When New York legalized marijuana in late March, it did so in a way that instantly became the new gold standard for how best to legally regulate marijuana. No one deserves more credit for this victory than Melissa Moore, director of New York State advocacy efforts at the Drug Policy Alliance, who spearheaded the campaign over the past two years. Melissa explains how the advocacy effort and ultimate legislation were profoundly shaped by prior struggles over gross racial disparities in marijuana arrests. It breaks new ground in automatically expunging past marijuana convictions. It prevents the biggest marijuana companies from dominating the industry. And, perhaps most significantly, it integrates economic, social, and racial equity objectives into both the regulatory framework and the allocation of marijuana tax revenues. With this law, New York is also the first state to allow adults to smoke marijuana in public anywhere one can smoke a cigarette. Melissa and I caught up on how all these provisions became part of the historic law.

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