Brooklyn Pols Push For Decriminalization

Under the Bloomberg administration’s aggressive enforcement, New York has become the leading city when it comes to minor marijuana arrests. Yesterday a number of local politicians, including Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries and City Council Member Letitia James, spoke out against the policies for their disproportionate impact on young black and Latino men (86 percent of total arrests despite lower overall usage rates than young whites) and pushed for the passage of a new bill that would decriminalize the possession of up to 25 grams of pot. In addition to the racial inequity, the pols argue that there are better things to do with the $75 million the city spends arresting and processing more than half a million people a year. Even if you don’t get hauled off to jail if the cops catch you a joint, you could lose your kids though. (According to The Times, “[legal services] lawyers said they currently had more than a dozen cases on their dockets involving parents who had never faced neglect allegations and whose children were placed in foster care because of marijuana allegations.”) While neither is ideal, we suspect a drunk parent is more likely to do harm to a child than a stoned parent.
Council Members Call For End Of Racially Biased “Crusade” [Gothamist]
Brooklyn Pols Protest Marijuana Arrests [Brooklyn Politics]