NYPD May Stop Arresting New Yorkers With Small Amounts Of Weed

‘The New York Police Department may stop arresting New Yorkers who are caught with small amounts of marijuana and issue tickets instead, the New York Times reports.

Law enforcement officials in two of the city’s district attorneys’ offices confirmed to the Times that Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration has been working on a new policy on how police should deal with possession of small amounts of pot.

For years, the NYPD has been arresting tens of thousands of residents, mostly African American and Latino, on possession of small amounts of marijuana. In the first eight months of 2014, Latinos and blacks make up 86 percent of those arrested on marijuana posession. Under the new plan, cops would simply give a person caught with a small amount of weed a summons and send them on their way.’

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