It was on Tuesday that the NYPD as well as New York City’s Mayor Bill de Blassio said that the city would be relaxing its enforcement on marijuana laws.
The mayor said, “No one should be smoking marijuana in public. It’s illegal. Period. Is it happening every day? Yes. So we are trying to deal with it in the most productive, fair way.”
Instead of arresting people, officers will start issuing summonses beginning on September 1st, if they catch people smoking marijuana.
Chief of Patrol Rodney Harrison also said that arrests will still be made if the violators are on parole or probation, have a violent criminal history, fail to show ID, or have an open warrant.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, who supported the policy change, remarked, “We must bring a sense of fairness to the past at the same time we implement these new enforcement policies,” said Gonzalez. “We are moving toward a reality in which marijuana will no longer serve as an entry way to our criminal justice system, with all the attendant collateral consequences.”
“The NYPD is not in the business of making criminals out of people with no prior arrest history,” commented Police Commissioner James O’Neill. He added, “We know that’s not productive.”
