New York Pot Decriminalization Goes Up in Smoke
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Decriminalizing small quantities of pot won't pass due to staunch opposition from Repubs
Decriminalizing small quantities of pot won't pass due to staunch opposition from Repubs
SOURCE: www.rawstory.com AUTHOR: Stephen C. Webster A bill supported by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) that would have decriminalized possessing small quantities of marijuana will not pass during this legislative session due to staunch opposition from Republicans in the state Senate. The current legislative session ends Thursday, and lawmakers are not due to return until January. The law requires a three day waiting period before bills can become law, meaning an agreement would have had to be reached by Monday night for decriminalization to have a chance.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Cuomo admitted that the bill seemed unlikely to pass, saying that it would "take more time to explain." His reasoning for reducing marijuana penalties comes after thousands have joined street protests targeting the law's current misapplication across ethnic groups. According to data from the New York Civil Liberties Union, New York police officers conducted nearly 685,724 stop-and-frisk searches just last year: a 600 percent increase since NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg first took office.
Eighty-eight percent of the people stopped in those incidents were found totally innocent; eighty-seven percent of those stopped were black or Latino. The bill was supported by police and prosecutors, and the mayor said it would help free up officers to focus on more serious crime while simultaneously saving the city money on law enforcement and boosting revenues through increased financial penalties for people caught with marijuana.
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