On March 31st, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law the Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA) and, in doing so, New York joins 14 other states in which the recreational use of small amounts of cannabis has already been legalized. L. 2021, Ch. 92, eff. March 31, 2021. In changing existing marihuana laws, the legislature attempted to correct what it viewed as a wasteful use of law enforcement resources that disproportionately had an impact on the lives of minority communities.