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Tag: marijuana

  • “13 Years in the Slammer … for Two Joints?”

    I’m generally quick to point out that there aren’t too many people doing long time for small scale drug possession. (Usually this in the context of pointing out that drug decriminalization will not empty our prisons.)

    But it does happen. And it shouldn’t happen. Ever.

    How is anyone in prison for 13 years for possessing two joints? It’s possible if you’re a “habitual offender” and in Louisiana:

    In Bernard Noble’s case, getting caught with a couple of joints morphed into more than 13 years behind bars because of the way the state’s harsh marijuana laws intersect with its harsh habitual offender law (known colloquially as “the bitch.”) Because Noble had two previous drug possession offenses, one 12 years old and one 24 years old, he fell under the purview of the habitual offender law.

    Even though his current offense was trivial (pot is decriminalized in nearly 20 states and possession is legalized in four others and DC) and even though his previous offenses were low-level and non-violent, the statute called for the 13 years, without parole.

    Taking into account Noble’s minor criminal history, his work record, and his role as the breadwinner for a family with seven children, and making special note of his overpayment of child support to children not living with him, his sentencing judge departed from the statute and sentenced him to only five years. Orleans Parish prosecutors appealed the lower sentence to the state Supreme Court and got the 13-year sentence reinstated last year.

    What is wrong with us?

  • “Cops fucking love overtime”

    I’m quoted in Vice Magazine’s article, “New York City’s Biggest Marijuana Problem Is the Police.” Of fuckety fuck. Do I really swear that much?

    And here’s another unrelated story about the corrosive effects of overtime.

  • Just following the law

    Just following the law

    The major final ordered the police commissioner to order the department to follow New York State and not arrest people for small-scale possession of marijuana. This has actually been the law since 1977. But the NYPD has subverted the law, especially in the past decade, by arresting people anyway. And we’re talking tens of thousand of people per year. And yes, of course it’s racial unfair (since whites smoke just as much if not more weed than blacks, but don’t get arrested for it).

    The Times account is here. The Post’s is here.

    The union reps issued their usual tone-deaf disbelief. Which is their right, I suppose, but it would be better if the union reps kept to things like pay and working conditions rather than promoting their uniquely conservative ideological world view. From the SBA head; “People are asking: ‘What is going on? Is this department losing its mind? Has the city lost its mind?’”

    Answer: A liberal mayor wants cops to stop arresting minorities when the crime is marijuana posession.

    The head of the city’s Detectives’ Endowment Association: “I just see it as another step in giving the streets back to the criminals. And we keep inching closer and closer to that.” But here’s the thing, we’re not giving the streets back to criminals (at least not yet)….

    And besides, most of you guys didn’t vote for the mayor. And not just because you hate him, but because you don’t live in the city. But the citizens of New York City did elected the mayor. And so de Blasio does, to a great extent, actually reflect the represented will of the people. And besides not arresting people for small-scale possession of marijuana has been the law since friggin’ 1977! It’s just that since the late 1990’s, police officers just decided to subvert the law.

    Here is the rule: don’t arrest people for small-scale possession of marijuana. I’m not certain why that is so radical. You don’t arrest people for a lot of things. You don’t arrest people for jay walking. You don’t arrest people for littering. Hell, you don’t arrest drivers for killing people with their cars! Just add marijuana to the list.

    Now you can still stop people. You can still run them. You can still cite people for possession. But you cannot arrest them. Guys, I’m sorry you don’t like it. But them’s the breaks.

    So what does this mean? Well, it could mean a lot fewer arrests for police officers. That’s not bad if you’re a taxpayer or a fan of the bud. But what if anything can police do compensate for the lost overtime? I don’t know.

    Here’s the thing: cops do not and did not actually give a shit about marijuana any more than than they do about jaywalking. Cops wanted to make arrests. And stopping people and finding weed because a way to make arrests. And we’re talking a good chunk (like 1 in 7) of all arrests in New York City. Up to 50,000 a year! So we’ll see if something else takes the place for such discretionary arrests. But probably not.

    This could actually be a pretty major shift in police culture. But it has been argued that marijuana arrests became a thing in New York because of arrest pressure combined with the drop in crime. So will something else because the new reason to arrest when there’s no other good reason to? I hope not. Probably, in the long run, the past 20 years of massive marijuana arrests will be seen as the aberration. Just another crazy bit of New York City history. Like the 2nd Avenue L, the New York Giants (baseball), and the 6-shot revolver.

    [Also, based on this picture, 25 grams (0.88 ounces) is a lot more weed than I thought it was.]

  • Quote of the Day

    As more and more states legalize marijuana, New York City still leads the world for arrests for possession of the evil weed. You might wonder who actually thinks it’s a good idea to arrest people for a decriminalized amount of marijuana. Sergeants Benevolent Association president Ed Mullins: “If the current practice of making arrests for both possession and sale of marijuana is, in fact, abandoned, then this is clearly the beginning of the breakdown of a civilized society.”

