New York and Connecticut to kick off marijuana coordination

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Quick Fix

— Gov. Andrew Cuomo is partnering with Connecticut and other neighboring states to develop a regional approach to recreational marijuana legalization, an issue which he plans to push in 2020 State of the State Address.


— State Sen. Liz Krueger said she looks forward to working with Cuomo on marijuana legalization in 2020, saying that New York “must get the policy right.”

— State Sen. David Carlucci is pushing legislation to require e-cigarette markers to disclose the ingredients in their products before they are offered for sale in New York.

Policy and Politics

CUOMO TO BEGIN LEGAL MARIJUANA TALKS WITH CT NEXT MONTH — POLITICO’s Shannon Young: Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that New York will partner with neighboring states to develop a regional approach to marijuana legalization, an issue he plans to put before lawmakers again in 2020. Cuomo, who joined Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont for a news conference in Hartford, said the multi-state approach to marijuana seeks to bring uniformity to the current patchwork of regulations that exists particularly because of the “confusion” coming out of Washington. “The federal government is doing nothing, what can we do? And what can we do together? Because it makes no sense to pass one set of rules in New York, where they can drive across the border to Connecticut and have a different set of rules and vice versa,” he said. Stressing that New York and Connecticut “can do more together than by working alone,” Cuomo said the two states will convene a group of law enforcement, health officials and policymakers on Oct. 17 to develop guidelines and principles that will benefit both states’ efforts to advance cannabis legalization.

… Cuomo noted that the meeting will inform how he moves forward with New York’s efforts to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes — an issue that failed to move at the end of the 2019 session. “My goal is to have a proposal by January that I can make in my State of the State to my New York State Legislature, and hopefully we can come up with some common premises for the program,” he said.

— State Sen. Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat who has long pushed for recreational marijuana, said she looks “forward to working with the governor to get the job done next year." The senator, who is working with Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes to amend their “Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act,” added that New York should also catch up with its neighbors in Massachusetts, Vermont and Canada that have already legalized marijuana.

VAPE DISCLOSURE BILL — State Sen. David Carlucci (D-Clarkstown) announced legislation NY S6743 (19R) on Wednesday that would require e-cigarette markers to disclose the ingredients in their products to consumers and the state Department of Health before they are offered for sale. Carlucci said listing the ingredients on vape product packaging “is a necessary step in the wake of people dying and hundreds sickened by a mysterious lung illness linked to vaping.” “The State Health Department should be able to determine if these products are safe, and if not, prevent them from going to market. Consumers in turn, should know what they are putting in their bodies,” he said in a statement.

Odds and Ends

AMANDA IN ROCKLAND — Amanda will be home in Bergen County for the Jewish High Holidays on Sept. 30 and wants to grab a cup of coffee with you if you live or work in Rockland County. Email her to set up a time.

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STUDY THIS — Women who take birth control pills have a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to new research.

Around New York

BRACING FOR IMPACT — Vape shops across New York are scrambling after state health officials passed emergency regulations temporarily banning the sale of most flavored e-cigarette and e-liquid products, a policy which the state will begin enforcing next week, The Wall Street Journal reports.

OVERCROWDING — New York City is searching for more public cemetery space to accommodate its indigent-burial program, which is running out of room, The Wall Street Journal reports.

SUSPENDED — Syracuse.com reports that “the state has suspended a registered nurse for stealing more than 100 prescription painkillers and other drugs from a Syracuse nursing home.”

SHELTER EFFECT — A new study from New York City’s Independent Budget Office found that Manhattan homes located near homeless shelters lost as much as 17 percent of their value, The New York Post reports.

ACROSS THE RIVER — Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed a lucrative consulting contract with a pharmaceutical company less than a year after President Donald Trump’s bipartisan commission on opioids and addiction, which Christie chaired, recommended policy changes thedrugmaker sought.

MAKING ROUNDS — Chancellor Kristina Johnson announced Wednesday that Ricardo Azziz, SUNY’s head of academic health and hospital affairs, would leave at year's end to become CEO of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

Pharma Report

HIV PREVENTION — Reuters reports: “Fewer minority men who are at risk for HIV take a prevention pill or discuss it with their doctors, U.S. researchers say. Awareness of a pill for ‘preexposure prophylaxis,’ or PrEP, is high for all groups of men who have sex with men. But lower proportions of black and Hispanic men, compared with white men, have actually gotten prescriptions for the drug, which is 99 percent effective at preventing HIV transmission, the study team found.”

What We're Reading

BACKLASH HITS BOTTOM LINE — The CEO of Juul Labs, the market leader in e-cigarettes and vapes, stepped down amid a growing public health crisis and backlash to the industry’s marketing practices. Altria, a tobacco company that owns 35 percent of Juul, will replace Juul’s Kevin Burns with another executive from its c-suite, reports Jennifer Maloney for The Wall Street Journal.

… Altria’s plans to merge with Philip Morris International have been scuttled, according to Reuters. The companies will instead focus on the joint launch of tobacco-heating product iQOS in the United States. “After much deliberation, the companies have agreed to focus on launching iQOS in the U.S. as part of their mutual interest to achieve a smoke-free future,” Philip Morris CEO André Calantzopoulos said.

MAYBE GEORGE STRAIT WAS ON TO SOMETHING — A new climate change report from the UN isn’t a warning so much as it’s a promise. Some coastal cities will begin to experience annual flooding. Storms will worsen. Seas could rise by as much as three feet by the end of the century; much higher than estimates from earlier this decade. “As a result of excess greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the ocean today is higher, warmer, more acidic, less productive and holds less oxygen,” said Jane Lubchenco, a former administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, according to The Washington Post. “The conclusion is inescapable: The impacts of climate change on the ocean are well underway. Unless we take very serious action very soon, these impacts will get worse — much, much worse.”

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