{"id":1412,"date":"2012-03-20T08:05:07","date_gmt":"2012-03-20T08:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/?p=13354"},"modified":"2012-03-20T08:05:07","modified_gmt":"2012-03-20T08:05:07","slug":"protests-in-new-york-city-held-in-support-of-marijuana-reform-amid-giant-st-patricks-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/protests-in-new-york-city-held-in-support-of-marijuana-reform-amid-giant-st-patricks-celebration\/","title":{"rendered":"Protests in New York City Held in Support of Marijuana Reform amid Giant St. Patrick\u2019s Celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/protests-in-new-york-city-held-in-support-of-marijuana-reform-amid-giant-st-patricks-celebration\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"275\" height=\"183\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/new-york-city.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"new york city\" title=\"new york city\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-13355\" href=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/news-and-articles\/protests-in-new-york-city-held-in-support-of-marijuana-reform-amid-giant-st-patrick%e2%80%99s-celebration\/attachment\/new-york-city\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-13355\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/new-york-city-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>Over the weekend New York City upheld one of its most famous and long standing traditions.\u00a0 Over 100,000 people dressed in green were in attendance for the <a href=\"http:\/\/nycstpatricksparade.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">2012 St. Patrick\u2019s Day Parade <\/a>where the consumption of corn beef and alcohol are commonplace.<\/p>\n<p>Another celebration of green took place during the parade as well.\u00a0 Members of the <a href=\"http:\/\/norml.org\/chapters\/ny\" target=\"_blank\">New York State chapter<\/a> of NORML made their way through the raucous crowd and to City Hall.\u00a0 This protest now marks the 3<sup>rd<\/sup> annual protest on New York\u2019s City Hall.\u00a0 Holding the protest during the most recognized binge drinking holiday was not by accident.\u00a0 Doug Greene, the Legislative Director of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Empire-State-NORML\/109743832393123\" target=\"_blank\">Empire State NORML<\/a> told<a href=\"http:\/\/newyork.cbslocal.com\/2012\/03\/17\/marijuana-advocates-hold-rally-at-city-hall\/\" target=\"_blank\"> CBS 880 news<\/a> at the protest that \u201cWe\u2019re reminding New York City that there is a safer alternative to pools of vomit in the streets.\u201d\u00a0 He also went on to say \u201cThere were over 50,000 arrests last year for low-level marijuana possession, which is a waste of scarce city resources.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>New York City is known for setting trends in fashion, finance, cuisine, and social movements.\u00a0 However, it still is known as an unfriendly destination for cannabis patients and advocates.\u00a0 As Doug Greene mentioned, there was still a very amount of low level possession arrests last year.\u00a0 What is more troubling is this still occurred in the face of a direct memo from<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nyc.gov\/html\/nypd\/html\/administration\/headquarters_co.shtml\" target=\"_blank\"> NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly<\/a> who <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/24\/nyregion\/minor-marijuana-possession-charges-require-public-view.html\" target=\"_blank\">released a memo<\/a> trying to curb the low level convictions.\u00a0 Although the numbers did decline toward the latter part of 2011, convictions were still alarmingly high.<\/p>\n<p>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.\u00a0 One former NYC police officer joined the protest at <a href=\"http:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/html\/about\/city-hall.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">City Hall<\/a> and reflected on her time as a police officer.\u00a0 Joanne Naughton said &#8221; I retired as a lieutenant from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nyc.gov\/html\/nypd\/html\/home\/home.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">NYPD<\/a>\u2026 What I did decades ago wasn\u2019t any good, didn\u2019t do any good. It was a waste of time.\u201d While activists may have more work ahead, there is a bill in New York State\u2019s legislature that could legalize medical marijuana.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"275\" height=\"183\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/new-york-city.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"new york city\" title=\"new york city\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-13355\" href=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/news-and-articles\/protests-in-new-york-city-held-in-support-of-marijuana-reform-amid-giant-st-patrick%e2%80%99s-celebration\/attachment\/new-york-city\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-13355\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/new-york-city-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>Over the weekend New York City upheld one of its most famous and long standing traditions.\u00a0 Over 100,000 people dressed in green were in attendance for the <a href=\"http:\/\/nycstpatricksparade.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">2012 St. Patrick\u2019s Day Parade <\/a>where the consumption of corn beef and alcohol are commonplace.<\/p>\n<p>Another celebration of green took place during the parade as well.\u00a0 Members of the <a href=\"http:\/\/norml.org\/chapters\/ny\" target=\"_blank\">New York State chapter<\/a> of NORML made their way through the raucous crowd and to City Hall.\u00a0 This protest now marks the 3<sup>rd<\/sup> annual protest on New York\u2019s City Hall.\u00a0 Holding the protest during the most recognized binge drinking holiday was not by accident.\u00a0 Doug Greene, the Legislative Director of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Empire-State-NORML\/109743832393123\" target=\"_blank\">Empire State NORML<\/a> told<a href=\"http:\/\/newyork.cbslocal.com\/2012\/03\/17\/marijuana-advocates-hold-rally-at-city-hall\/\" target=\"_blank\"> CBS 880 news<\/a> at the protest that \u201cWe\u2019re reminding New York City that there is a safer alternative to pools of vomit in the streets.\u201d\u00a0 He also went on to say \u201cThere were over 50,000 arrests last year for low-level marijuana possession, which is a waste of scarce city resources.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>New York City is known for setting trends in fashion, finance, cuisine, and social movements.\u00a0 However, it still is known as an unfriendly destination for cannabis patients and advocates.\u00a0 As Doug Greene mentioned, there was still a very amount of low level possession arrests last year.\u00a0 What is more troubling is this still occurred in the face of a direct memo from<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nyc.gov\/html\/nypd\/html\/administration\/headquarters_co.shtml\" target=\"_blank\"> NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly<\/a> who <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/24\/nyregion\/minor-marijuana-possession-charges-require-public-view.html\" target=\"_blank\">released a memo<\/a> trying to curb the low level convictions.\u00a0 Although the numbers did decline toward the latter part of 2011, convictions were still alarmingly high.<\/p>\n<p>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.\u00a0 One former NYC police officer joined the protest at <a href=\"http:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/html\/about\/city-hall.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">City Hall<\/a> and reflected on her time as a police officer.\u00a0 Joanne Naughton said &#8221; I retired as a lieutenant from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nyc.gov\/html\/nypd\/html\/home\/home.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">NYPD<\/a>\u2026 What I did decades ago wasn\u2019t any good, didn\u2019t do any good. It was a waste of time.\u201d While activists may have more work ahead, there is a bill in New York State\u2019s legislature that could legalize medical marijuana.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[52,1434,1435,1436,56,9,392,670,51,299,591,70,750,1,3,61],"tags":[2632,4003,4004,4005,2636,2970,3243,2631,2877,3164,5,3323,6],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}