Brooklyn pass for first-time pot offenders
13:46 Wed Jul 9 2014
The district attorney in the New York borough of Brooklyn has announced he will no longer prosecute thousands of people arrested each year in possession of pot.
Kenneth Thompson said on Tuesday limited law enforcement resources could be better used elsewhere and that petty offenders should not be saddled with a criminal record for a minor, non-violent offence.
In 2013, his office processed more than 8500 cases of marijuana possession, more than two-thirds of which were dismissed by judges.
Thompson denied that the policy amounts to or should be interpreted as approval of marijuana.
The policy does not apply to those who smoke pot in public or in the presence of children, those already convicted or to child offenders who will be "redirected on to a healthier path".
"Cases will be dismissed ... for those with little or no criminal record, but we will continue to prosecute marijuana cases which most clearly raise public health and safety concerns," he said.
A report last year found that nearly half a million people were arrested for marijuana possession across New York between 2002 and 2012, 85 per cent of them young blacks and Latinos.
Processing the arrests clocked up more than a million hours of police work, said the report by the Drug Policy Alliance, which favours the decriminalisation of the substance.
New York on Monday became the 23rd state in the US to legalise marijuana for medical use to help patients with cancer, HIV, Parkinson's, epilepsy and certain other conditions.
Brooklyn pass for first-time pot offenders
