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Mrju
na Decriminalization in New York City
Jake Grumbach, Columbia Universiy
Decriminalizing marijuana would save taxpayers millions of dollars,reduce rates of incarceration, and allow law enforcement to focus onmore serious crimes.
The Giuliani Adminisraion made marijuana enorcemen and prosecuion aprinciple issue in he 1990s, increasing marijuana arress rom abou 10,000o 51,267 annually in jus ouryears. Marijuana use, o course,has no increased iveold,bu raher risen by only a ewpercen since Giuliani beganhis irs erm. This increasedocus on marijuana crimeshas no helped New York Ciyoverall, bu raher has been anegaive orce ha is no basedon popular opinion or acualevidence.Some ciies, such as Denver,have ully decriminalizedmarijuana, meaning here areno penalies or possessiono less han one ounce o hesubsance or individuals over21. Ohers, like San Francisco,have passed legislaion ooicially make marijuana crimes he police deparmen’s lowes prioriy.The numerous sudies o suchsaes and ciies have concludedha decriminalizaion creaesno increase in use; even hebroades esimaes show onlya 2 percen increase. The daahereby suggess ha “BrokenWindows Theory” does no apply:soer and more raional penaliesdo no promoe marijuana use.Given ha decriminalizaionpolicies do no increase use,here are a number o reasonsha marijuana decriminalizaionhas he poenial o posiively
Key Facts
New York Ciy has he highes level o mari-
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 juana arress in he world or any ciy, asmany as 100 per day.“Marijuana in public view” crimes made up
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15 percen o all elony and misdemeanor ar-ress in New York in 2000.Arican Americans make up 28 percen o
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New York Ciy, bu 54 percen o marijuanaarress, even hough whies have a higherrae o per capia.Marijuana enorcemen, processing, and
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senencing cos axpayers $7.6 billion peryear, according o a Jon Getman repor.A CNN/Time poll ound ha 76 percen o
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Americans avor a decriminalized ne overcriminal penalies or marijuana possession.
Talking Points
Major sudies have shown ha marijuana
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decriminalizaion has a minimal or negli-gible eec on consumpion levels.Decriminalizing marijuana will save money
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or New York Ciy axpayers, help sophe overcrowding o prisons, and will allowpolice o gh more imporan crimes.Marijuana decriminalizaion would lower
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disrus and anagonism o he NYPDrom New York Ciy low income and mi-noriy communiies.The Drug War coss axpayers $35 billion
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per year.
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