Assemblyman Steve Katz Ticketed for Marijuana Possession

By Laura Nahmias

A Putnam County assemblyman received a ticket for marijuana possession Thursday after he was stopped for speeding on the New York State Thruway.

Assemblyman Steve Katz, a 59-year-old Republican who voted no last year on a bill to legalize medical marijuana, had been traveling 80 mph on I-87 through Coeymans, N.Y., where the speed limit is 65 mph, state police said. During the speeding stop, police said a trooper noted the odor of marijuana and found Mr. Katz in possession of a small bag.

State police released Mr. Katz with a ticket and ordered him to appear in court on March 28. He didn’t immediately return a call for comment.

This is not Mr. Katz’s first brush with the law. A veterinarian by training, he revealed last year that he had two prior arrests for illegally dumping the body of a dead dog and an alleged attack on a dog in his care. Both cases were ultimately dismissed.

In an interview last year with City and State newspaper, Mr. Katz said he agreed to dispose of a deceased German Shepherd as a favor to an elderly patient and dumped the  body only after the clinic that was supposed to receive it was locked. The corpse, he explained, had started to liquefy in his car.

“It was starting to ooze on my daughter’s Barbie doll collection,” he said.

The second arrest came after a Chihuahua he was treating at his veterinary clinic bit him and the dog fell to the floor when he tried to shake him off, Mr. Katz told the newspaper. The dog’s owners pressed charges, and Mr. Katz described the Chihuahua as “meaner than a dirt snake.”