New York Spends $75 Million A Year On Marijuana Arrests

Seeing as how marijuana possession is the number one reason for arrest in New York City, it may come as no surprise that New York City taxpayers spent 75 million dollars last year to put pot-smokers behind bars.

The report estimates the cost of processing each misdemeanor marijuana arrest at $1500 to $2000. Last year in New York City, there were 50,300 such arrests- even though marijuana possession below a certain amount is technically not a crime.

Gothamist explains:

Possession of 25 grams or less of marijuana and should not lead to arrest unless it is burning or "in public view." So when police conduct their beloved stop and frisks, they tell the suspect to empty his or her pockets. And voila, the marijuana is in public view!

Many are also concerned that those arrested are overwhelmingly non-white. Another report finds that
86 percent of those arrested in New York for marijuana possession are Black or Latino.

Pressed by Harlem Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito at a recent budget hearing as to why police are spending so much money arresting petty pot-smokers, NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelley responded, "If you think the law is not written correctly, then you should petition the state Legislature to change it. The law clearly says if you have marijuana in public view, you should be arrested. It's a misdemeanor."

The news comes as other states are struggling to define and implement new, less harsh marijuana laws. Earlier this week Connecticut Governor Daniel P. Malloy proposed a measure to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana in a group of bills meant to reduce the state's prison population.

Comments

[Tracey MacDonald]

06:33 PM on 04/26/2011

Have you heard about Cathy O'Brien - Trance Formation of America? I quote: "the effects of marijuana on the brain are not condusive to mind control, it doesn't mean you can't be traumatise and put under mind control, it screws up the programming, because it opens neuron pathways in the brain - it expands thought." For total mind-control or at the very least 'information-control', the government prefer to use cocaine, and ecstacy etc...

[ajbiggs]

08:51 AM on 03/21/2011

Mayor Bloombucks rational: Y legalize a drug where 85% of it's users/dealers r minorities?

[Tracey MacDonald]

06:39 PM on 04/26/2011

I would have thought that 85% of the people you are talking about are heavy users of pharmaceuticals, getting their drugs from their pushers (doctors) and dealers (chemist), most people I know of are not minorities, and who exactly set the limit for the minorities? I'm guessing that 13 is the number - mmm an Illiminati number, highly significant. Forget the pot, most people believe it to be evil, but they have been information-controlled by the media by spreading propaganda.

[Bali Boy]

05:59 AM on 03/21/2011

http://www.gallup.com/poll/19561/who-supports-marijuana-legalization.aspx

You don't have the support. In fact, once the movement had been identified, there is now a counter-culture developing.

Here, in the next five years...you will start finding that polls and public opinion for pro-legalization will not favor you.

Not to mention....Seattle, WA had a pro-legalization shout out....and....it went bad.

Try again in say, 2, 3, oh maybe 5 generations from now.

Oh I forgot one last thing....

...oh yah, now I remember.....


NO!

[Tyler Blasted]

10:09 PM on 03/21/2011

LOL.

That poll is from 2005. Its over 6 years old.

Whats wrong? Don't like current polls?

[Bali Boy]

05:43 AM on 03/30/2011

Nope.

Just like more of you in my handcuffs and carted off to jail.

Oh...you have money right? To pay for you drug-o-choice? Great!!!! You have money to pay the fines.

Deal with it. :)

What part of NO do you not understand? Medical is okay....welcome to Marinol. No tokking up. There's your future...pills. :) No "casual" use. I win...you lose.

[Bali Boy]

05:50 AM on 03/21/2011

*yawn*

"You lost the drug war..."

Nope. Everyday, more of your soldiers are getting arrested and being fined and put into jail.

"It costs money for you to fight the war..."

Yep, and it costs money to arrest, fine and imprison other criminals. Price society pays.

"I'm smoking a joint right now, my line of logic and reason is being influenced, I make up twisted-logic and make outrageous comments of false hopes for my drug of choice and lifestyle..."

I love the "Earlier this week Connecticut Governor Daniel P. Malloy proposed a measure to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana..." finale.

Quit teasing the lost hopefuls. It's not going to pass. This comes up every week, in every city-county-state of the U.S.A. ....and after the pro-legalization B* & Whine fest....it still doesn't get legalized.

Was no. Is no. Going to be no.

Get use to this word: NO.

[vgmgc]

10:20 PM on 03/24/2011

This may surprise you, but some people who want marijuana legalized don't smoke it! Some of us even have no intention of smoking it even if it were legalized. Baffling, I know, but it is true.

