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.

[continues 1032 words]

To the Editor:

Re "Cut Sentences for Nonviolent Felons" (editorial, Nov. 23):

Like you, I wish that the sentencing reform legislation pending in Congress went further. But the reality is that more ambitious reform proposals do not have enough support to pass in this Congress.

That's why I negotiated the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act with Senator Chuck Grassley. Our bill has strong support from the civil rights community and passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on a strong bipartisan vote. Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, has pledged to bring it before the full Senate next year.

[continues 118 words]

A recent letter stated: "Legalizing drugs would eliminate a lot of crime." It was spot on. Let me expand. When Prohibition ended, criminals lost their monopoly in supplying alcohol to the public. Without the monopoly, their income dried up. Their (sometimes poisonous) product couldn't compete with the good stuff put out by the newly back in business, old line brewers and distillers.

Unfortunately, the prohibition on alcohol was switched to heroin, cocaine and marijuana. Even more unfortunately, the results have been even worse. Prohibition had corrupted whole police departments. We now have whole countries, Mexico for one, devastated by the international criminal drug gangs. Our own law enforcement and criminal justice system is overwhelmed by a war on drugs that can't be won.

[continues 52 words]

To the Editor:

Regarding your thoughtful Nov. 23 editorial "Cut Sentences for Nonviolent Felons," mass incarceration is self-perpetuating. Nonviolent drug offenders are eventually released back into society with dismal job prospects and the equivalent of an advanced degree in criminality.

Children of inmates are at increased risk of educational failure, joblessness, addiction and delinquency.

Turning nonviolent drug offenders into unemployable ex-cons is a senseless waste of tax dollars. If we can reduce highly addictive tobacco use without arresting smokers and imprisoning tobacco retailers, we can do the same for less addictive albeit illegal drugs.

Destroying the futures and families of citizens who make unhealthy choices doesn't benefit anyone.

Washington

The writer is a policy analyst for Common Sense for Drug Policy.

[end]

In the last few years, America's out-of-control incarceration boom has finally started to get the sustained public scrutiny, and condemnation, that it deserves. But one key element of the story still receives too little attention: the number of women in the nation's prisons and jails.

Men account for more than 90 percent of those behind bars. But the number of female inmates, most of whom are mothers, has been growing at an even faster rate than the overall prison population. In 1980 there were just over 15,000 women in state prisons. By 2010 there were nearly 113,000. When jail inmates are added in, there are about 206,000 women currently serving time - nearly one-third of all female prisoners in the world.

[continues 406 words]

It's normal to think of drug legalization as radical. Drug illegality has been with us all of our lives, and we all know the harm caused by illegal drugs. Realizing one thing, though, demonstrates that the need to force this traffic aboveground is absolute.

Alcohol prohibition sought to stem an established market, but drug prohibition has been establishing its market, and very effectively.

Together they brought about the first, and next great growth opportunities for organized crime. Hoods are here from all over the world now to participate, as we fund wars and dictatorships through them. As law scrambles to cope with new substances it doesn't yet cover, these vanish from corner stores and enter the underground flood, in supplies furnished by factories operating openly in China.

[continues 85 words]

Now that Congress is within sight of passing the most significant federal sentencing reforms in a generation, it's worth taking a closer look at where the legislation falls short.

The main driver of the federal prison population is, by far, the dramatic increase in the time people spend behind bars - specifically, those convicted of drug offenses, who account for nearly half of the nation's 199,000 federal inmates. From 1988 to 2012, the average time served for drug crimes more than doubled in length, according to a new report by the Pew Charitable Trusts. That increase in the length of drug sentences comes at a great expense: an estimated $1.5 billion each year, based on how much it costs to keep a federal inmate behind bars.

[continues 483 words]

In a surprising move, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed two bills Wednesday to establish an "emergency medical marijuana" program for qualified patients, two months before the planned debut of a statewide program providing for medical use of the drug.

The governor's signature effectively accelerates the first distribution of medical marijuana in the state since the passage of a 2014 law that added New York to a list of nearly two dozen other states where the drug is now available for sick patients.

[continues 105 words]

To the Editor:

Re "White Families Seek a Gentler War on Heroin" (front page, Oct. 31):

The change in white attitudes about hard drug addiction is a bittersweet revelation. Addressing addiction as a public health issue rather than as a criminal justice matter is long overdue.

For decades the police, judges and politicians who now express an enlightened attitude toward the addicted saw only addicts and criminals when those afflicted were mostly black or Latino. Inner-city addiction was written off as the inevitable product of community dysfunction or individual character deficiencies.

[continues 113 words]

To the Editor:

My brother was one of the many white middle-class people lost to heroin. He died in August at 32.

I understand and live every day the desire to want a softer approach to drugs: one that sees everyone as human and doesn't see addiction as a weakness or delinquency. I know how upsetting it can be to hear jokes about "junkies."

But it almost pains me even more to know that until heroin reached crisis levels in largely white suburbs like the one my brother and I grew up in, no one paid much attention to those calling for a focus on treatment and calling out the policing that has become a fact of life in black communities.

[continues 61 words]

To the Editor:

While we anticipated the change in ethnic populations using prescription opioids and heroin based on 10 years of research with treatment facilities, we did not anticipate that 80 percent of new heroin users would report their abuse of prescription opioids as a gateway drug.

