Answer: 

NEW YORK HISTORY OF PROHIBITION

            1927 – Narcotic Drug Control Law of 1927 – Act to amend the Public Health law to remove habit forming drugs and assert control over narcotic drugs. Laws of 1927, Ch. 672

-Amends Article XXII of Public Health Law and creates provisions regarding ‘habit forming drugs'

-Sect. 425(1) – exempting “medical preparations made with cannabis sativa and cannabis indica when combined with other ingredients in medicinal doses”

            1933 – Uniform Narcotic Control Law of 1933 – Laws 1933, Ch. 684

-Repeals Article XXII of the Public Health Law and the medical marijuana exception

            1937 – Amendments to Redefine Cannabis – Laws of 1937, Ch. 413

                        -“To aid in the prosecution of violations of the law…” related to use of cannabis

            1939 –– Laws 1939, Ch. 131

-In response to the federal Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 (Public Law 75-238, 50 Statutes at Large 551). Repealed Ch. 430 of the Uniform Narcotic Drug Control Act of 1933 related to the orders and records of cannabis.

- Prohibition of possession and sale of cannabis

            1943 – Laws of 1943, Ch. 123

-amended Penal Law 1753 to include misdemeanor for cultivating unlicensed cannabis or not destroying a crop once discovered on property.

            1951 – Laws of 1951, Ch. 539, 530 and 1956 – Laws of 1956, Ch. 526

Increase the severity of penalties for cannabis use, possession and cultivation to mirror federal law.

            1973 – Rockefeller Drug Laws – Laws of 1973, Ch. 276, 277, 278, 676

-4 bills amend the Penal Law, Criminal Procedure Law, Corrections Law, and Mental Health Law.

-draconian sentences for even modest cannabis possession

            -mandatory minimums sentences based on weight of cannabis