New York City was the first major city to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana possession. What could have been a proud history of progressive and rational cannabis laws has become a history of racism, leading to New York City becoming the world capital of marijuana arrests, with the most people going to jail over small amounts of cannabis.

The stop-and-frisk practices that often leads to marijuana arrests and are done disproportionally and routinely on blacks and Hispanics in the city. Police ask citizens during these encounters to empty their pockets, then arrest them, not for having the marijuana, but having it in plain view. Citizens became outraged about the practice, and started protesting the mayor’s house and the police department this summer.

In September, a memorandum from the police commissioner reminded NYC police officers to follow the letter of the law in marijuana cases and only make arrests if they have it in plain view. The highlight on the policy, coupled with the memo has led to arrest rates for small amounts of cannabis to drop significantly. But now that the data is in for 2011, we see that New York City actually increased their arrests for low-level marijuana possession last year.

The number of low-level marijuana criminals has now risen for the seventh straight year. The year-end arrest total for cannabis possession in the city was 50,684, up just a half a percentage point from 2010, but still more arrests than the arrest total from the entire 19 year period from 1978 to 1996. Even with the decline after Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly’s memo, there was an increase of 6 percent in marijuana arrests during the first eight months of the year, offsetting that decline.

Once again, marijuana arrests were the largest arrest category in New York City, costing the city about $75 million to pursue those arrested in the already-overburdened New York court system. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has faced criticism because the arrests of marijuana criminals under his watch have been a staggering 87 percent black or Hispanic, and only 10 percent of those arrested for marijuana crimes have been white, even though US government studies consistently find that white people’s marijuana use rates are higher than those of minorities. There is a bill in the Senate currently that would lower decriminalize a small step more, by lowering the charge for a small amount of marijuana that is in public view to a violation, punishable only by a fine.

External Links:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/low-level-marijuana-arrests-rise-for-seventh-straight-year/

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The Village Voice has an amazing piece up about New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s new “Young Men’s Initiative”.  As Bloomberg finishes his term, this $127 million program will, according to the report, address some of the depressing statistics found among the Big Apple’s young black males:

In New York City, young men of color are suspended, designated to special education, arrested and incarcerated at significantly higher rates than any other group. The barriers to obtain work and housing because of criminal records make it extremely difficult to re-enter into society and can limit young men of color to a cycle of instability and illegal employment.

Gee, what could be leading to all those arrests and incarceration of young black males in New York City?  As we’ve reported numerous times, it is that New York City is the marijuana arrest capital of the world, with over 50,000 arrests for possession alone.  Village Voice notes this as well:

Consider that, according to a study by Professor Harry Levine of Queens College, Giuliani “only” averaged arresting 24,487 people a year for marijuana. By 2008, Bloomberg was averaging 36,069 pot arrests annually.

In 2010, according to the Drug Policy Alliance, he arrested 50,383 people—”more than capacity seating in Yankee Stadium.”

In 2011, he’s on track to arrest more than 60,000 by year’s end.

There are more white folks in NYC and they use marijuana more often than Hispanics and Blacks. You wouldn't know that by these arrest statistics.

New York is a “decriminalization state” where possession of personal amounts of marijuana is a non-arrestable, ticketable offense.  But New York City police are trained to tell young black men “if you show me what you’re holding it will go easier on you”, leading the possessor to take out their bag o’ weed.  That is a different crime, “use or possession of marijuana in public view”, a misdemeanor which gives the cops the latitude to cuff and stuff the possessor and send them to an overnight stay in a jail cell.  Or the cops forgo the part about asking and just stop-and-frisk young men and take the marijuana right out of their pockets.

However, when you look at the 24-page report, you will not find the words “drugs”, “marijuana”, or “stop-and-frisk”, the very reasons so many of these young men of color are getting the criminal records that force them into second-class citizenship.  Apparently, the goal is to help these young men after they get their “drug criminal” status.  While the report recommends that the city government should “Connect more young men of color to employment by reducing the barriers they may experience in obtaining work”, it also suggests we “Reform the juvenile and criminal justice systems so that our interventions produce young people prepared for second chances and not to return to jail”.  In other words, let’s continue to keep disproportionately busting the young men of color for weed, but let’s ease up on not hiring them for the minimum wage jobs.

This is nothing more than Bloomberg trying to, ahem, whitewash his miserable legacy as the greatest jailer of young blacks and Latinos in the world.

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We’ve reported many times on the racial disparity of marijuana arrests in New York City, which leads the world in annual marijuana arrests for major cities.  It’s one of the cruelest twists of criminal code that ensnares 40,000 – 50,000 mostly-black-and-Latino young people: marijuana possession is decriminalized (only a ticket) in New York, but an arrestable misdemeanor in to possess marijuana in public view, which cops create by intimidating or forcing suspects into showing their marijuana.

