Starting Wednesday, people who use or possess marijuana in Manhattan will not face prosecution.
District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. laid out the policy change in a press release Tuesday, announcing his office’s intent to reduce cannabis prosecutions by 96 percent annually in the New York City borough.
“Every day I ask our prosecutors to keep Manhattan safe and make our justice system more equal and fair,” Vance said. “The needless criminalization of pot smoking frustrates this core mission, so we are removing ourselves from the equation.”
“Our research has found virtually no
public safety rationale for the ongoing arrest and prosecution of
marijuana smoking, and no moral justification for the intolerable racial
disparities that underlie enforcement. Tomorrow, our Office will exit a
system wherein smoking a joint can ruin your job, your college
application, or your immigration status, but our advocacy will continue.
I urge New York lawmakers to legalize and regulate marijuana once and
for all.”
Vance, whose office previously commissioned a report on the effect of legalization in jurisdictions that have enacted it, first announced the new non-prosecution policy in May, and is now putting it into effect.
The move represents yet another localized, marijuana reform effort in the Empire State, where the prospect of full legalization appears increasingly likely. Just last week, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez touted new numbers showing a dramatic reduction in marijuana prosecution cases from January to June 2018.
The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office reported that prosecutors accepted 91 percent fewer marijuana cases since the pilot program started.
“Aggressive enforcement and prosecution of personal possession and use of marijuana does not keep us safer, and the glaring racial disparities in who is and is not arrested have contributed to a sense among many in our communities that the system is unfair,” Gonzalez said. “This in turn contributes to a lack of trust in law enforcement, which makes us all less safe.”“That is why, earlier this year, we expanded our existing non-prosecution policy to include smoking cases.”Both the Manhattan and Brooklyn District Attorney offices stipulated that their “decline to prosecute” policies will not apply in cases where the suspect poses a threat to public health, among other exceptions.
The greening of New York is also evident in recent political developments. For example, the state’s Democratic Party adopted a pro-legalization stance during its May convention.
And as the gubernatorial race has heated up—with incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo facing harsh criticism from his progressive, pro-legalization contender Cynthia Nixon—his administration released a state Health Department report concluding that the pros of marijuana legalization outweigh the cons earlier this month.
The full text of Manhattan’s new policy is below:
Beginning on August, 1, 2018, the Office
will no longer prosecute marijuana possession and smoking cases (PL §
221.10(1) and PL § 221.05). Assistant District Attorneys should use the
new “DP-Marijuana” template in ACT6 to decline to prosecute an arrest.
There are two limited exceptions to this policy. A prosecution may be
appropriate in either of the following circumstances:
— Cases against sellers: Examples include
observation sales where PL § 221.40 cannot be charged, or possession of
large quantities of marijuana individually packaged for sale (10 bags
or more).
— Demonstrated public safety threat: A
case where there is additional information from the NYPD or from our
Office which demonstrates that the individual otherwise poses a
significant threat to public safety, and an Office supervisor agrees
with that assessment.
Examples include a defendant currently under
active investigation for a violent offense or other serious crime.
Assistant District Attorneys must state
on the record at arraignment that ‘the case falls within one of the
limited exceptions to our marijuana policy.
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