes legal marijuana use.
Cuomo would allow 20 hospitals to prescribe weed to seriously ill patients. Re-activating his authority under a dormant 1980 law that legalized medical marijuana, the governor would direct the state Health Department to oversee the program and hospitals will set up review boards.
Cuomo’s move on the issue comes as support appears to be growing in the state Legislature to pass a more sweeping law legalizing medical marijuana, which would open marijuana dispensaries across the state and authorize the state to impose license fees and tax pot sales.
Recent polling shows that about three in four New Yorkers support legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes.
Virtually all the surrounding states on the East Coast from Maryland to Vermont have already approved the medical use of weed. Even Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a former federal prosecutor, is administering that state’s medical marijuana law that was approved by his predecessor, Jon Corzine.