NY Gov. Cuomo Backs Pot Law Reform

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said this week that one of his top priorities for 2013 will be the further decriminalization of marijuana possession. Raw Story reports:

Even if the governor fails to convince the legislature to go along on decriminalization, marijuana arrests are already destined to begin falling dramatically thanks to a recent court decision barring so-called “stop and frisk” searches initiated without reasonable suspicion. Roughly half of the marijuana arrests in New York City were people who did not display the drug publicly but were ultimately charged as doing so thanks to a “stop and frisk” search, according to a survey by the civil rights group Bronx Defenders. In other words, most marijuana users aren’t flagrantly toking up in public, and a slight change of policy would dramatically affect how many of these people get arrested every year.

Via NORML, below are the current penalties for minor marijuana possession arrests in New York state.  Cuomo apparently wants to completely decriminalize the possession of less than 15 grams, which constitutes the vast majority of arrests.  It's unclear if Cuomo intends to attack the "public view" portion of the law.