It may be a hard sell for legislators and police, but on the evening of Sept. 18, Manhattan DA Cy Vance got the chance to voice his support for cannabis legalization to a very sympathetic audience.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, a group of herbal advocates and cannabis entrepreneurs showed up to hear Vance speak before the monthly\u00a0CannaGather<\/a>\u00a0networking meeting, held at Lower Manhattan\u2019s\u00a0Galvanize<\/a>\u00a0venue. Vance was the featured speaker that night and he won enthusiastic applause before he\u2019d even said a word. The assembled were aware of his new policy, officially instated on Aug. 1, of\u00a0declining to prosecute New Yorkers for simple cannabis possession,<\/a>\u00a0as well as his more recent move to\u00a0toss out some 3,000 warrants<\/span><\/a>\u00a0for low-level pot offenses dating back to 1978.<\/span><\/p>\n Vance was also giving out copies of the\u00a0new study<\/a>\u00a0released by his office in May, titled \u201cMarijuana, Fairness and Public Safety: A Report on the Legalization of Recreational Marijuana in the United States.\u201d The report is clearly aimed primarily at New York state legislators, who may\u00a0soon be considering the legalization question<\/a>.<\/p>\n Vance invoked the two principles stated in the report\u2019s title in his opening remarks, making clear that fairness and public safety are the twin touchstones for his policy decisions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a simple mission in the Manhattan DA office,\u201d he said. \u201cWe look at everything we do and ask: Does it make us safer and does it make the justice system fairer? I\u2019ve become convinced that prosecution for minor possession of marijuana advances neither goal.\u201d<\/p>\n He also noted the \u201cvery disproportionate enforcement\u201d of pot offenses in New York City. \u201cFor every white person arrested, there are 15 people of color,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Restating the policy that has now been in place for a month and a half, he said, \u201cOur office will not prosecute for simple possession or smoking, only if a sale is observed.\u201d He did acknowledge that sometimes the charge can still be for\u00a0mere possession, but only in such cases as \u201cif the buyer runs away.\u201d<\/p>\n The traditional police practice (now\u00a0also being changed<\/a>\u00a0by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio) of prosecuting people who have cannabis is \u201cnot proportionate,\u201d Vance said. \u201cIf you\u2019re speeding down the West Side Highway, you just get a ticket \u2014 for smoking a joint, you go to jail. We\u2019re not saying there shouldn\u2019t be a consequence for breaking the law, but we shouldn\u2019t create sanctions for laws that are no longer sensible.\u201d<\/p>\n Vance asserted that his rethinking of the old policy is having results.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cOver last 18 years I\u2019ve been DA, the number cases prosecuted annually has dropped from 100,000 to half that,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we expect it to be down to 40,000 next year.\u201d In the past, \u201cprosecutions have overwhelmingly been for low-level offenses like marijuana possession, which is now down to 5,000 per year.\u201d<\/p>\n Pot prosecutions in the city have long been second only to \u201ctheft of services\u201d \u2014 that is, beating the subway fare, or \u201cturnstile-jumping,\u201d as New Yorkers call it. This is now down to 10,000 per year and is expected to likewise drop \u2014 on Feb. 1, Vance\u2019s office instated a similar no-prosecution policy for this offense.<\/p>\n Vance said there has been an \u201cenormously sharp drop in arrests under the new policy since Aug 1.\u201d He also boasted of results in \u201cracial equity,\u201d with \u201cless black and brown young men and women getting arrested. We have a lot of work to do restoring trust between communities and police.\u201d<\/p>\n Vance portrayed the intolerant attitudes of former city administrations as outdated, \u201cWe\u2019re a different city than in the \u201980s. There has been a 90 percent reduction in homicides since then. We think there should be a peace dividend. We can be more selective about prosecuting low-level criminal cases.\u201d<\/p>\n While Vance\u2019s May report stopped just short of openly advocating for cannabis legalization, he pulled no punches in front of the CannaGather crowd.<\/p>\n \u201cI think marijuana legalization is coming,\u201d he said. In preparing his study, Vance said his team met with officials from states that have legalized to get a sense of how it has impacted fairness and public safety.<\/p>\n \u201cWe here in New York state don\u2019t have to be afraid of legalization,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n He said there are still more things to study before state lawmakers will be ready to legalize. He noted the particularly tricky question of\u00a0road safety<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cCurrently, there is no test as there is with alcohol to determine how much THC is too much when you\u2019re behind the wheel. We need to have our police departments figure that out, with good science,\u201d he said. He also addressed the issue of responsible packaging, invoking the specter of kids ingesting \u201cmarijuana gummy bears<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to make it rational for legislatures to approve legalization,\u201d he concluded. And signing off to the crowd of cannabis-industry hopefuls, he added, \u201cI want you all to be successful and legal.\u201d<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong> do you think New York will be the next state to legalize cannabis?<\/p>\n The post Manhattan\u2019s District Attorney Says New York \u2018Doesn\u2019t Have To Be Afraid\u2019 of Legalization<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
It may be a hard sell for legislators and police, but on the evening of Sept. 18, Manhattan DA Cy Vance got the chance to voice his support for cannabis legalization to a very sympathetic audience. On Tuesday, a group of herbal advocates and cannabis entrepreneurs showed up to hearContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4256,50,5893,94,90,65,470,5187,208,593],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29400"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29400"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29401,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29400\/revisions\/29401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A Policing \u2018Peace Dividend\u2019<\/h4>\n
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Coming Out for Legalization<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Manhattan\u2019s District Attorney Says New York \u2018Doesn\u2019t Have To Be Afraid\u2019 of Legalization<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"