POT ARRESTS IN
Essential Information and News
about NY City's Racially-Biased Marijuana Arrest Crusade
Essential Information
The
Epidemic of Pot Arrests in New York City, by Harry G. Levine,
Alternet.org, Aug 2009
Oped summary of arrests in NYC and other
cities.
New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) report,
100 pages, graphs and detailed description of the arrests, April 2008
New
York City's Marijuana Arrest Crusade ... Continues
Brief update of the above report with new
graphs and tables with 2008 data, Sept
2009
New News in Print
New
York Magazine, "The Splitting Image of Pot" by
Marc Jacobson, Sept 21, 2009
On the one hand,
marijuana is practically legal – more mainstream, accessorized, and taken for granted than ever before.
On the other, kids
are getting busted in the city in record numbers. Guess which kids.
Am
New York,
"High Crimes" by Jason
Fink, Sept 14, 2009
With pot as popular as ever, cops are busting NYers at
record levels.
Recent News Articles, Only On The Web
New
York Times (website), "Drug Science, 1937-2009" by John Tierney, Sept 18, 2009
New York
Magazine’s article on marijuana includes an
interesting bit of scientific history. After noting that Mayor Bloomberg has
presided over more marijuana arrests than any mayor anywhere, Mark Jacobson
writes...
New York Daily News (website),
"Stop The War On Pot Users" by
Tony Newman, Aug 24, 2009
What do President Obama, Mayor Bloomberg and
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have in common? They are all elected
officials who have admitted to smoking marijuana.
In 1993, there were only 900 arrests for possession of
small amounts of marijuana, while 40,000 people were arrested in 2008 – mostly
young Black and Latino men.
Alternet (website) "The Epidemic of
Pot Arrests in New York City" by
Harry G. Levine, Aug 10, 2009
Marijuana
possession is legally decriminalized in
Other Media Coverage
LATimes Online, "The Racism of
Marijuana Prohibition" by Stephen Gutwillig, Sept 7, 2009
Enforcement of marijuana laws
disproportionately affects young African Americans -- even though their usage
rates are lower than whites'.
Reason Magazine Hit and Run
(website) "Drug Arrests Headed Down?"
By Jacob Sullum, Sept 14, 2009
Marijuana accounted
for about half of all drug arrests, and nine out of 10 pot arrests were for
simple possession, as opposed to cultivation or sale.
It's not
just that Michael Phelps did what millions of other twenty-somethings do; it's
that he did what over one hundred million Americans have done at least once in
their lives, including the president, former presidents, members of the U.S.
Congress and Supreme Court, and a significant proportion of the country's most
distinguished businessmen, scholars, artists, entertainers and leaders.
By age 25, 54 percent of the population has admittedly
used marijuana. Does anyone still believe that marijuana prohibition is working
— or that all of these people deserve to be behind bars?
Media
Coverage of Marijuana Arrest Crusade,
May 2008
NY Times, Newsday, NY Daily News, Reason, and many others write about
New York City's Marijuana Arrest Crusade ...
Continues, Sept 2009
In 2008,
the
Harry G.
Levine, Sociology Department, Queens College and the
