“I will continue to push for a tax and regulate adult program with all the right safeguards and commitments to reinvestments in communities most harmed by decades of failed prohibition policies," said State Sen. Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat and the bill’s State Senate sponsor.

Lawmakers are working on what’s been come to be known in Albany as Plan B. It includes a more complete decriminalization of marijuana – compared with the existing statute approved in 1977 that still led to tens of thousands of low-level possessions arrests, especially in minority communities. Peoples-Stokes said she expects that bill to pass both houses before session ends in the next day or so.

Additionally, there is legislation to expand the state’s existing medical marijuana program to try to get more of the products into the hands of more patients – both to provide certain medicinal benefits and to try to help lower the expensive costs of treatments. It would also ease regulations that have kept many doctors and health care providers from applying to be a part of the prescription-writing program.