Make Nonviolent Marijuana Offenses the Lowest Police Priority
On March 15, a new report was released on the steps of New York City Hall documenting the crushing costs of the 50,383 marijuana possession arrests that occurred in 2010 in that city alone, costing the city $75 million. Released by the Drug Policy Alliance and co-authored by Queens College sociology professor Dr. Harry Levine, the report reveals the police, judicial and human costs of New York City’s marijuana arrest crusade.
Please help us send a message to NYC Mayor Bloomberg that using already strained police and judicial resources is not acceptable and that the overwhelming racial disparity of these arrests is appalling.
Dear Mayor Bloomberg,
I am very concerned by the explosion of futile and destructive marijuana arrests in New York City.
Despite three decades of explicit legislative intent designed to avoid this very situation, during your tenure as mayor, nonviolent marijuana arrests have substantially increased. In fact, the number of arrests you have presided over is higher than that of your three immediate predecessors combined. From 2002 to 2010, 350,000 marijuana possession arrests were made, at an estimated cost of $350 million to $700 million, making low-level marijuana arrests the number one cause of arrest in New York City.
An average of 140 people are arrested every day for marijuana possession in New York City, costing millions of tax dollars, damaging hundreds of thousands of lives, and contributing to street violence and community decline.
This concerns me in many ways: as a citizen who expects the police to keep our communities safe, I fear that while law enforcement professionals waste their time on low-level marijuana arrests, they are being distracted from focusing on violent crime. As a taxpayer, I can think of many more effective uses for my tax dollars than tying up the prison system and the courts with nonviolent marijuana offenders.
Experience shows that these arrests reduce neither the supply nor the demand for this or any other drug.
They do, however, divert attention from serious crime while squandering the good community relations that are required to solve such crimes. No-tolerance marijuana policies transform police officers into an invading, distrusted army, especially in communities of color whose marijuana use is the same or less than in white communities and yet are 87% of those arrested.
Please reconsider your no-tolerance policy on marijuana arrests.
Thank you.
I am very concerned by the explosion of futile and destructive marijuana arrests in New York City.
Despite three decades of explicit legislative intent designed to avoid this very situation, during your tenure as mayor, nonviolent marijuana arrests have substantially increased. In fact, the number of arrests you have presided over is higher than that of your three immediate predecessors combined. From 2002 to 2010, 350,000 marijuana possession arrests were made, at an estimated cost of $350 million to $700 million, making low-level marijuana arrests the number one cause of arrest in New York City.
An average of 140 people are arrested every day for marijuana possession in New York City, costing millions of tax dollars, damaging hundreds of thousands of lives, and contributing to street violence and community decline.
This concerns me in many ways: as a citizen who expects the police to keep our communities safe, I fear that while law enforcement professionals waste their time on low-level marijuana arrests, they are being distracted from focusing on violent crime. As a taxpayer, I can think of many more effective uses for my tax dollars than tying up the prison system and the courts with nonviolent marijuana offenders.
Experience shows that these arrests reduce neither the supply nor the demand for this or any other drug.
They do, however, divert attention from serious crime while squandering the good community relations that are required to solve such crimes. No-tolerance marijuana policies transform police officers into an invading, distrusted army, especially in communities of color whose marijuana use is the same or less than in white communities and yet are 87% of those arrested.
Please reconsider your no-tolerance policy on marijuana arrests.
Thank you.
