NY Senator Proposal: Provide transgender and non-binary people with cannabis justice benefits

By Nina Zdinjak

New York’s cannabis program continues to produce novelties, the most recent being a bill that would allow transgender and non-binary people to qualify as social justice applicants under the state’s cannabis law.

Senator Jeremy Cooney (D) introduced legislation to deal with an “unintended consequence” of the Recreational Marijuana Act that would otherwise “force certain individuals to choose between their gender identity and priority for a license,” reported Marijuana Moment.

Photo by Volodymyr Bondarenko / EyeEm / Getty Images

Under current New York cannabis law, women-owned companies and other marginalized groups affected by the war on drugs have licensing priority.

The problem now affects individuals who were born biologically female and then transformed, or who identify as non-binary. They would have to decide what to fill out on their application if they wanted to receive equity benefits.

“This bill will put transgender and gender-neutral people on the social and economic justice plan and give them priority in licensing … Every New Yorker deserves the right to express and identify their gender at will,” the law states.

“The social justice aspect of the [Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act] aims to raise historically marginalized groups through economic opportunities in the cannabis industry, and this bill encourages that effort, ”it said.

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The bill, submitted on Friday, was forwarded to the Senate’s Rules of Procedure committee for review.

The proposed bill comes about eight months after former Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a recreational marijuana bill, making New York the 15th state to legalize recreational cannabis. During that time, the state announced several policy changes and updates, one of the most important of which was the employee cannabis testing policy. In October, New York became the first state in the Union to ban employers from testing most employees for cannabis.

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Recently, the state cannabis board made it illegal to give marijuana away and banned delta-8 THC products while allowing the sale of hemp flowers.

This article originally appeared on Benzinga and was republished with permission.