The new Cuomo budget plan has also amended his 2019 proposal to provide additional ways for the new cannabis office to drive money to low-income communities, such as through priority marijuana distribution or sales licensing for people or companies from such areas.

The Cuomo administration believes it would take 18 months before any legal marijuana sales would occur in New York State, if the governor and lawmakers agree on a package this year. The governor’s new budget, however, banks on receiving $20 million in the coming fiscal year and $63 million the year after.

State budget officials said the revenues are expected as licensing fees from existing medical marijuana operators who would be permitted to join a broader, adult-use marketplace.

Besides revenue distribution concerns by lawmakers as an obstacle to Cuomo’s new effort, opponents to legalization are gearing up for another effort to halt the push. They include law enforcement, a trade group for doctors, an association of county health commissioners and the state PTA, among others. They say supporters have failed to take into account a whole series of public safety, health and societal harms that will come with legalization, not to mention a thriving illicit market that would lure people to marijuana with cheaper, untaxed products.