A report released by the NYCLU, Marijuana Arrest Crusade: Racial Bias and Police Policy in New York City, by sociologist Harry Levine and drug policy reform advocate Deborah Small outlines the marijuana arrest epidemic in New York City over the last 10 years. Some people would argue that marijuana arrests are actually a pandemic, which it is; but when looking at New York City's marijuana possession enforcement policies, the arrest phenomenon is particularly gross here (I live in nyc).

The report is replete with graphs highlighting this problem, and the NY Times and Village Voice (among others) wrote cogent pieces after the report was released.

I encourage everyone to read the report, which goes into great detail about the numbers and methods used by NYPD to bolster their arrest records by arresting people for marijuana possession. This clearly is a disgusting waste of resources for a state that has a $4.4 billion deficit (although regardless of the deficit, police resources shouldn't be expended on arresting people for marijuana possession in the first place). If this is the NYPD's attempt at "community policing," they are failing miserably.

It is important to note that marijuana was effectively decriminalized in NYS in the late 1970s. This meant that possession of marijuana up to 25 grams was not a criminal offense -- it was, and still remains, an infraction punishable by a $100 fine. However, those geniuses up in Albany still found a way to criminalize marijuana use. Although possession is not a crime, smoking marijuana in public or having marijuana visible in public is a B misdemeanor and an arrestable offense.

The policy to arrest people for marijuana possession instead of issuing a citation started with Giuliani (surprise, surprise). Coupled with the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy, the marijuana arrest policy provides easy pickin's for the NYPD to make simple and clean arrests that garner them overtime. The report made clear that a great majority of these arrests were NOT from smoking in public, but for showing marijuana in public view. However, from countless interviews with those arrested, it is clear that they had the marijuana on their person, and were either tricked into showing the police their stash (thereby making it in public view), or the cops just lied about them dropping it.

Some highlights from the report:

• From 1987 to 1996, there were 30,000 arrests for marijuana possession in NYC From
• 1997 to 2006, there were 353,000 arrests for marijuana possession in NYC - a more than 10-fold increase
  
• In 2007, 39,700 people were arrested for marijuana possession
  
• People of color were the majority arrested for marijuana possession:
• Blacks made up 52% of those arrests, even though they are 26% of nyc's population
• Latinos made up 31% of those arrested, although their population in nyc is 27%
• Whites made up 15% of those arrested, although they make up 36% of the population
• Blacks are 5 times as likely as Whites to be arrested for marijuana possession
• Latinos are 3 times as likely as Whites to be arrested for marijuana possession
  

Now, you may think, well, maybe Blacks and Latinos smoke more pot that whites and thus accounts for the racial disparity? But that isn't the case. The U.S. Department of Health's National Survey on Drug Use and Health highlights that Whites smoke pot at higher rates (proportionally) than Blacks and Latinos. It seems quite clear from this discrepancy that these arrests occur in communities of color, and acts as a mechanism to funnel thousands of young Black and Latino men into the criminal justice system where they are fingerprinted, photographed, and kept in containment for 24 to 72 hours, and then released.

The police play a role in enhancing public safety, but studies also suggest that these types of arrests do nothing to bring down crime. It seems, with these arrests costing taxpayers up to $90M a year, not to mention an uncalculated social and economic cost for those arrested, that communities of color and their relationships with the police would fare much better if cops simply followed the letter and the spirit of the law. Of course, that is easier said than done.