[iLoveOldNY]

12:15 AM on 03/21/2011

How about we spend that $75 million on education?

[Bali Boy]

05:51 AM on 03/21/2011

Sorry...your President spent that throwing missles at Libya today, to secure oil right...uh...I mean...aid the rebels into a new era of democracy.

[vgmgc]

10:18 PM on 03/24/2011

You mean the same thing Bush (from your attitude, I'm going to say YOUR President) did in Iraq?

[MissIndependentLady]

07:24 PM on 03/20/2011

Prohibition doesn't work. Legalize it already!

[Bali Boy]

05:52 AM on 03/21/2011

I see it working fine.

More arrests, fines and jail time. It's not working for you though, is it? :)

[MissIndependentLady]

07:45 AM on 03/21/2011

Are you being sarcastic?

[MadCroation]

10:45 AM on 03/19/2011

And they could balance their budget by taxing it instead. No there isn't any sign of intelligent life here. Lets try that red planet over there.

[Paul Paul]

12:15 PM on 03/18/2011

Please don't tax marijuana, that's how this whole mess atrted in the first place with the marijuana tax act 1937. Taxes on things are discriminatory. Just tax profits. Only tax money. No fees for plants and growing. Let everyone start their own business and mind your own.

[unique]

11:25 AM on 03/18/2011

Imagine how much money New York would make if marijuana was legalized and taxed.

[bluguy8]

08:28 AM on 03/18/2011

Legalize it - tax it and move on . That's a waste of money for sure . Keeping it illegal will never stop it's users

[loosebowel]

06:38 PM on 03/17/2011

And now hundreds of teacher could lose their jobs. What they left out was the amount of money cops make on overtime for these arrests and court apearances that can drag out for months or longer. Then the cops get promoted to seargent or higher based on the amount of arrests they make. And, oh, the news media always happen to be on the scene when all this happens. I wonder who is the winner here?

[Elliott Cummings]

05:15 PM on 03/17/2011

Entities that profit from marijuana and hemp being illegal:

--The police unions who lobby for enforcement jobs,
--The prison builders who lobby for contracts,
--The prison guard unions who lobby for jobs,
--Manufacturers of surveillance equipment used for monitoring the Internet, and used in police cars and prisons,
--The energy industry (corn ethanol and oil), which would face competition from hemp oil,
--The clothing and cotton industry, which would face competition from hemp fiber,
--The drug testing industry,
--The drug rehab industry, which profits from more customers,
--Pharmaceutical drug manufacturers, who profit from their "substitutes",
--The alcohol industry, who produces a competing product in mind-altering substances,
--The chemotherapy industry (would decline from more marijuana use)
--Attorneys, who have more jobs due to people going to court for such offenses,
--The CIA, known for transporting drugs from war-zone countries such as Afghanistan,
--Military contractors, who manufacture the drug-spraying planes,
--Weapons manufacturers who profit from a more violent society which marijuana helps calm, not to mention the weapons that drug traffickers and dealers use to establish their territory and resolve disputes outside of the court,
--The international bankers, that benefit from trade deficits and government debt that came from spending on said police unions, the prison industry, and the lack of jobs due to marijuana being illegal; also profiting from the money laundering that drug cartels need to use,
--Not to mention the cartels themselves profiting from the sales.

There is TRILLION$$$$$ invested in keeping it illegal

[duncan20903]

04:40 PM on 03/17/2011

If the powers that be had as much control over the people as some seem to think, Marie Antoinette would have been buried in one piece.

Why in the world did these supposedly omnipotent special interest groups allow medical cannabis to be implemented in 15 States + DC?

"There is as much chance of repealing the eighteenth amendment as there is for a hummingbird to fly to the planet Mars with the Washington Monument tied to its tail."
---Texas Senator Morris Sheppard

[Christian Vative]

04:31 PM on 03/17/2011

Jesus said to do unto others as we would have them to do unto us. None of us would want our child thrown in jail with the sexual predators for using a little marijuana. None of us would want to see our parent's home confiscated and sold by the police for growing a couple of marijuana plants to ease the aches and pains of growing older. It's time to stop putting our own families in jail. It's time to let ordinary Americans grow a little marijuana in their own back yards, and it's nice to see our culture coming to terms with this in a more wholesome fashion. This will go a long way toward putting the criminal drug gangs out of business for good!

[Christian Vative]

04:27 PM on 03/17/2011

IT might also be in the best interests of those being frisked: Don't empty your pockets. Any attorneys out there have an opinion on that? (Preferable an attorney in NYC; I mean, what would happen if the frisked individual simply declined to empty his or her pockets?)