Thirty Years After Decriminalization
This Wednesday (April 30) in New York City, The New York City Bar Association will be hosting a lecture called “New York City’s Marijuana Arrest Policy: Thirty Years After Decriminalization”. The lecture, based on research by Professor Harry Levine (Queens College), Deborah Small (head of Breaking the Chains), and Bruce D. Johnson (Ph.D), will discuss and review law enforcement patterns, alternative policing practices, and targeting cannabis consumers.
The research was previously submitted as testimony to the New York State senate, where they focused on law enforcement practices in New York City, revealing that Marijuana Possession arrests have risen from 39-thousand to 362-thousand in the past ten years. This testimony was also presented at the 2007 NORML Conference in Los Angeles.
I wish I was able to make it into the city this week to attend the lecture, but unfortunately I’ve got prior obligations to attend to. If you’ll be in the New York City area this Wednesday, I encourage you to attend! It starts at 6:30PM and the address is as follows:
The Association of the Bar of the City of New York, 42 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036.
If you’re like me and unable to attend the lecture, you can view the research in PDF format here.
Related Posts
Ally is a full-time student majoring in Communication Disorders. She spends her time as a dedicated activist and blogger for marijuana law reform and is the Executive Assistant for Woman Tribune, a webspace for women. She lives in Orange County, NY where she is a practicing Wiccan and shares her life with her psycho hamster, Chouji, and boyfriend, Pugz. She is currently launching her first business, Ally McCoy Media, a web and graphic design firm.
Email this author · All posts by Ally
I think it is great that people don’t sit on their laurels and hope things get better.
Sounds like it’s going to be a good lecture, and going to be a good debate on it as well. I bet New York has to focus on these kinds of things a lot. But from your post, I don’t know if I can tell if you’re with or against marijuana arrests. I kind of have an idea, but again, it’s debatable! ^_^
So many comments on this subject, so little time. I just hope that one day we as a country can become more knowledgeable on the facts of the things we deem “evil” and “corrupt” before resorting to pack mentality for the sake of pack mentality.
The War on Drugs has been such a failure that it amazes that anybody able to freely think would still even consider it to be a viable option anymore. The only war that needs to be waged on drugs is in the household, not on the streets. Proper knowledge of the facts as presented and the facts as learned needs to be used to its fullest potential.
Marijuana (to me) is not a gateway drug, a menace to society, nor is it something to be condemned, feared, or an arrestable offense.
On a side-note, I find the overall hypocrisy we as a society have had towards this drug (especially in the media).
Being a “marijuana consumer” does not make you a criminal in the sense that you’re going to become violent, commit crimes, and rape passersby. It makes you a criminal simply because you consume. To me, that is completely assinine.
I hope they take the time to look over the facts, and even if nothing changes, at least take in the possibility that yes, a different approach in our way of thinking is not only needed, it is necessary.
Personally, medical marijuana use is perfectly appropriate and acceptable but the idiots in the administration don’t seem to agree. And what goes does it do to toss all the marijuana users into jail? Shouldn’t the police be focused on more violent criminals?