If you're a pot smoking African-American or Hispanic in New York City, chances are you and the NYPD are on a first-name basis.If you toke in the Big Apple, chances are you've had a run-in with one of New York's "finest." If you're African-American or Hispanic, chances are you and the NYPD are on a first-name basis.
That's the dope from a new study by investigators at the National Development Research Institute (NDRI) -- an independent New York City think-tank specializing in substance abuse issues.
The study, entitled "The race/ethnicity disparity in misdemeanor marijuana arrests in New York City," analyzes NYC marijuana arrest data from 1980 to 2006. Its authors pay particular attention to the startling number of defendants arrested for "possessing marijuana in the fifth degree" (aka smoking pot in public) -- a misdemeanor crime that city cops began enforcing en masse under former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's "Quality of Life" policing initiative. (Although the possession of less than 25 grams of pot is punishable under state law by a fine-only civil citation, New York Statute 221.10 defines the possession or use of marijuana "open to public view" as a criminal misdemeanor punishable by up five days in jail.) The study's findings, which appear in the spring 2007 edition of the journal Criminology and Public Policy, are a sobering reminder of how race and class largely determine who is impacted by the war on cannabis consumers.
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