Editorial: End this cannabis nonsense – Times Union

For those who produce or sell marijuana for medicinal or recreational use, it’s a surreal undertaking.

The new state budget included a change in state tax law to allow cannabis entrepreneurs to deduct business expenses from their revenue.

With the state now in the early development of a recreational marijuana growing, processing, distribution and sales program, the market is likely to soon explode.

This is likely to be all the more problematic in New York, which, in the name of social equity, plans to give first preference for retail licenses to people with either criminal records for marijuana offenses or relatives with such records.

What’s needed is a change in federal law, not just in policy that can whiplash from one presidential administration to the next, as happened over the past decade.

Lawmakers should consider a bill like the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, whose backers include Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., which would end the federal ban on cannabis and in turn allow marijuana businesses operating legally within their states to open bank accounts, obtain business loans and handle credit card transactions.

They represent the consensus of the editorial board, whose members are George Hearst, publisher; Casey Seiler, editor; Jay Jochnowitz, senior editor for opinion; and editorial writers Chris Churchill, Akum Norder and Tena Tyler.

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