It looks like Gov. Hochul is gearing up for a full-on war against tobacco.
As The Post reported this week, after trying to ban menthol cigarettes in New York, she now looks set to try to ban the sale of tobacco products outright.
You may be in favor of that, or you may not. But here is something I cannot understand: If the sale of tobacco products is to be made illegal, what are New Yorkers meant to mix with their recently legalized marijuana?
Thanks to the law signed two years ago it is now legal for anyone above the age of 21 to be in possession of 3 ounces of cannabis or 24 ounces of concentrated cannabis in New York State.
But this makes no sense. Why legalize pot and try to get rid of tobacco? Does Hochul want New Yorkers to just smoke the stuff straight? I’d love to know.
What a weird set of priorities.
Yet in some ways it is typical.
For the more you look at the Democrat’s vision of life in New York the more you understand the strange maze of contradictions that this city is becoming.
A “smoke shop” recently opened a couple of doors along from me.
As they have opened almost up on almost every single block in the city.
The result is that people loiter all day outside my building smoking pot, hanging around and often zonked out of their minds.
The smell wafts everywhere.
New Yorkers have got used to this, but tourists and other visitors are rarely impressed. When friends visit from out of town — particularly from anywhere outside of America — they are amazed at the new sights of New York, with the reek of marijuana everywhere and zombies rolling around on the pavements.
What is more amazing is that nothing that we were promised about legalization has actually happened.
Remember what Bill de Blasio said back in 2018 when extolling the virtues of legalizing pot? He said “We have a chance to create a brand new industry that will lift up everyday New Yorkers.”
Really? Most New Yorkers who have “benefited” from the law-change seem pretty despondent to me. And I’m not certain that the rest of us — or other businesses in the city — are really “lifted up” by this wonderful new industry.
Governor Cuomo promised us that the legalization of pot could create somewhere between 30,000 and 60,000 new jobs in the city, with up to $350 million each year in tax revenues. But I wonder how many people have lost their jobs due to the law change and how many people are making themselves unemployable because they spend all day stoned?
And that fabled money-spigot never happened either. Because contrary to what everybody said, legalization did not get rid of the illegal drug trade. In fact it increased it.
NYC Sheriff Anthony Miranda admitted that there are around 1,400 illegal pot shops in the city, and Forbes recently reported that the illicit drug market in the state is actually going to cost the state $2.6 billion in tax revenues over the next 7 years.
But at least there’s all that “social justice” that we got. Because remember that on the day Cuomo signed the bill into law he said that the first people “to reap the benefits” would be “marginalized communities.”
Well lucky them. That must mean that marginalized people are likely to exceed the 6% national average of teenagers and adults in this country who now suffer from cannabis use disorder. Just feel that freedom!
Even the media that acted as a supportive chorus to legalization now recognize that this might be a problem.
But who can forgive or forget the New York Times’ cheerleading of this great change for our city. “Legalizing marijuana, with a focus on social justice, unites 2020 Democrats” said the paper in March 2019.
Or consider the paper’s April 2021 piece, “Can New York’s marijuana legalization light up a new path?”
As it happens, everything we were told about legalization by the Dems and their media supporters turns out to have been wrong. The legalization did not get rid of the illegal drug trade. It increased it.
It did not make drugs safer. Evidence shows that it actually made dangerous, stronger drugs more widely available. And it didn’t bring the city a great cash bonanza — it cost us, not least with an unemployment and mental health time bomb. In short, it didn´t “lift the city up.” It just helped bring it crashing down.
So sure, go ahead and try to make cigarettes illegal in New York, Gov Hochul. But it gives me the impression that you must be making policies while smoking something stronger yourself.
Goodbye to Dame Edna
Barry Humphries died this week, aged 89.
He was probably the funniest man who ever drew breath.
His comic creations — not least Dame Edna Everage — brought laughter to millions for nearly seven decades.
Though originally from Australia, Barry first became a megastar in Britain.
It took America a little longer to catch onto him but when we did we didn’t let him go.
I remember when he brought Dame Edna’s “The Royal Tour” to Broadway in 1999.
New Yorkers couldn’t get enough of the sharp-tongued Dame.
It was the smash hit of the season.
He was so savage that one evening, as he mowed-down the front-rows of the audience, I actually slid off my seat and most of the way under the one in front.
Afterwards when the Dame returned to Melbourne she complained about us with her usual fake humility, “They sucked me dry those Americans. They gave me nothing except money and awards.”
He was equally cuttingly funny out of costume.
I once bumped into him in a restaurant and went over to catch up.
I told him I’d just been in Australia and so was sorry to have had to miss his latest show here. “Yes,” he replied, “we almost cancelled when we heard.” I miss him already.
