Rockville Centre Coalition for Youth shares concerns about potential marijuana legalization

As Gov. Andrew Cuomo gathers input from state residents about a potential regulated marijuana program in New York, Rockville Centre community members and local doctors are highlighting the dangers of such an initiative.

“We’ve actually been expecting this, and we are advocating strongly against it,” said Ruthanne McCormack, project coordinator of the Rockville Centre Coalition for Youth. “People don’t realize that if they don’t speak up, their voices aren’t going to be heard.”

In 2014, New York joined the 30 states in the union that have legalized marijuana use for medicinal purposes, allowing doctors to prescribe it and its derivatives for ailments ranging from epilepsy and chronic pain to symptoms resulting from cancer treatment. Now, depending on November’s election results, the state could be inching toward legalizing the drug for recreational use.

Liz Boylan, a volunteer for the coalition and a member of the Rockville Centre School District’s Drug, Alcohol, and Violence Prevention Task Force for more than a decade, was scheduled to speak at a listening session hosted by Cuomo at Hofstra University on Thursday. She noted she would be sharing her views as a mother concerned for youth and was not officially representing the coalition or task force. The forum is the eighth of 15 scheduled around the state through mid-October.

In January, Cuomo commissioned a study led by the Department of Health to assess the effects of a regulated marijuana program, which would legalize the drug for recreational use. “I don’t see how anything that can alter one’s mind can be a recreational event that can be promoted by our government,” Boylan said.

The study, which examined the health, economic, public safety and criminal justice impacts of such a program, was presented to Cuomo in July. It found that the positive effects outweigh the potential negative effects, and that areas of concern can be mitigated through regulating public education that is tailored to address key populations.

After seeing the findings, the governor created a Regulated Marijuana Workgroup, which will use input from the listening sessions to draft legislation for an adult-use marijuana program for the State Legislature to consider in the upcoming session.

In March, the Rockville Centre Coalition for Youth released the findings of the State Youth Development Survey, which posed questions to more than 1,100 students in grades eight to 12 last year. Though it found that 71 percent of students think using marijuana is wrong, 49 percent of high school seniors said they had used marijuana at least once, and 21 percent of seniors said they had used the drug in the past 30 days.

“If it’s legalized, the youth will further think that it’s safe,” McCormack said.

It is legal to use marijuana recreationally in nine states: Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nev-ada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. Smart Approaches to Marijuana, an organization that offers a science-based approach to marijuana policy, released a study in March that showed that states that have legalized the drug are leading the nation in past-year marijuana use among every age group.

Among those states, Colorado, which limits possession and consumption of marijuana to those 21 and older, currently holds the lead for first-time marijuana use among youth aged 12 to 17, representing a 65 percent increase since legalization.

State Sen. Todd Kaminsky, a Democrat from Long Beach, said in an interview that he believed that passage of recreational marijuana-use legislation was likely, and that his focus was on how to en-sure that any new laws covered all bases when it comes to public safety.

“I understand that a large part of my district is interested in legalization,” Kaminsky said. “I think this is going to happen. I’m trying to get out in front, and what we must demand . . . is safety.”

Of chief concern, Kaminsky said, was to ensure that roads remain safe, and the need for additional funds for law enforcement training and technology to identify whether motorists are driving while high.

Additionally, he said, any legislation would need to prevent marijuana sellers from marketing to adolescents and teenagers. Finally, he added, public consumption of marijuana should be regulated much as alcohol is, with tickets and fines for smoking in public.

Andrea Connolly, chairwoman of the Rockville Centre Youth Council, said that the perception of many teenagers that marijuana does not have lingering effects is dangerous. If marijuana were legalized in New York, she added, such legislation must be presented by the state so that “the kids . . . truly understand why and what is behind it.”

Smoking marijuana is also easier to get away with nowadays, Connolly said, as many users are vaping the drug. The coalition has raised awareness of the harmful effects of electronic cigarettes over the past year, and paid for an anti-vaping billboard next to the John A. Anderson Recreation Center, which was displayed throughout the summer.

Stephen Hill, a former heroin addict, will be speaking at South Side High School on Nov. 27, McCormack said, noting that his first drug of choice as a teenager was marijuana.

Boylan said it doesn’t make sense that the state is devoting resources to fighting the opioid epidemic while also considering legalizing marijuana, which she called a gateway drug. “New York has always been the Empire State because it’s a great state,” she said. “. . . We will no longer be the Empire State with the legalization of pot.”

Peter Belfiore contributed to this story.