Marijuana laws across the country vary from state to state. Although under federal law it is illegal for anyone to manufacture, distribute, or possess cannabis for any purpose, twenty-one states and Washington, D.C. have made the plant available to eligible patients for medical purposes. Additionally, Colorado and Washington state have legalized the drug for recreational use. It is critical that New York adopt policies similar to Colorado's regarding marijuana to address ambiguous and discretionary legislation and ease the burden of enforcement. Drugs should be taxed and regulated during sale, and treated the same as alcohol in order to reallocate police resources where they are most needed. Marijuana law enforcement varies widely not only from state to state – to the extent that Oklahoma imposes life sentences on those who sell even the smallest quantities, while New York only imposes a fine for minor possession - the policy also fluctuates between individual police departments and individual officers at their own discretion. Enforcing current marijuana policy is burdening the NYPD, taking units away from fighting violent and heinous crimes and instead assigning them to arresting people for possession . Additionally, the current policy contains too many loopholes, giving officers the flexibility to escalate a misdemeanor into a more serious misdemeanor. New York is one of the most lenient states when it comes to marijuana policy. Currently, marijuana is decriminalized in New York and is not punishable by a fine. For a first offender, possession of up to 25 grams of marijuana is punishable by a fine of $100. If an additional offense occurs within three years of the first offense, possession...... middle of paper...... container violation, and driving while impaired by marijuana will be dealt with as severe as a conviction for drunk driving. an amendment would allow New York State to license cultivation facilities, testing facilities and retail stores. Local governments across the state would be able to decide for themselves whether they want these facilities and, if they choose to have them, how to regulate them. The taxation would be similar to that of alcohol or cigarettes, the tax would be set at a rate such that it would weaken the current selling price, in order to eliminate any incentive for the creation of a black market. A stipulation will be added to redirect funds from revenue collected to police departments to compensate for lost revenue from issuing marijuana citations, in order to maintain the current size of police departments so that resources can be efficiently allocated elsewhere..