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| Number | Date | Name | Location | Please comment on why you ... |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1930 | Tue Feb 05 10:43:22 EST 2013 | Anonymous | Revere, MA | The whole war on drugs is a sham. Stop wasting resources and time on drug offenses. The policy's priorities should be keeping the streets safe. The war on drugs is a failure and needs to end. It has caused More.... |
| 1929 | Mon Jan 21 21:43:00 EST 2013 | Steve McCarroll | prairieville, LA | Marijuana should be legal in all 50 states. If you want to get the Cartel, CIA, Drug Dealers, and Gangs out of the marijuana business, marijuana needs to be legalized in all 50 states. No restrictions, More.... |
| 1928 | Thu Jan 10 01:07:16 EST 2013 | Michael Tucker | SC | |
| 1927 | Wed Jan 09 15:21:56 EST 2013 | Josh Ford | LA | The war on all drugs has been a massive failure for 40 some years wasted time, money, and wasted lives ruined by incarceration. It is time to admit the war on drugs is nothing more than a reason to keep More.... |
| 1926 | Tue Dec 25 23:18:23 EST 2012 | Christian Olson | Dickinson, ND | Marijuana is not an evil substance in itself. It would be socially acceptable and would probably be a positive part of our American culture if it was not made illegal for racial reasons. I don't know this, More.... |
| 1925 | Sat Dec 22 16:49:19 EST 2012 | Devina Tusi | Laconia, NH | It's unconstitutional, unethical, and opposes God's gift to us and restricts our freedom of free will to choose! |
| 1924 | Sat Dec 22 00:20:17 EST 2012 | Joanne Foster | Newport, CA | The drug laws & guns laws are an on going problem in America & the rest of the world the powers that be don't want to change them because they fear of loosing the all mighty vote & we have to stat to think More.... |
| 1923 | Fri Dec 21 19:37:04 EST 2012 | Joanne Foster | Newport, CA | |
| 1922 | Fri Dec 21 13:50:55 EST 2012 | Rob Cross | The war on all drugs has been a massive failure for 40 some years wasted time, money, and wasted lives ruined by incarceration. It is time to admit the war on drugs is nothing more than a reason to lock More.... | |
| 1921 | Fri Dec 21 13:49:55 EST 2012 | Rob Cross | The war on all drugs has been a massive failure for 40 some years wasted time, money, and wasted lives ruined by incarceration. It is time to admit the war on drugs is nothing more than a reason to lock More.... | |
| 1920 | Fri Dec 21 13:48:57 EST 2012 | Rob Cross | The war on all drugs has been a massive failure for 40 some years wasted time, money, and wasted lives ruined by incarceration. It is time to admit the war on drugs is nothing more than a reason to lock More.... | |
| 1919 | Fri Dec 21 02:32:42 EST 2012 | Anonymous | Bellevue, WA | In October, 1997, Dr. Alan I. Leschner, former Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institute of Health explained why this policy is ineffective in reducing drug use. As an More.... |
| 1918 | Tue Dec 18 00:35:55 EST 2012 | Gabriel Noska | Spring City, PA | It can be said that marijuana is a safer and less harmful substitute for alcohol. That needs to be recognized as truth. It is an absolute shame that people must live in fear for choosing a better drug. More.... |
| 1917 | Sat Dec 15 19:07:16 EST 2012 | Haleigh Pappas | ||
| 1916 | Fri Dec 14 15:04:08 EST 2012 | keawe reyes | CA | PROHIBITION IS A FAILED IDEA THAT IS VERY OBVIOUSLY DOESNT YEILD RESULTS IN REDUCING DRUG CONSUMPTION.IT ONLY TAKES MONEY FROM A COUNTRY THAT IS IN DEBT.APPARENTLY POLITICIANS HAVE MUCH TO GAIN BY WASTING More.... |
| 1915 | Fri Dec 14 12:09:01 EST 2012 | Mikaela Barnett | Russell, KY | Marijuana use is being punished more severely than child abuse, rape, and murder (in some cases). Common sense would tell you this is not good policy. |
| 1914 | Fri Dec 14 00:31:19 EST 2012 | Dwight Coker | Fort Payne, AL | |
| 1913 | Wed Dec 12 00:59:04 EST 2012 | DONNA WHITE | anchorage, AK | THE DOLLAR COST PAID BY EACH OF US FROM OUR OWN BANK ACCOUNTS IN THE FORM OF I.R.S. TAXES TO PAY FOR EVERY DAY OF INCARCERATION FOR A NON-VIOLENT DRUG OFFENSE IS WASTED MONEY. |
| 1912 | Wed Dec 12 00:46:20 EST 2012 | Fernando Lara | Fresno, CA | Police officers have gone through an evoloution in the last 25 yrs from being peace officers to thugs in uniform |
| 1911 | Mon Dec 10 07:21:14 EST 2012 | Anonymous | Milford, OH | In these economic times what precious resources government has should be used to create opportunity for people. "Protecting" the status quo and thereby the interest of those you no doubt associate with More.... |
| 1910 | Sun Dec 09 00:40:28 EST 2012 | Marquis Morris | charlotte, NC | The word Illegal only makes the young venture out and explore the unknown for crued or sane drug dealers who dont care about there age but about thrre money |
| 1909 | Wed Dec 05 22:18:18 EST 2012 | Marcos Lavrador | Post Falls, ID | By making it a legal, regulated product, availability can be restricted, under-age use curtailed, enforcement, court, and incarceration costs reduced, and the profit removed from a massive underground More.... |
| 1908 | Wed Dec 05 17:39:00 EST 2012 | Elizabeth Wrobleski | PA | Use tax dollars to prevent situations in which people are truly being harmed. |
| 1907 | Wed Nov 28 10:20:55 EST 2012 | Jennifer Simpson | Legalization=Diffuse the drugs profitability for the drug dealers and regulate and tax it. Less crime, more tax revenue, less wasted police and court system resources. Less young men falling into the More.... | |
| 1906 | Mon Nov 26 15:56:30 EST 2012 | Anonymous | Austin, TX | "Violence begets violence and war only brings more war. Stop wasting time, too much of all our resources(think about this) and let the Peace Officers get back to protecting our people, like they've More.... |
