Pot smoking teens across New York got some good news today from New York’s Democratic Governor.
In a press conference today, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he would ask legislators to consider amending marijuana laws to lower the penalty for public possession of small amounts of marijuana from a misdemeanor to a violation. Cuomo admitted that the current New York State laws regarding marijuana are overly excessive in light of news that 50,000 people are arrested annually for publicly possessing less than or equal to 25 grams, a small amount of pot.
The Governor noted that while the current laws make possession of small amounts of marijuana a violation if the substance is not in public view, complications regarding interpretation of the law do arise.
For example, the invasive “stop and frisk” laws that have been enacted by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an Independent, often place individuals in a position to be charged with a misdemeanor if they are carrying marijuana in their pockets.
As part of the stop and frisk laws, suspicious looking youths may be instructed by police to empty their pockets. If an individual is in possession of marijuana when patted down by the police, they have essentially gone from committing a violation to being charged with a misdemeanor. Instead of paying a fine, that individual is placed under arrest and faces jail time simply because an officer thought they “looked” suspicious and forced the person to empty his or her pockets.
Currently a private violation of possession marijuana of 25 grams or less comes with a maximum fine of $100. The Governor’s proposal seeks to make the penalty amount for public possession the same as the penalty for private possession, however he did not specify how many grams a person could carry in public without going to jail.
Last year, New York State made 53,124 arrests for minor possessions of marijuana, with 94 percent of those cases occurring in New York City.
Of those total arrests for minor possession of marijuana, more than half of those individuals were 25 years old or less, and 82 percent of the total arrests were of African-Americans or Hispanics.
Although he declined to specify the exact amount of marijuana that would be considered applicable under the new bill, Gov. Cuomo said that his law is designed to improve fairness in the interpretation of drug laws.
“This is an issue that disproportionately affects young people — they wind up with a permanent stain on their record for something that would otherwise be a violation,” Cuomo noted in a press release. “The charge makes it more difficult for them to find a job.”
