Unlike
cases of marijuana possession (those below the set legal amount), cases that won't disappear from the courts are those involving trafficking and growing marijuana.
When facing the serious
charge of marijuana possession for the purposes of trafficking, you need a criminal defence lawyer who is current on the legal issues and meticulous in preparing your defence.
Citing statistics from the state's Division of Criminal Justice Services, the Police Reform Organizing Project (PROP) said that 93 percent
of marijuana possession arrests in the first three months of this year involved blacks and Hispanics.
Gabriel Sayegh, New York state director for the Drug Policy Alliance, said 50,683 people in the city were arrested for the lowest level
of marijuana possession in 2011.
A 2016 report from the Police Reform Organizing Project, an advocacy group, found that people of color accounted for more than nine out of 10 arrests made on
suspicion of marijuana possession and sale in New York City.
When City Councilman Daniel Dromm (D - Jackson Heights) criticized Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration for the large
number of marijuana possession arrests made on his watch and advocated for legalizing medical marijuana, he said he was not dismissing the drug's ill effects.
Under legislation sponsored by Brooklyn Councilman Stephen Levin, Police Commissioner James O'Neill would be required to submit a report on the number
of marijuana possession enforcement actions within 25 days of the end of each quarter to the Council and post it to the NYPD's website five days after that time.
According to 2017 statistics compiled by the state, blacks accounted for 48 percent of arrests in New York City for the lowest
level of marijuana possession, while Latinos accounted for 38 percent, compared to 9 percent for whites.
As The New York Times reported this morning, Cuomo plans to announce legislation that would decriminalize certain
amounts of marijuana possession in order to cut down on stop and frisk arrests.
City Councilman Daniel Dromm (r.) speaks to the New Visions Democratic Club about enforcement
of marijuana possession rules while Gabriel Sayegh (l.), of the Drug Policy Alliance, looks on.
Possession of small amounts of marijuana is a crime only if the marijuana is in public view or if it is being smoked in public, but
many of the marijuana possession arrests have been occurring when the police order someone stopped to empty his or her pockets, making the marijuana visible — a phenomenon the governor called an «aggravated complication» of the stop - and - frisk practice.
Ed «NJ Weedman» Forchion has issued a Request for Medical Clemency today requesting that New Jersey governor Chris Christie grant clemency for a Stay of Sentence, pending his appeal of Judge Delaney's court rulings regarding his conviction on a victimless
offense of marijuana possession, which he uses to treat very painful bone cancer tumors.
Former Minnesota Golden Gophers wide receiver A.J. Barker was arrested Sunday night in Houston, Texas, on
suspicion of marijuana possession, according to court records obtained by the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
So far this year, the department has made 24,081 arrests
of marijuana possession, Mr. Bratton said.
Seriously ill medical marijuana patients in Minnesota are still being prosecuted for the «crime»
of marijuana possession or cultivation may find that other legal defenses will have greater efficacy than the medical necessity defense, or jury nullification.