Pubdate: Tue, 15 Dec 2015
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2015 The New York Times Company
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Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Sarah Maslin Nir

SMOKERS GET BOLDER IN A NEW ERA FOR MARIJUANA

It wafts down the pavement, an unmistakable odor more Haight-Ashbury 
than New York - the tang of marijuana smoke in the city's streets. If 
the smell (and the lightheadedness a passer-by may feel) is anything 
to judge by, lighting up and strolling around seems increasingly 
common in pockets of Brooklyn, on side streets in Manhattan and in 
other public spaces.

Street smokers say they are emboldened by laws that have legalized 
the recreational use of marijuana in other parts of the country and 
by the relatively low-key comments by New York's leaders, including 
the police commissioner, about the drug.

Interviews with people who said they had smoked marijuana in public 
yielded a general sentiment that they felt much more secure doing so 
today than they would have not long ago.

Still, in New York, smoking marijuana in public remains an arresting 
offense, though the policy for possessing, but not lighting, a small 
amount of marijuana has changed with officers issuing summonses 
instead of making arrests. Some people say the scent is merely 
another whiff of gentrification as outsiders from places with less 
prudish approaches to marijuana colonize hip neighborhoods and import 
their own social mores.

As he walked with his cousin past Gramercy Park in Manhattan on a 
recent afternoon, John Jay, 25, inhaled deeply from a rolled paper 
joint and explained how attitudes had shifted. "Even in high school, 
you would kind of look left and right - 'Are you good to roll?' " he 
said. " 'Are you O.K. to spark?' We'd find a spot to hide."

Now, Mr. Jay, who works in catering, said he smoked in public with a 
sense of impunity. "Here in New York City, because we know it's legal 
in other states, we kind of have that feeling the legalization of 
marijuana is spreading across the nation, and it's going to come 
regardless," he said.

Recreational use of marijuana has been legalized in Alaska, Colorado, 
Oregon, Washington State and Washington, D.C. In New York State, the 
use of marijuana for certain medical conditions was made legal last 
year, though dispensaries have not yet opened. In New York City last 
year, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner William J. Bratton 
announced that the police would no longer arrest people possessing 25 
grams of marijuana or less and would use their discretion in issuing 
a ticket for the offense.

During a news conference in October, Mr. Bratton spoke about how he 
had run into a young woman smoking marijuana in the financial 
district while on his way to a morning appointment and had let her 
off with a warning. "All of a sudden, there it is, that smell," he 
told reporters. "What the hell - 8:30 on Wall Street?"

Despite anecdotal evidence, and a telltale odor in the air, 
quantifying whether street smoking is more prevalent than before is 
challenging. Arrests for smoking marijuana are included as part of 
the Police Department's database of arrests for possessing the drug 
and are not a separate category.

Arrests have fallen in the past year. More than 26,000 people were 
arrested in 2014 for criminal possession of marijuana in the fifth 
degree, which included openly burning a joint and possessing more 
than 25 grams, according to the New York State Division of Criminal 
Justice Services. Through September of this year, about 12,500 had 
been arrested, according to the division's data. A decision to end 
the stop-and-frisk policing policy last year may also have 
contributed to the drop. By comparison, summonses for possession have 
risen, with the total for this year already surpassing the total for 
all of last year.

On message boards and blogs, people note that the scent can peak in 
parts of Brooklyn as the morning commute gears up, with smokers 
taking drags between sips of coffee. In the spring, Fox News 
broadcast a report noting the stench on the jogging paths of Carl 
Schurz Park on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, right next to Gracie 
Mansion, the mayoral residence. Outside Eataly, the sprawling Italian 
marketplace in the Flatiron district, the smell from a joint on a 
recent weekday battled the aroma of espresso beans.

While some New Yorkers' behavior may have changed, the consequences 
for possessing a lit joint are still the same - it is a misdemeanor 
offense punishable by a fine and up to 90 days in jail.

But New Yorkers say it is undeniably in the air.

"Long time ago they used to hide and do it, and now they are doing it 
out in the open," Tanya Polite, 49, said as she delivered sandwiches 
to preschoolers in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. "I smell it a lot. I smell 
it and go, 'Pee-ew!' The smell is so powerful, when you inhale it you 
get like a contact - a dizzy spell."

To Ms. Polite and others, open-air marijuana smokers do so to thumb 
their noses at the police. Others, like Anne Collins, who has lived 
in Williamsburg for many years, say it is a symptom of an influx of 
outsiders who bring their values with their suitcases.

"It's not that it's New York is a pothead county, or city, it's 
you've got all these people coming from other places," Ms. Collins, 
53, said. "French, German, Chinese, they are all here. Not to mention 
all of the Californian yuppies. They carry on their lives as they did 
where they were."

Whether a person believes smoking marijuana in public is permissible 
in New York City can vary depending upon a person's race, said Harry 
G. Levine, a sociology professor at Queens College and a researcher 
with the Marijuana Arrest Research Project, which studies trends in 
the enforcement of marijuana laws.

Through September of this year, 11,099, or nearly 89 percent of those 
arrested on charges of possessing marijuana in the fifth degree were 
black or Hispanic, according to the Division of Criminal Justice 
Services. For the same period, 997 white people were arrested, about 
8 percent of the total.

"Somebody who grew up and has lived most of their life in a largely 
white area, is used to having the police ignore this behavior," 
Professor Levine said. "Then they come to the big city, and it's: 
'Woo woo woo! It must be more liberal here!' "

That seemed to be the attitude of a businessman visiting from 
Florida, as he puffed a marijuana cigarette on a recent afternoon 
outside a restaurant in the East Village.

"I would have still done this back in the day," said the man, who was 
in town for a concert featuring the Grateful Dead, and who declined 
to give his name because what he was doing was illegal. "But in secret."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom