Thanks to aggressive policing strategies, New York City has for more than a decade been the world’s leader in marijuana possession arrests, but now those numbers are starting to go down. According to the State Division of Criminal Justice Services, some 10,078 people had been arrested on pot possession charges... Read More »
According to the U.S. District Attorney’s office in Oakland, California, Josh Rosenthal, one of the best referees in MMA, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to manufacture and distribute marijuana. Rosenthal, a regular referee used throughout the country for popular MMA organizations such as the UFC, Bellator, and former promotions Strikeforce... Read More »
At the California Democratic Party convention in Sacramento Saturday, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom called for marijuana legalization and described the war on drugs as “an abject failure.” (8 minute mark, speech is below.) The famously well-coiffed former San Francisco mayor is one of the key contenders for the Democratic... Read More »
Ben Jealous, president of the NAACP, said Tuesday “For about 40 years, we’ve decided that [prison] is how we solve almost every problem, whether it’s homelessness or drug addiction, we’ve gotten to a place where black men in this country are three times more likely to be incarcerated than black men in South Africa during apartheid when they were the world’s leading [jailer].”
A coalition of more than 175 artists, actors, athletes, elected officials, and civil rights and civil liberties advocates Tuesday sent an open letter to President Obama urging him to redouble his efforts to shift from a punitive, repressive federal criminal justice policy to one emphasizing prevention and rehabilitation. The US is... Read More »
In what the Seattle Police Department described as its “first time ever” event, street dealers picked up during a police investigation that only possessed small amounts of marijuana and no outstanding criminal records, were released. However, the SPD did issue them a warning, discouraging future pot sales and to not consume it in public places.
I’d like to take a moment and talk about marijuana and athletics. I was reading the news today and came across this article about Tyrann Mathieu, a former LSU football star. Mathieu has been in hot water since it was discovered that he enjoyed cannabis. Now, as he prepares to make a... Read More »
The NYPD made 39,218 low-level marijuana possession arrests in 2012 (over 440,000 in past decade), each consuming an estimated 2.5 man hours of police work. Just a little stop-and-frisk to terrorize New York City’s African-American and Latino youths, while pissing away Gotham’s tax dollars.
In 2011, there were 4,300 marijuana arrests for possession in DC, doubling the 2,150 arrests in 2001. That’s a 100% increase in marijuana arrests vs. the mere 5.2% DC population increase from 2000 to 2010.
A high school basketball star caught selling marijuana off campus cannot sue the police for arresting him at school, though a federal judge was “deeply troubled” by the officers’ conduct. According to the ruling in Philadelphia Federal Court, Pius X High School varsity ballplayer Sean P. O’Neill was arrested... Read More »
