Governor Cuomo Announces [Limited] Medical Marijuana for New York

By:  Timothy P. Flynn

Later this week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is scheduled to announce, in his State-of-the-State address, an executive initiative allowing the limited use of medical marijuana under a set of narrow circumstances.  This is surprising given the Governor's opposition to medical marijuana and given New York's long-standing tough drug laws; some of the toughest in the nation.

The announcement is also surprising given the perennial attempt made by some of the assemblymen in Albany to pass a medical marijuana bill. While the pot bills seem to shoot through the Assembly, they die in the state senate due to the opposition from a staunch caucus of career anti-pot senators.

To get this accomplished, Governor Cuomo, in addition to his change of heart, is utilizing a little known but long-standing provision in his state's public health law.   The proviso, known as the Antonio G. Olivieri Controlled Substance Therapeutic Research Program, allows for the limited use of controlled substances such as marijuana to treat cancer glaucoma, and other diseases "approved by the [New York State Health] Commissioner."  With the Governor's sudden support, as many as 6 hospitals will be selected this year to administer the program and the administrative "red tape" will be dispatched with presumed executive enthusiasm.

For the record, Antonio Olivieri was a New York City councilman and state assemblyman who died at the relatively young age of 39 from a brain tumor.  He was an early proponent of the use of medical marijuana, using it himself to alleviate the effects of his chemotherapy treatments until his death in 1980.

Of course, this comes as big news in New York, with the initiative touted in an above-the-fold article in Sunday's NYT, which is where the simple minds over here at this law blog first heard of the  policy switch.  According to the NYT, Gotham issued nearly half a million pot-related misdemeanor tickets in the decade from 2002 through 2012.

Although this development represents a shift from Governor Cuomo's anti-medical marijuana stance, New York's law is very limited, with tight controls envisioned to prevent abuse.  And let's not forget that Cuomo is up for re-election in November in a state where, at least according to one college poll, 57% of the voters support legalization of medical marijuana.

When they get around to implementing this medical marijuana program, New York becomes the 21st state in addition to the District of Colombia to legalize medical marijuana.

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Convicted Chicago Cocaine Dealer Seeks Executive Clemency for Christmas

Drug lifer Jesse Webster

Last week, reading the Sunday NYT, I came across an article about Jesse Webster's plight in the federal penitentiary in Greenville, IL.  Webster's first and only conviction was handed down in 1996 for trafficking in cocaine.

Unfortunately for Webster, a former drug dealer from Chicago's South-Side, he caught his case back in '96 when the mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines were at their harshest.  Doubly unfortunate for Webster, his was a federal conviction rather than one under Illinois state law.

The thrust of the article was to illustrate the plight of non-violent drug dealers and their arguably "victimless" crimes.  Over the years, I've come across similar media coverage for Michigan's drug lifers [most of whom have been set free by now], and one case from Indiana where a convict was sentenced to life without parole on a marijuana manufacturing and delivery conviction; he was busted with over 100 pounds.

Dan Barry of the NYT profiled Webster, drawing comparisons to his prison buddy, Reynolds Wintersmith, Jr., a former crack cocaine dealer from Rockford, IL.  The two spent 16-years at the Ft. Leavenworth penitentiary in Kansas.

Like Wintersmith, Jesse Webster wrote to President Obama seeking executive clemency and a commutation of sentence.  Unlike Webster, however, Wintersmith's request was granted by Obama along with 8 other petitions for a commutation of sentence along with an additional 13 presidential pardons.

Webster's number has not yet come up.  The ACLU estimates there are about 2800 federal prisoners doing life sentences for "non-violent" drug offenses.  Of these convicts, the NYT suggests that there are dozens, if not hundreds, of first offenders or convicts with only a juvenile record before catching the "bullet".

These days, the federal sentencing guidelines have softened a bit when it comes to mandatory minimums in drug crimes, particularly after the passage in 2010 of the Fair Sentencing Act.  More recently, the DOJ signaled a significant shift away from harsh mandatory minimum sentences and announced an end to the so-called "war on drugs".

This shift, however, has not aided men like Webster who have been caught in the federal drug enforcement machine and are getting the life squeezed out of them one day at a time.

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