NEW YORK CITY WASTING $75 MILLION A YEAR ON MARIJUANA ARRESTS

A New Study Reveals That Since 1996 New York City Has Spent From Half
a Billion to Over a Billion Dollars Arresting People for Less Than an
Ounce of Marijuana.

In 2010 New York City spent $75 million arresting people for
possessing small amounts of marijuana.

Three members of the New York City Council joined advocates and
community members on the steps of City Hall today at a press
conference organized by the Drug Policy Alliance and the Institute for
Juvenile Justice Reform and Alternatives. They announced the release
of a new report: "$75 Million A Year - The Cost of New York City's
Marijuana Arrests."

The report, written by CUNY Professor Harry Levine and attorney Loren
Siegel, shows that since 1996 New York City has spent from half a
billion to over a billion dollars arresting people for less than an
ounce of marijuana.

Each arrest costs at least $1,000 to $2,000 (conservatively
estimated), and in 2010 the NYPD made nearly 1,000 arrests a week. The
50,383 people arrested for marijuana in 2010 were all fingerprinted,
photographed, and most spent 24 hours or more in jail. In all cases,
marijuana possession was the highest charge or the only charge.

Most people arrested for marijuana possession in New York were not
smoking it at the time of their arrest. The police find most of the
marijuana they confiscate through their controversial "stop and frisk"
practices. In 2010, the NYPD made 600,000 recorded "stop and frisks,"
and many additional unrecorded stops. The Center for Constitutional
Rights and the New York Civil Liberties Union have sued the NYPD about
its racially-biased stop and frisks. Although young whites smoke
marijuana at higher rates than blacks and Latinos, in NYC Latinos are
arrested at four times the rate of whites, and blacks are arrested at
seven times the rate of whites.

Public defenders find that two-thirds to three-quarters of those
arrested for marijuana had it in their pockets or possessions. Police
coerce people into showing their marijuana with suggestions of
forgiveness and good treatment. When people take a bit of marijuana
out of their pockets as requested or ordered, they find themselves
arrested and booked. In African American neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy,
Brooklyn, where I live, the police routinely and unlawfully search
young peoples' pockets without permission.

Mayor Bloomberg has famously admitted to smoking marijuana and
enjoying it. Yet on Bloomberg's watch the police have arrested more
people for possessing marijuana than the last three mayors combined.
Since Bloomberg was elected in 2002, the NYPD has arrested 350,000
people for possessing less than 7/8 of an ounce of marijuana at a cost
to taxpayers of $500 million to $1 billion or more.

Everyone arrested gets their information permanently entered into
criminal databases that can be easily found on the internet by
employers, landlords, banks, credit agencies, licensing boards, and
schools. Marijuana possession may be treated as minor by the courts -
people are usually given a year's probation - but people can be
evicted from public housing, denied financial aid for college,
deported, and even lose custody of their children because they were
carrying marijuana in their pockets in a neighborhood where stop and
frisks are common.

Having the NYPD arrest 50,000 people a year to confiscate 50,000
joints and small bags of marijuana seems like a difficult and
expensive way for Bloomberg to get his weed.