Today New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office made a major announcement: the Governor has appointed a “working group” under the direction of Chief Counsel Alphonso David that will draft legalization legislation. The working group will consist of:

David Holtgrave, PhD, Dean, School of Public Health, University at Albany

R. Lorraine Collins, PhD, Associate Dean for Research, University at Buffalo

Jeff Reynolds, PhD, CEO, Family and Children’s Association of Long Island

Brendan Cox, former Albany Police Chief

Angela H. Hawken, PhD, Professor of Public Policy, NYU Marron Institute of Urban Management

Natasha Schüll, PhD, Associate Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication, NYU Steinhardt

Tracie Gardner, Associate Director at the Legal Action Center

Dr. Chinazo Cunningham, MS, Professor, Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker

Budget Director Robert Mujica

Chief Diversity Officer for New York State Lourdes Zapata

Office of Mental Health Commissioner Dr. Ann Sullivan

Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services Commissioner Arlene González-Sánchez

Office of Children and Family Services Acting Commissioner Sheila Poole

Department of Transportation Acting Commissioner Paul Karas

New York State Police Superintendent George P. Beach II

Acting Commissioner of Taxation and Finance Nonie Manion

New York State Agriculture & Markets Commissioner Richard A. Ball

Empire State Development Corporation Commissioner Howard Zemsky

It is noteworthy that the Governor has stated that:

the workgroup will be tasked with engaging with the leadership of both the State Senate and the State Assembly, as well as bill sponsors of medical and regulated marijuana legislation (Senator Diane Savino, Assembly Member Richard Gottfried, Senator Liz Krueger and Assembly Member Crystal Peoples Stokes), advocates, and academic experts with experience from other states including Mark Kleiman, Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute of Urban Management, and Beau Kilmer, Senior Policy Researcher at the RAND Corporation.

It is also highly significant that the working group consists of no present members of the New York City government, possibly reflecting the arch-rivalry between Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. You’d think that the working group would include a representative of the government largest metropolitan area in the United States (and Canada) but no…. That could be already be a problem for implementation.

I recently wrote an analysis of the July 13 Department of Health report that, without expressly recommending legalization, recommended legalization. In my article I noted that the report is just a report to the Governor and not a statement of the Governor’s position, although it is highly unlikely – if not impossible – that the Governor did not review the report before it’s release. Now it’s the Governor’s position.

There’s a good chance there will be a legalization statute in New York by the end of June.

Assume an implementation date by June 30, 2020, if not January 2020.

The next question is whether the working group will be transparent. The Department of Health was prepared and issued in completely secrecy: to my knowledge there were no public hearings. The membership of the group that prepared the report has still not been disclosed.

It’s time to demand hearings that are open to the public at which public testimony is permitted.