In 1977, New York State decriminalized possession of personal use amounts of marijuana. Nonetheless, researchers report that New York City is now the national leader in detaining individuals for possession of personal use amounts of marijuana.

Beginning with the advent of quality of life policing, the New York City Police Department dramatically increased the number of arrests for marijuana possession: from 1997 to 2006 the Department arrested over 353,000 people for misdemeanor possession of marijuana; in 2006 alone it arrested 33,000 people for possessing marijuana. The Department also commonly holds marijuana possession arrestees in detention for up to 24 hours pending arraignment.

Published research indicates that the marijuana possession arrests are not in central business districts, and that the police primarily make the arrests in Black and Hispanic neighborhoods.

Join the Committee on Drugs and the Law for a discussion of the costs and benefits of New York City’s marijuana possession arrest policy. This event is free and open to the public.

The event takes place tomorrow at the New York City Bar Association, 42 West 44th Street (between 5th & 6th Ave.) at 6:30 p.m.

Tags: New York, New York City

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 4:47 am and is filed under 4:20 NewsHour, ACTIVIST ALERT. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a trackback from your own site.