NEW YORK TIMES Editorial: …The plan does not condone marijuana use. People smoking marijuana in public would still be subject to arrest. But it reduces open possession of 25 grams or less from a misdemeanor, which involves arrest and a criminal record, to a violation, akin to a traffic ticket. Even under the proposal, a person charged with a marijuana violation more than twice in a three-year period would be subject to a $250 fine or a sentence of up to 15 days in jail, or both.
The plan would reduce marijuana arrests, allowing prosecutors to focus their resources on serious crime. That was the Legislature’s intent when it decriminalized simple possession of small amounts of marijuana in 1977. Arrests declined initially, but they soared from less than 1,000 in 1990 to more than 50,000 in 2011 in New York City, with most of those arrested being black and Hispanic.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, back the Cuomo plan, as do the city’s district attorneys and Kathleen Rice, the district attorney of Nassau County, part of which Mr. Skelos represents. Mr. Skelos says he is concerned about the complaint from civil rights groups that police order people to empty their pockets to expose the drug so they can be arrested. The way to end that improper tactic is to decriminalize public possession of small amounts of marijuana. (more)