Fortunately, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Department of Health and Human Services are aligned in responding to these extraordinary challenges. Regardless of race and where the untreated opioid-addicted person lives, he or she still needs access to effective and evidence-based treatment.

[continues 125 words]

Support for making marijuana legal is increasing around the world, and that is a good thing. Earlier this week, the Mexican Supreme Court opened the door to legalizing the drug by giving four plaintiffs the right to grow cannabis for personal use.

In Canada, the newly sworn in prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has said he intends to change the law so people can use the drug recreationally; medicinal use is already legal in that country. And in the United States, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for president, recently introduced a bill that would let states decide if they want to make the drug legal without worrying about violating federal law.

[continues 503 words]

For a year or two, I smoked pot out of a chimney--shaped wooden pipe. It came with a lighter, which was wrapped in a sort of braided--leather papoose. Papoose and pipe were handmade by a shaman--like fellow I met on the side of a highway in the Pacific Northwest. His wares were solid, but the smoke was harsh. So, not long ago, I switched to a vaporizer, or "vape," the Magic--Flight Launch Box.

Vapes heat marijuana buds to oven temperatures, at which point they release their psychoactive payload and gradually turn brown, without burning. Vapor feels easier on the lungs than smoke. Its effects come on more slowly and gently. But the essential quality of vapes is their discretion. Vapes are the antithesis of iridescent glass pipes and cumbersome bongs. They don't produce a lingering or pungent odor. They do for cannabis what brown paper bags do for beer and what collars do for dogs; they keep your neighbors from freaking out when you pass them on the sidewalk.

[continues 889 words]

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - New York state will require physicians to complete an educational course before they can authorize medical marijuana for patients - an unusual mandate not applied to other new drugs or seen in other states with medical marijuana programs.

State officials say the 4-1/2-hour, $250 online course will inform doctors about a complex drug treatment not covered in medical school. But while the investment of time and money is modest, some patient advocates worry the inconvenience could discourage physicians from participating, ultimately limiting patient access.

[continues 634 words]

At sea, what does it mean for a ship to 'fly a flag?' That was a key, and somewhat improbable, question in a federal drug smuggling case in Manhattan federal court.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan typically write legal briefs that cite the lofty decisions of the United States Supreme Court, congressional statutes or articles in law reviews. But in a recent case, the government pointed to a more lyrical precedent.

"You're a grand old flag, you're a high-flying flag. And forever in peace may you wave," the brief practically sang in a footnote.

[continues 1060 words]

"We need less incarceration, not more, to keep all Americans safe."

Criminal justice reform groups have been saying this for years. This time the source is unexpected: More than 130 of the nation's top law-enforcement officials, including big-city police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and attorneys general, have joined the call to end to the harsh, counterproductive practices and policies that have driven America's devastating prison boom, destroyed communities and written off an entire generation of young men of color.

[continues 429 words]

To the Editor:

Re "Toward Saner Prison Sentences" (editorial, Oct. 4):

Senate legislation has been proposed that would reduce overly harsh federal prison sentences. These changes are important, but only about 12 percent of the prison population is in federal institutions. Most of the more than two million prisoners in the United States are in state and local facilities.

Actions like President Obama's program to commute sentences for nonviolent offenders can give immediate relief. The Justice Department's early release of 6,000 prisoners beginning later this month is part of the president's program (front page, Oct. 7). The country's governors should follow his initiative and free the many prisoners who are suffering unduly harsh penalties for nonviolent offenses.

[continues 92 words]

The sentencing reform bill introduced in the Senate on Thursday falls far short of what is needed, but it is a crucial first step on the long path toward unwinding the federal government's decades-long reliance on prisons as the answer to every ill.

For starters, it is worth noting the bipartisan nature of this legislation. In a Senate that can't agree on the time of day, top Republican and Democratic senators - most notably Senator Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, as well as a longtime supporter of harsh sentencing laws - negotiated for months to produce a concrete set of fixes.

[continues 440 words]

The Sept. 22 News carried an article regarding a U.S. district judge's comment about the harshness of the mandatory sentencing time for drug violators. But she maintained she hasn't a choice and gave the accused 20 years.

Eventually there will be legalization of many of the recreational drugs now in use. Movies and TV portray hundreds of incidental drug users. These fictional illustrations are magnified thousands of times in real life. Yet we turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the consequences falling upon those unfortunate enough to pay a horrendous penalty. Many go to jail, many have their futures shot. Legalize these drugs. If not that, then decriminalize their use. Remember alcohol was once illegal.

Ralph Burke

Dunkirk

[end]

NEW YORK (AP) - An organization that ran anti-cigarette smoking ads during the Video Music Awards has complained to MTV's parent company about the program's multiple references to marijuana and said it sent the wrong message to young viewers.

Show host Miley Cyrus was responsible for most of them. She even came backstage with a lit joint after the show and passed it around to photographers.

"It is entirely understandable for viewers to be confused, after hearing so much about marijuana during the VMA broadcast, to see a powerful advertisement about the dangers of tobacco," said Eric Asche, chief marketing officer of the Truth Initiative, which sponsored two anti-cigarette ads.

[continues 279 words]