The federal law that makes possession of marijuana a crime has its origins in legislation that was passed in an atmosphere of hysteria during the 1930s and that was firmly rooted in prejudices against Mexican immigrants and African-Americans, who were associated with marijuana use at the time. This racially freighted history lives on in current federal policy, which is so driven by myth and propaganda that is it almost impervious to reason. The cannabis plant, also known as hemp, was widely grown in the United States for use in fabric during the mid-19th century. The practice of smoking it appeared in Texas border towns around 1900, brought by Mexican immigrants who cultivated cannabis as an intoxicant and for medicinal purposes as they had done at home. [continues 829 words]
In 1970, at the height of his white-hot war on crime, President Richard Nixon demanded that Congress pass the Controlled Substances Act to crack down on drug abuse. During the debate, Senator Thomas Dodd of Connecticut held up a package wrapped in light-green paper that he said contained $3,000 worth of marijuana. This substance, he said, caused such "dreadful hallucinations" in an Army sergeant in Vietnam that he called down a mortar strike on his own troops. A few minutes later, the Senate unanimously passed the bill. [continues 1372 words]
It took 13 years for the United States to come to its senses and end Prohibition, 13 years in which people kept drinking, otherwise law-abiding citizens became criminals and crime syndicates arose and flourished. It has been more than 40 years since Congress passed the current ban on marijuana, inflicting great harm on society just to prohibit a substance far less dangerous than alcohol. The federal government should repeal the ban on marijuana. We reached that conclusion after a great deal of discussion among the members of The Times's Editorial Board, inspired by a rapidly growing movement among the states to reform marijuana laws. [continues 416 words]
How terrible it would be if Eric Garner died for a theory, for the idea that aggressive police enforcement against minor offenders (he was a seller of loose, untaxed cigarettes) is the way to a safer, more orderly city. Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner William Bratton responded swiftly after Mr. Garner was fatally assaulted by officers on Staten Island. They reached out to his family, promising to retrain every officer about the rules against using chokeholds. Two officers have been put on desk duty pending investigations. [continues 498 words]
Reform of Overly Harsh Prison Sentences Is Both a Just and Practical Step Forward Few would argue at this point that the nation's decades-old war on drugs has been anything but a wretched failure. It has cost uncounted millions of dollars, sent tens of thousands of people to prison (disproportionately African-American) and helped give this country the world's largest incarceration rate - and all without putting a dent in drug use. Slowly, the country is uncoiling itself from this death grip. New York State has relaxed its Rockefeller drug laws, among the nation's harshest, and now Washington is backing away from mandatory minimum sentences, adopted and clung to since the crack cocaine epidemic hit in the 1980s. [continues 395 words]
When Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992, he admitted that he had "experimented with marijuana," but said he "didn't like it," "didn't inhale it" and "never tried it again." Whatever the accuracy of that statement, he was accused of pandering to the marijuana-wary voting public. Flash forward to the early stages of the 2008 presidential campaign. At an event in Iowa, then-candidate Barack Obama disclosed that he had not only smoked marijuana as a young man, 7but inhaled it, too. "That was the point," he said. The public responded with a shrug. [continues 886 words]
Even as violent crime has receded across New York City, arrests are near historic highs, driven by an increasingly controversial imperative that no offense is too minor for police officers to pursue. Now, the death of a Staten Island man after officers tried to arrest him for peddling cigarettes is intensifying scrutiny of the Police Department's unflagging push to arrest people over the most minor offenses. The Police Department reported making 394,539 arrests last year. That is tens of thousands more arrests than in 1995, when there were three times as many murders in the city and the department was in its early embrace of the "broken windows" strategy, which sees enforcement of low-level offenses as effective at preventing more serious crime. [continues 1204 words]
ALBANY - Two state legislators have written four of the city's district attorneys asking them to follow Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson's lead by declining to prosecute cases against those charged with possessing small amounts of pot. But the prosecutors aren't high on the idea. Sen. Daniel Squadron and Assemblyman Karim Camara, Brooklyn Democrats who recently introduced legislation that would decriminalize the possession of small amounts of pot, sent letters last week to district attorneys in Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island urging them to copy Thompson. [continues 95 words]
Kelly Gordon was killed on the Upper East Kelly Gordon was killed on the Upper East Side when she was struck by two separate cabs, police said. (Credit: iStock) The article "Seized assets boost LI cops" [News, July 14] was long overdue. It goes to the heart of all that is wrong with government in general. Policing today is not about helping people or protecting the public. It's about government enriching itself at the expense of the taxpayer. The asset forfeiture laws allow cops to be judge and jury. There is no due process and no return of property if the person targeted is innocent of wrongdoing. [continues 130 words]
