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CBS 880

Protests in New York City Held in Support of Marijuana Reform amid Giant St. Patrick’s Celebration

new york city

Over the weekend New York City upheld one of its most famous and long standing traditions.  Over 100,000 people dressed in green were in attendance for the 2012 St. Patrick’s Day Parade where the consumption of corn beef and alcohol are commonplace.

Another celebration of green took place during the parade as well.  Members of the New York State chapter of NORML made their way through the raucous crowd and to City Hall.  This protest now marks the 3rd annual protest on New York’s City Hall.  Holding the protest during the most recognized binge drinking holiday was not by accident.  Doug Greene, the Legislative Director of Empire State NORML told CBS 880 news at the protest that “We’re reminding New York City that there is a safer alternative to pools of vomit in the streets.”  He also went on to say “There were over 50,000 arrests last year for low-level marijuana possession, which is a waste of scarce city resources.”

New York City is known for setting trends in fashion, finance, cuisine, and social movements.  However, it still is known as an unfriendly destination for cannabis patients and advocates.  As Doug Greene mentioned, there was still a very amount of low level possession arrests last year.  What is more troubling is this still occurred in the face of a direct memo from NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly who released a memo trying to curb the low level convictions.  Although the numbers did decline toward the latter part of 2011, convictions were still alarmingly high.

Although New York State decriminalized marijuana possession over 30 years ago, the New York City police have been overly aggressive in issuing misdemeanor arrests for public use and/or possession.  One former NYC police officer joined the protest at City Hall and reflected on her time as a police officer.  Joanne Naughton said ” I retired as a lieutenant from the NYPD… What I did decades ago wasn’t any good, didn’t do any good. It was a waste of time.” While activists may have more work ahead, there is a bill in New York State’s legislature that could legalize medical marijuana.  New trends can seemingly come out of nowhere and as the famous Don Henley song suggests, situations in New York can change in a minute.

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