Conclusion

Many critics of New York City’s marijuana possession arrests insist they are skewed racially and by class, have little public safety payoff, cost the city hundreds of millions of dollars, and unnecessarily subject marijuana users to the harshness of the criminal justice system. As one academic article recently summarized, “Nonwhite New Yorkers bear a racial tax from contemporary policing strategy, a social cost not offset by any substantial observed benefits to public safety.”[68]

If the point of making massive marijuana arrests is to cast a wide net where potential sharks might be lurking—to use Jack Maple’s phrase—the police seem to be pulling in far more dolphins than sharks. Neither our findings nor those of other researchers indicate the arrests are an efficient or fair means for identifying future dangerous felons.

Whether or not marijuana arrests should nonetheless continue to be the number one police arrest activity and the number one penal law charge adjudicated in New York City’s criminal courts is a matter outside the scope of this report. But litigation, extensive research by others, and our data all suggest New York City officials should provide long overdue answers to such important questions as: How exactly do marijuana arrests contribute to public safety and crime control? Are the stops that result in marijuana arrests made lawfully? Do the arrests produce unwarranted racial disparities? Do public benefits resulting from the arrests outweigh the costs, including the very real impact they have on the lives and rights of those arrested?