Ira Glasser on Marijuana Prosecutions To the Editor: Your July 16 editorial "A Sensible Marijuana Policy in Brooklyn" applauds the Brooklyn district attorney, Kenneth P. Thompson, for deciding no longer to prosecute most cases in which people have been arrested for possession of small amounts of marijuana, and to focus on serious crimes instead. New York City's police commissioner, William J. Bratton, responded to Mr. Thompson's decision by asserting: "In order to be effective, our police officers must enforce the laws of the State of New York uniformly throughout all five boroughs of the city. Accordingly, the Kings County policy change will not result in any changes in the policies and procedures of the N.Y.P.D." [continues 160 words]
Kenneth Thompson, the Brooklyn district attorney, served both justice and common sense this week when he announced that he would no longer prosecute most cases in which people are arrested or ticketed for small amounts of marijuana. Such cases are usually dismissed. But by keeping thousands of them from going to court at all, Mr. Thompson will have more resources to devote to fighting serious crime. The new policy will also prevent the young minority men who are most of those arrested from getting criminal records that deny them jobs, housing or entry into armed services. [continues 429 words]
Do Americans have some moral responsibility for the thousands of Central American youths at our door? The vast and continuing flow of Central American youths should give Americans cause to ask why. Poor living conditions in their home countries would be one obvious reason. However, a deeper look at these countries' recent history is enlightening. War and violence is the overwhelming cause for the vast migrations of people. Over 2 million Iraqis fled their country after Saddam Hussein fell. Living under Saddam was horrible, but it was the violence of war that made them flee. Jordan, a country of 8 million, gave refuge to 700,000, while the U.S. took in 85,000 Iraqis. [continues 645 words]
A Refugee Crisis, Not an Immigration Crisis CRISTIAN OMAR REYES, an 11-year-old sixth grader in the neighborhood of Nueva Suyapa, on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa, tells me he has to get out of Honduras soon - "no matter what." In March, his father was robbed and murdered by gangs while working as a security guard protecting a pastry truck. His mother used the life insurance payout to hire a smuggler to take her to Florida. She promised to send for him quickly, but she has not. [continues 2446 words]
Dear Editor: A connection between the heroin/opioid addiction problem here in Dutchess County and the current refugee problem on our nation's Southern border? Certainly. Recreational drugs, pain relievers and substance abuse/ addiction are now part of the American way of life; the war on drugs of the 1970s, '80s,'90s and 2000s is lost, similar to how the "war on alcohol" was lost in the 1920s. Bootleggers and gangsters were funded by America's desire for booze in the 1920s. America's current desire for drugs is much more pervasive, and the horrific consequences are proportionately much greater. [continues 131 words]
After months of resistance from the New York Police Department, the Brooklyn district attorney's office announced on Tuesday that it would immediately carry out its plan to stop prosecuting most low-level marijuana cases. The policy was proposed in a draft confidential memorandum in April, but was delayed as prosecutors and police officials tried to iron out their differences in meetings and phone calls. The policy described in a memo dated Tuesday still offers plenty of exceptions: Only those with no criminal records, or minimal ones, qualify, and the cases of people caught smoking in public spaces - and especially around children - will not automatically be thrown out. [continues 869 words]
NEW YORK (AP) - Many of the thousands of people arrested on low-level marijuana possession charges in Brooklyn will likely get the cases dropped before even going to court, District Attorney Kenneth Thompson announced Tuesday in a novel move to reduce the load of pot cases in the nation's largest city. Many such cases have historically gotten dismissed anyway. But Mr. Thompson's new policy marks a departure by nixing the cases up front, sending a message that a DA wants to pull back from a spike in marijuana arrests citywide in recent decades. [continues 98 words]
NEW YORK (AP) - New York has become the 23d state to authorize marijuana as a medical treatment - though it will have one of the more restrictive programs in the country. Under legislation signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo, patients with one of 10 diseases will be able to obtain nonsmokeable versions of the drug. Officials chose to prohibit distribution of marijuana plant material to discourage nonmedical use. The law requires medical marijuana be ingested or consumed as a vapor. The details of exactly how the drug is to be administered will be worked out by the state Health Department. [continues 447 words]
Black and Hispanic defendants are more likely to be held in jail before trial and more likely to be offered plea bargains that include a prison sentence than whites and Asians charged with the same crimes, according to a two-year study of prosecutions handled by the Manhattan district attorney's office. The study, by the Vera Institute of Justice, found that race was a significant factor at nearly every stage of criminal prosecutions in Manhattan, from setting bail to negotiating a plea deal to sentencing. [continues 899 words]
Several decades from now, when historians look back at the beginning of the end of the expensive, wasteful and tragic American War on Drugs, Jesse Snodgrass may very well be mentioned prominently. It shouldn't be that way, of course. An autistic 17-year-old student at Chaparral High School in Southern California should never have been swallowed up by the American anti-drug industrial complex, but he was. Want some dollars and cents figures? The drug war is big business; bigger than U.S. Steel, as Hyman Roth would say. The federal government spent $15 billion in 2010 on the War on Drugs, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy. That's about $500 per second. State and local governments spent at least another $25 billion in 2010. [continues 586 words]
Inside New York