All people smoke pot in New York City at about the same rates, but blacks are 7x and Latinos 4x more likely to be arrested for it

Now a prominent group of New York city council members are demanding an end to the practice on the steps of City Hall.

(NY Times) Criticizing the Bloomberg administration’s aggressive pursuit of marijuana possession arrests as “racially biased” and costly, a group of City Council members gathered in front of City Hall on Wednesday to introduce aresolution aimed at curbing the practice.

The Council resolution, co-sponsored by Melissa Mark-Viverito and G. Oliver Koppell, expresses support for an effort among some state lawmakers to close that legal loophole by reclassifying the public display of small amounts of marijuana as a violation.

Since 2002, more than 350,000 people have been arrested in New York City for having small amounts of marijuana. The Bloomberg administration has defended the policy, saying that marijuana arrests are an important tool in fighting drug markets and violence, and that changing the law would encourage public smoking. A spokesman said the Bloomberg administration had no comment on the resolution.

Nearly 90 percent of those arrested in the city on charges of personal possession of marijuana are black or Latino, a fact that was repeatedly mentioned at Wednesday’s news conference.

The racial disparity in the War on Drugs has brought the NAACP around to calling for an end to this policy.  Let’s just hope the solution isn’t that we just racially-balance the arrests for marijuana among whites, blacks, and Latinos, but that we end arrests for marijuana, period.

It’s been a while since I’ve updated you on the development of our NORML Affiliate network.  We are striving to place a NORML Affiliate in every US state (as well as a national affiliate in every country… but first things first…)

Today we welcome West Virginia NORML as our newest state affiliate.  Drew Stromberg, a graduate of NORML/SSDP at West Virginia State, has teamed up with David Dawson, a NORML Legal Committee attorney to form our first affiliate in West Virginia.  You can contact them at daviddawsonlaw ‘at’ gmail.com.

We also welcome back a chapter in the southernmost reaches of California.  San Diego County NORML has been formed by attorney Michael Cindrich and activist Craig Beresh.  We are thrilled to welcome back Beresh, who was a part of our attempts to form a San Diego chapter two years ago.  Since then, he has been instrumental in activism in San Diego, leading successful initiative campaigns and garnering significant media coverage.  Contact them at mike ‘at’ michaelcindrich.com.

These two orgs join NY Capital Region NORML and SE Wisconsin NORML as our new 3rd Qtr 2011 affiliates and chapters.  If you’re interested in forming a NORML chapter near you, just send an email to start ‘at’ norml.org and visit norml.org/chapters for more information.

(Drug Policy Alliance) New York – Yesterday, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law bipartisan legislation that seeks to reduce the number of preventable deaths resulting from accidental drug or alcohol overdoses. The bipartisan legislation makes New York the largest state in the country to take aggressive action to curb accidental overdose fatalities by removing barriers to accessing emergency health services.

A national overdose crisis has emerged in recent years as the number of deaths from both illegal and legal drugs has skyrocketed. New York is among the many states where drug overdose fatalities are the number one accidental death, surpassing even motor vehicle deaths. Tragically, most of these deaths are preventable. Although studies indicate that most people overdose in the presence of others, most people do not call for emergency services.

Numerous studies have show that the number one reason that people don’t call 911 in an overdose situation is fear of arrest and criminal prosecution for drug possession. To encourage people to seek emergency health services in the event of an accidental overdose,  New York’s 911 Good Samaritan law provides limited protections from charge and prosecution for possession of small amounts of drugs. Those who sell drugs are not protected under the new law.

Of course I’m happy about this law, but isn’t it a bit strange?  We have a law that says if you have small personal amounts of drugs we need to arrest and imprison you so you don’t overdose.  However, if your friend has drugs and overdoses on them, we won’t arrest you for small personal amounts of drugs if you call 911 to help him.  Well, gee, if the first law was having any effect on preventing overdoses, we wouldn’t need the second law to provide an exception, would we?

How about we just don’t have arrests and imprisonment for small personal amounts of drugs even if nobody nearby is dying from them?  That way, anyone possessing drugs at any time could call 911 for any emergency, not just overdoses.  The advocates behind this law point out how people don’t call 911 during overdose for fear of arrest, so wouldn’t that also apply to calling 911 during a domestic assault, robbery, or non-overdose-related medical emergency?  It’s nice that the overdose victim will now get emergency response but how many other crime victims won’t because a drug-possessing witness won’t call 911?  Where’s their “Good Samaritan Law”?

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