New York has taken the next step in what many hope is a path toward legalizing marijuana. New York City mayor Bill de Blasio’s announcement followed an order sent to the NYPD to review how it enforces marijuana laws in the city. The announcement says that being caught smoking in public will result in a fine, up to $100. The consequences are similar to those who are caught drinking in public
Of course, someone caught smoking in public with open warrants, on probation, driving under the influence, or without ID would still face the possibility of arrest. The announcement is more than likely, or at least hopefully, in response to recent investigations which revealed the ridiculous statistics on who is arrested for marijuana possession. A New York Times investigation found that New York City’s black residents are arrested on lower-level marijuana charges at eight times the rate of white residents.
This is not a new issue, many are aware of the disproportionate amount of black and Hispanic people who are prosecuted for low-level marijuana charges, as well as pretty much any other crime out there. The underlying racism of this trend can’t be addressed so simply, but one solution is to simply legalize marijuana, which does far less harm than alcohol and is the cause for so many unnecessary arrests.
According to de Blasio, the new policy should cut the number of marijuana-related arrests across the city by about 10,000 per year. Last year New York City had 17,500 weed-related arrests, so this step will certainly make a difference.
While cutting down on arrests for marijuana is a really good step, it doesn’t do enough. According to executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union Donna Lieberman, “For New York to achieve common sense criminal justice and public health policies, we need to legalize marijuana at the state level.” This new step is the first on the path to legalization, which other states have achieved successfully, and which Canada just became the second country to enact.
With everything going on in the US today, it’s important to remain hopeful about issues that are being solved, and this is a small but meaningful win. The US is far from legalizing marijuana at the federal level, but New York is one step closer to repairing an issue based in racism.
