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Pressure on New York Senate for Marijuana Decriminalization Fix

June 16th

NEW YORK, NY — New York City elected officials called on Senate leaders Friday to put to a vote a bill that will end the biased and costly practices of falsely arresting tens of thousands of people in New York for low-level marijuana possession before the end of the legislative session Thursday.

They were joined by dozens of advocates and impacted people to urge passage before the legislative session ends next week. The proposal outlined in Gov. Cuomo’s 2013 State of the State Address would decriminalize possessing up to 15 grams of marijuana in public view, while smoking in public would remain a misdemeanor.

One year ago, the NY City Council voted on a resolution to support legislation in Albany to end these arrests. Since that legislation failed to pass last year, nearly 50,000 more people were arrested as a result of this broken law. Fixing the law would help end the practice of arresting tens of thousands of young people per year for possessing marijuana in public view when police demand that someone “empty their pockets” during a stop-and-frisk encounter.

The bill,  Assembly Bill 6716/Senate Bill 3105. . . . . READ MORE

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Judge Strikes Down Colorado Rule Restricting Marijuana Magazine Sales

June 12th

DENVER, CO — A federal judge on Tuesday struck down a provision of Colorado’s marijuana legalization law that would have required stores to sell cannabis-themed publications behind the counter, like pornography.

Magazine publishers and bookstores had filed a lawsuit against the state last week, arguing that the measure, passed by the Colorado legislature this spring, should be overturned before it takes effect on July 1.

U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch’s ruling came a day after the state attorney general’s office, which would have defended the measure in court, agreed with the plaintiffs that it was unconstitutional.

“The defendants have conceded the invalidity of the code provision cited in the complaints,” Matsch said in his order granting a permanent injunction.

Colorado voters approved the recreational use of marijuana by adults last fall and charged lawmakers with setting up regulations to sell and tax cannabis products.

Supporters of the behind-the-counter provision said it was aimed at reducing juveniles’ exposure to the material.

But publi. . . . . READ MORE

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Black Arrest Rate for Marijuana Offenses Four Times That of Whites

June 9th

NEW YORK, NY — African Americans are far more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession offenses than are whites, according to an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) report released this week that analyzes arrest data from 945 counties nationwide.

The report found that blacks were approximately four times as likely as whites to be arrested for marijuana possession in 2010, even though both ethnicities consumed the substance at similar rates. Authors reported that the racial disparity in arrest rates had grown significantly over the past decade and that in some states – including Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin – African Americans were nearly eight times as likely as Caucasians to be arrested for cannabis possession.

Overall, blacks were more likely than whites to be arrested for cannabis violations in 908 of the 945 counties reviewed by the ACLU.

“We found that in virtually every county in the country, police have wasted taxpayer money enforcing marijuana laws in a racially biased manner,” said Ezekiel Edwards, the director of the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project and the lead author of the report.

Authors also estimated that states in 2010 spent an estimated $3.6 billion enforcing marijuana possession laws, a 30 percent increase from ten years earlier. This total included $1,747,157,206 . . . . . READ MORE

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Black Arrest Rate for Marijuana Offenses Four Times That of Whites

June 9th

NEW YORK, NY — African Americans are far more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession offenses than are whites, according to an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) report released this week that analyzes arrest data from 945 counties nationwide.

The report found that blacks were approximately four times as likely as whites to be arrested for marijuana possession in 2010, even though both ethnicities consumed the substance at similar rates. Authors reported that the racial disparity in arrest rates had grown significantly over the past decade and that in some states – including Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin – African Americans were nearly eight times as likely as Caucasians to be arrested for cannabis possession.

Overall, blacks were more likely than whites to be arrested for cannabis violations in 908 of the 945 counties reviewed by the ACLU.

“We found that in virtually every county in the country, police have wasted taxpayer money enforcing marijuana laws in a racially biased manner,” said Ezekiel Edwards, the director of the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project and the lead author of the report.

Authors also estimated that states in 2010 spent an estimated $3.6 billion enforcing marijuana possession laws, a 30 percent increase from ten years earlier. This total included $1,747,157,206 . . . . . READ MORE

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Blacks Targeted in Wasteful War on Marijuana, ACLU Finds

June 8th

NEW YORK, NY — Black Americans are nearly four times more likely to get busted for marijuana possession than white ones, even though both groups smoke pot at roughly comparable rates, the ACLU said in a report released Tuesday.

The report, The War on Marijuana in Black and White: Billions of Dollars Wasted on Racially Biased Arrests,” is based on the annual FBI Uniform Crime Report and US Census Bureau Data.

The disparity in arrest rates is startlingly consistent, the report found. In more than 96% of the counties covered in the report, blacks were arrested at higher rates than whites. Racial disparities in pot busts came in large counties and small, urban and rural, wealthy and poor, with large black populations and with small ones.

In some counties, the disparity rose to 15 times more likely, and in the Upper Midwest states of Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota, blacks were eight times more likely to be arrested for pot possession than whites. Nationwide, blacks were 3.73 times more likely to get arrested for marijuana than whites.

And it’s getting worse, not better. The report found that even though the racial disparities in marijuana arrests existed 10 years ago, they have increased in 38 states and the District of Columbia.

“The war on marijuana has disproportionately been a war on people of color,” said Ezekiel Edward. . . . . READ MORE

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