New York lawmakers on Sunday appeared to be fired up for a pot party — with a new bill to legalize marijuana set to be introduced in the state Senate.
The legislation will be similar to a proposal floated by Gov. Andrew Cuomo earlier this year, sources said.
Details weren’t available, but the timing of the move — three days before Wednesday’s scheduled end of the legislative session — suggested that the Senate’s leadership believed a deal was likely.
One well-connected pot proponent put the odds of passage at 60-40. “It’s more likely it gets done than not, but there’s no guarantee,” the source said.
“They’re operating on a clock and every minute matters when they’re trying to negotiate details with members.”
Pro-pot testers tried to put the heat on Cuomo during a rally outside his Midtown Manhattan office earlier in the day.
“We are here in support of legislators who have had our back all this time to support marijuana justice,” said Saki Fenderson, who runs a Brooklyn store that sells cannabis-related goods.
“Marijuana justice is equity. Marijuana justice is criminal justice. Marijuana justice is repair and investment into our communities.”
Meanwhile, it also appeared that Senate Democrats had found the votes to pass a law that would allow illegal immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses — without the support of most of the Long Island delegation, sources told The Post.
However, legislative sources said the talks were complicated by Gov. Cuomo’s comments Friday, when he suggested that such a program could make it easier for the feds to round up illegal immigrants.
“You may inadvertently be creating a database that the federal government could wind up taking,” Cuomo told Albany’s WAMC radio.
On Sunday, senior Cuomo adviser Rich Azzopardi would only say, “We are making progress on all issues.”
Senate Democratic spokesman Mike Murphy was similarly circumspect, saying, “The talks between the two houses continue on all big issues.”
