"Today, in places like New York City the police are arresting record
breaking numbers of young people for simple possession of marijuana. New
York City has arrested 350,000
<http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2011/03/drug-policy-alliance-report-nyc-pot-possession-busts-cost-75-million-a-year>
people for marijuana possession since 2002. About 70% percent of those
arrested were under 30
<http://www.drugpolicy.org/sites/default/files/NYC%20MJ%20fact%20sheet%20GENERAL%202011.pdf>
years old.
A woman named Alika, a 26-year-old single mother in Brooklyn made news
<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/17/nyregion/push-for-marijuana-arrests-in-ny-has-side-effects.html>
this week after being fired from her job with the New York City Housing
Authority as a result of being arrested for possessing a small bag of
marijuana in her purse. Criminal records are instantly accessible on the
internet and the collateral consequences of drug arrests -- like job
loss and deportation -- are routine and severe."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jesse-levine/antidrug-war-movement-gai_b_879207.html
I'm glad but surprised that the new international report on the evil
"war on drugs" has gotten some slight coverage in the right wing
corporate media. Carter's op-ed in the NYT helped. (link below)
Community court lie: Community court or drug court was an idea that
came from health care professionals. I was an early supporter of this
sound idea and wrote an early proposal to the Philadelphia criminal
justice system to offer comprehensive addiction treatment to parolees.
This specialized court was intended, by health care workers, to be a
method to divert non-violent chemically addicted individuals to
treatment rather than incarceration.
That sound idea was not what we got with Phila. Community Court! This
court instead became a plea bargaining method so that many more poor
people can be rammed through the injustice system and tagged for future
discrimination for bottles of beer and a nickle bag of weed. This court
has no value to society and causes great harm. It is not a court,
because anyone who goes to community court is guilty with no alternative
but a plea deal.
This is another lie, part of the war on drugs, that compounds the
problems of society. The daily occurrences, like a single mother from
Brooklyn losing her job because of a small bag of marijuana, is
heartbreaking and incredibly common. Meanwhile, people with serious
substance abuse problems cannot access good treatment or any treatment
at all!
If evil exists, it is the US international war on drugs. And community
court helped open the slippery slope that caused us to lose our right to
due process while harming millions of poor people here, in New York, and
around the country!
Glenn
PS: Stop believing corporate lies and try compassion toward our brothers
and sisters!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/17/opinion/17carter.html?_r=1&hp
