An explosive Post exclusive revealing that legal weed is fueling a wave of addiction is fresh proof of Albany’s feckless legalization.
“It’s one of the stupidest things our society has done — they legalized cannabis during the opioid crisis,” grumbled Luke Nasta, president and CEO of Camelot Counseling of Staten Island.
Thing is, neither the Legislature’s leaders nor Gov. Andrew Cuomo (then eyeing a 2020 presidential run) cared about the risks, the clear downsides or even elementary practicality when they rammed through legalization in 2019.
They let social-justice obsessions write the new rules, then installed a clueless crew to run the new state Office of Cannabis Management.
As the OCM dithered over awarding the new licenses, illegal shops popped up all over the city and state — shielded from law enforcement by the new laws’ lunatic provisions.
So the outlets that had proven their ability by selling under the 2014 medical-marijuana law got crushed even as qualified new potential sellers couldn’t open for business.
Oh, and Albany didn’t even allow for common-sense limits on smoking dope in public, so the reek of weed is everywhere.
Worst of all, the politicians shut their ears to warnings about the impact of cannabis on young brains — a prime reason the Medical Society of New York opposed legalization.
So the state saw an explosion of flavored weed products and edibles, plainly aimed at hooking young people susceptible to addiction.
Any legalization risked bringing an avalanche of new addicts, but New York’s move might as well have been timed and designed to maximize the damage.
How mad does it get? Consider the nonprofit Housing Works, which runs drug-treatment services and a cannabis-dispensary arm.
It tells its pot customers they’re “helping fund lifesaving services that support thousands of New Yorkers each year” — except that its treatment centers on the addict-enabling “harm reduction” approach.
Prospering by feeding misery: That’s pretty much the essence of Albany’s approach to legalization.
