Casey Seiler reports in the Albany Times Union that on Aug. 2 Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a working group convened to draft legislation to allow "a regulated adult-use marijuana program." Cuomo's state Health Department recently released a report that said the positive impacts of a regulated marijuana market in New York outweigh the negative impacts. "As we work to implement the report's recommendations through legislation, we must thoroughly consider all aspects of a regulated marijuana program, including its impact on public health, criminal justice and state revenue, and mitigate any potential risks associated with it," Cuomo said in a statement Aug. 2. Just a year ago Cuomo sounded skeptical about medical marijuana, but since then his primary opponent, Cynthia Nixon, has been full-throated about her support for legal recreational marijuana in the state. Cuomo's counsel Alphonso David is head of the working group, that also includes "academics (including David Holtgrave, dean of the University at Albany's School of Public Health), members of law enforcement (including former Albany Police Chief Brendan Cox and State Police Superintendent George P. Beach II) and commissioners state agencies including Health, Mental Health, Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services, Children and Family Services, the Department of Transportation, Taxation and Finance, and Agriculture & Markets." The panel also includes Cuomo's Budget Director Robert Mujica and Empire State Development Corp. chief Howard Zemsky. They could make proposals for the legislature when it returns in January after elections. Read the full story in the Albany Times Union.