Time is nigh for a legalized high

Manhattan: I agree with the Daily News (“End the war on pot,” editorial, May 18). New York State should legalize and regulate the cultivation, sale, and consumption of marijuana — as my office concluded in our report on “Marijuana, Fairness and Public Safety” this week. Our report, based on six months of research and interviews with law enforcement in states where marijuana is legal, gives lawmakers a roadmap on how to get this done safely, with little impact on our quality of life.

Our report also documents the intolerable racial disparities inherent in marijuana enforcement, and how these arrests can ruin New Yorkers’ jobs, college applications, and immigration status — all for no clear purpose, when police can issue summonses instead.

As district attorney, I’m guided by two basic questions. Does a particular policy make us safer, and is it fair? The arrest and prosecution of predominantly black and brown New Yorkers for smoking marijuana serves neither of these goals.

In our office, we’re going to start declining to prosecute marijuana possession and smoking on Aug 1. A better, more permanent, statewide solution is to legalize and regulate pot. And just as we do for public consumption of alcohol, let’s have police enforce quality of life encroachments through tickets — instead of needless, life-altering arrests. Cy Vance, Manhattan district attorney

Weed it out

Yonkers: I’ve been reading the Daily News for over 40 years and always respected what it had to say. But “Weed the People” (editorial, May 18)? Really? To legalize marijuana, I am totally against this. We have enough things to worry about in this country without having to worry about “stoned out” cab drivers, bus drivers and pilots too. You people at The News must be high on something to even suggest that. Francisco Matos

Learn from Prohibition

Brooklyn: After the repeal of prohibition, America didn’t turn into a country of alcoholics. Consequently, modernizing marijuana laws would not result in nationwide reefer madness. On the other hand, it would end the inequitable imprisonment of tens of thousands for a minor offense, as well as boost federal, state and local treasuries. Neil S. Friedman

The Colorado example

Manhattan: What Mayor de Blasio should do is to legalize marijuana for recreational use. I visited Denver which has its own marijuana shops where one can buy cannabis and also enclosed legal shops where one can smoke marijuana, just like New York City has cigar stores around the city where you can purchase your favorite cigar and smoke. In Denver, you will get arrested or summonsed if you smoke in public. Also the city of New York can use the extra revenue for other needed programs. Mayor, go and see what Denver has done and see how beautiful legalization works. Fareed Sari

Sober up

Rockaway Park: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Sen. Chuck Schumer both want to legalize marijuana use. The last thing we need is for more people to get high. We need more citizens sober — using their minds and bodies the way they were meant to. Experience tells us the use of drugs was always an experiment for young people looking for quick happiness. It never stayed with the use of just one drug. That’s why it was known as “experimenting” with drugs. We have an epidemic with opioid use. Thousands of young people have lost their lives overdosing on opioids. And now Gillibrand is trying to make legalizing marijuana a racial issue, when actually in this current epidemic, the majority of deaths are among white kids. My daughter recently received a master’s degree from Brooklyn College. The majority of students receiving their masters were minorities — and the majority of them were black students. The pride shown by the students and their families was evident. Do not tell me black families want more drug use. Timothy Haggerty

Dumb public

Manhattan: What am I missing here? If people — regardless of race, creed or ethnic identity — are stupid enough to get busted for doing a doob in public. . .then the law is unfair? and discriminatory? Puhleeeeeze. Fred Kratz

Pot’s permeable presence

Manhattan: I wonder how many of the politicians eager to decriminalize marijuana possession live in apartment houses where the smell of pot permeates the walls. Is the sudden urge really about racism or is it to regain the tax money formerly collected from cigarette smokers? I have no objection to medical marijuana, but I do feel that not enough (if any) research has been done on long time use and on secondhand smoke. Children live in the buildings where smokers “toke,” and at a time when people cannot smoke tobacco in their apartments it seems hypocritical to allow pot smoking. Marilyn Levin

Substance of hypocrisy

Brooklyn: So we will now legalize marijuana, which kills multiple brain cells with each toke, and provide safe havens for heroin users to shoot up, which isn’t an incentive to achieve the ultimate goal of quitting. Meanwhile, if you smoke a cigarette while you walk, the City Council thinks you should be fined, and if you smoke cigarettes in general you are a heathen. Sounds par for the course from a liberal Democrat administration. David DiBello

Adding up the numbers

Whitestone: Finally, someone who is not running for political office or already in office has spoken out (“Marijuana arrests are not racist,” Op-Ed, May 17). I applaud Seth Barron for pointing out the reason for the disproportionate number of marijuana arrest in certain communities. This is based on complaints from the communities that are angered about people smoking it on their stoops and corners. With the DAs refusing to prosecute marijuana arrest and the police only issuing summons, we are going to run into the same problem. Those who are issued a summons are not going to court and pay their fine. Then a warrant for arrest will be issued and the DAs can then erase untold thousands more arrest warrants. Talk about a crazy cycle. Kim F. Cody

Crediting Obama

Bronx: Voicer Bob Manning has his facts wrong. President Obama lowered the unemployment rate from over 10% to less than 5% by bailing out the auto industry, etc. Trump has done nothing for the economy except ride Obama’s coattails. It was a mistake to get out of the Iran deal, since Iran was in compliance. In addition, North Korea states that denuclearization is a complete non-starter. His tax cut was primarily for the billionaires and millionaires and did nothing for the economy.

Juanita M. Johnson

Overbearing counsel

Manhattan: Robert Mueller’s good work (editorial, May 17)? Give us a break! To have a special counsel, the scope of whose investigations is apparently unlimited, is to have a police state. What do the actions of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates 10 or more years ago have to do with “Russian collusion”? Michael Flynn was apparently not thought KEVIN C. DOWNS/DAILY NEWS by the FBI to have lied, but not told this before being squeezed by Mueller into pleading guilty (he was running out of money to defend himself). How about George Papadopoulos? A very junior guy, he was fed false information, lured into going to England by some shady Russian, “happened” to run into the Australian ambassador to the UK (!) at a bar, and drunkenly blabbed about “Russian interference.” Too neat. But since we have the Mueller microscope placed on President Trump and anyone connected with him, let’s use it to reexamine Hillary Clinton and her crew, too. What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander!

Nancy Brenner

Real witch hunts of Salem

Flushing: One of the worst witch hunts in America took place in Salem, in the 17th century. Hundreds of people were jailed and 20 were executed. The people arrested in this current FBI investigation will receive fair trials, unlike the innocent people of Salem. There is no comparison between the two “hunts.” Cathi Venis

Mind the language

Staten Island: As much as I dislike President Trump, there are two things I dislike more — murderous gang members who are here legally and illegally and those who defend them. Wake up, people, MS-13 is dangerous! They are not the salt of the earth.

Angela Gonsowski