Bad Timing: End to pot prosecutions is too late for many
NEW YORK — They might be the unluckiest pot smokers in New York.
Saying the government’s war on marijuana has hit minorities too hard, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said last month his office would stop prosecuting people for simple possession or public use of the drug as of Aug. 1. But that midsummer start date comes too late for the people still being dragged into court on the charge now.
College student Allain Laporte, 24, was pinched by police in April for smoking marijuana on a bench in Union Square.
“I had no idea there were two undercover detectives across from me who waited till I almost finished the joint,” he said. “They came up to me, confiscated the joint, patted me down, put handcuffs on my wrists and brought me to the precinct. It was embarrassing.”
He was fingerprinted, photographed for a mug shot and put into a cell, barefoot, before being released.
On May 21, Laporte faced a judge with a lawyer from the Legal Aid Society at his side. His case was handled like most minor marijuana possession charges in New York City courts these days: The case was postponed, and if he has no further legal trouble for six months, the charges will be dismissed and the case sealed.
Still, Laporte said he resented the experience and felt that if he were white, he wouldn’t have been arrested in the first place.
“I feel as if it’s unfair to me, because based on my race, or even my gender — I’m a male AfricanAmerican — I just felt as if I shouldn’t have gotten arrested for a minor misdemeanor such as smoking marijuana,” he said.
Laporte’s court appearance came six days after Vance, citing evidence of racial disparity in marijuana enforcement, announced that he will largely stop prosecuting people for possessing or smoking marijuana in August except for a few cases involving “public safety concerns.” His office said it expected marijuana prosecutions in the borough to drop from roughly 5,000 per year to about 200.
“The dual mission of the Manhattan DA’s Office is a safer New York and a more equal justice system,” Vance said in a statement. “The ongoing arrest and criminal prosecution of predominantly black and brown New Yorkers for smoking marijuana serves neither of these goals.”
On the same day, Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, said the city’s police department would be overhauling its marijuana arrest policies. Brooklyn’s district attorney said he also would reduce prosecutions to a very small number.
And a task force created by Gov. Andrew Cuomo also is considering whether or not to propose legalizing marijuana for recreational use. For now, only medical marijuana is legal in New York, under strict rules with licensed sales.
Cuomo’s leading opponent in the Democratic primary, Cynthia Nixon, supports legalization.