    Dude, get some perspective. Mullins continued, “If we’re not making marijuana arrests, then we may not pop someone who has a warrant on them or who committed felony crimes…. If the department doesn’t want us to make marijuana arrests, they should introduce legislation to change the law.” Seems fair enough, but there are a few problems here. First, you can run somebody and see if their wanted. If not, you don’t need to arrest them misdemeanor marijuana.

    Second, small scale possession of marijuana is just a violation (not an arrestable offense) until the marijuana is in “public view.” And I don’t want to imply anything, but how the marijuana gets into public view is open to debate. But I think it’s safe to say most of the tens of thousands of people arrested aren’t walking around holding dime bags in their hands.

    Finally, and this is important to policing, back in the old days, hell, even the days I policed, real police would be ashamed to come in with such a crappy arrest. Off the street for hours for what?! If you come across weed, you can throw it in a sewer. Or hell, you could even hand it back. (It’s happened.) There are lots of minor violations that do not deserve zero-tolerance. In the absence of other crimes, in the absence of a person being wanted a warrant, you can warn, you can admonish, or you could even turn a blind eye. Police have a lot of discretion. Use it. If anything will lead to the “breakdown of civilized society,” it won’t be police officers doing their job and using their brain.

  • Alcohol and drug use down among teens, despite what the headline says

    Let’s play a game called “write the headline.” Here’s the story from the New York Times:

    According to the latest federal figures, which were part of an annual survey, Monitoring the Future…. The report looked at a wide variety of drugs and substances. It found, for example, that drinking was steadily declining, with roughly 40 percent of high school seniors reporting having used alcohol in the past month, down from a peak of 53 percent in 1997. Abuse of the prescription painkiller Vicodin is half what it was a decade ago among seniors; cocaine and heroin use are at historic lows in almost every grade.

    Cigarette smoking has also fallen precipitously in recent years. For the first time since the survey began, the percentage of students who smoked a cigarette in the past month dropped below 10 percent. Roughly 8.5 percent of seniors smoke cigarettes on a daily basis, compared with 6.5 percent who smoke marijuana daily, a slight increase from 2010.

    [Also] More than 12 percent of eighth graders and 36 percent of seniors at public and private schools around the country said they had smoked marijuana in the past year. About 60 percent of high school seniors said they did not view regular marijuana use as harmful, up from about 55 percent last year.

    How would you summarize this story in one headline?

    No matter what you pick, I bet you can beat what what the Times editor came up with: “Increasing Marijuana Use in High School Is Reported“! The exclamation point is mine.

  • Give Peace a Chance

    “The years between 2000 and 2010 do not simply constitute a war on marijuana, but a war on black people who use marijuana.” Well said, Ta-Nehisi Coates.

  • Legal Marijuana

    My friend, Neill Franklin of LEAP, spells it out (and does so far better than I could have).

  • Round up the Usual Outrage

    An officer, who heard over his radio that a drug suspect was armed with a gun, kicks down the door of his apartment, finds the suspect hiding in the bathroom (probably trying to flush weed down the toilet), thinks the suspect is going for his gun, and shoots and kills the suspect. The problem is that the suspect, according to police, wasn’t armed. (Remember this the next time you think officers carry a drop gun.)

    The officer made a big bad lethal mistake. And he was very quickly thrown under the bus by the Commissioner and the department. But I don’t know what I would have done in the same situation. Probably the same thing. The cop fired not because he wanted to kill an unarmed man and destroy his own life and career, but because he thought he was going to be killed. Unfortunately for everybody, he was wrong.

    When this kinds of events happen, don’t be be surprised or shocked or outraged. This is what happen with drug prohibition and the war on the drugs. The courts destroy the 4th Amendment. Police bust down doors. Police assume (with the courts’ blessing) that drug dealers are armed. Sometimes police make mistakes, and unarmed people get shot.

    I wouldn’t say it happens all the time. But it sure does happen a lot. And it will continue to happen as long as we keep fighting the bad fight and refuse to seriously consider changing our laws against illegal drugs. In the meantime, let me know when we start winning.

  • NYC marijuana and jail

    Two good posts from Zachary Goelman. One on the latest death caused by marijuana (prohibition). The other on the new jail in Brooklyn.

  • Low-Level Marijuana Arrests Rise for Seventh Straight Year

    Andy Newman of the Timesreports:

    Low-level arrests for marijuana possession in New York City increased for the seventh straight year in 2011, according to a study released Wednesday — despite a September memorandum from the police commissioner that reminded officers to follow the letter of the law and not arrest people with marijuana unless they have the drugs in plain view.

    Though arrests dropped significantly after Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly’s memorandum, an increase of 6 percent during the first eight months of the year more than offset the decline, according to the analysis, conducted by [Queens College sociology professor Harry Levine].

    I was wrong.

    Update: A WNYC reportby (award winning) Ailsa Chang