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Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday blasted Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s slow rollout of the state’s new pot law.
Hizzoner urged the governor to pick up the pace on completing the process of legalizing weed, telling him and state lawmakers to “wake up” and seal the deal.
“The state of New York needs to get in gear here,” de Blasio said during his daily press briefing.
“We had a big, long, multiyear discussion over legalizing cannabis. We saw the state legislature act, now the state needs to do something about it, [and] they still haven’t.”
“It’s time for the state to wake up and do its job on this really important issue,” de Blasio said.
“After all these years I can’t believe that the mayor still doesn’t know how state government works,” shot back Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi.
“We are ready to advance nominations but they need senate confirmation and Senate is not in session nor have they indicated when they would [be] returning so in the meantime we continue to work to implement this law.”
As The Post reported Sunday, Cuomo has yet to nominate an executive director for his new Office of Cannabis Management or name appointees to the Cannabis Control Board — despite the governor green-lighting the state’s cannabis legalization bill in March.
Due to the governor’s inaction, licenses can’t be issued to start the seed-to-sale weed market, stalling commercial pot sales in the state, critics say.
A rep for the governor on Sunday linked the pot issue to the state legislature’s failure to approve Cuomo’s proposed MTA leadership overhaul.
“We agree there’s a lot of unfinished business with the Senate, and we’re ready to submit our [weed-related] nominations, and we hope [legislators] reconvene and act on these and our MTA legislation and nominations,” Azzopardi previously said.
In response, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said, “I hope it’s not true,” adding, “Obviously, the Cannabis Control Board has nothing to do with the MTA.
“I hope we can work it out, but … I think that we have an opportunity to get this cannabis board up and running, and I believe that we need to do that so that we can at least make good on our legislation,” she said Monday evening on “Capital Tonight.”
Meanwhile, de Blasio said Tuesday that parents should “take responsibility” and not allow their children to get their hands on edible weed products when asked about a report on the uptick in children overdosing on pot-infused gummies and other cannabis-laced foods.
“If these are in your home, you’ve got to secure them. You can’t let them be anywhere near your kids,” he said.
He also had a warning for weed-product vendors.
“The labeling of these products needs to make clear they could be dangerous to children,” de Blasio said. “The packaging should be made to not look like candy or anything that might tempt a child.”
Dr. Mitchell Katz, head of NYC Health + Hospitals, said kids have recently ended up in city hospitals because of accidental edible-cannabis ingestions, and he recommended that parents keep the products in locked boxes.
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