NY State Assembly Passes Legislation To Seal Past Marijuana Possession Convictions
- By Johnny Green | Weed Blog
- Jun 17, 2016
- 3 min read
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Yesterday, the New York State Assembly voted in support of A10092, a bill that will seal the criminal records of people who have been unjustly and unconstitutionally arrested for simple possession of marijuana in public view. The bipartisan vote was 99 in favor and 42 opposed. Over the last 20 years, over 700,000 New Yorkers have been arrested for simple possession of marijuana. Those convicted face significant barriers to accessing education, employment, housing opportunities, and other state services.
“I introduced the marijuana sealing bill because drug laws have created a permanent underclass of people unable to find jobs after a conviction,” said Assembly member Crystal Peoples-Stokes. “One of the most damaging issues derived from the war on drugs is that the policies are inherently racist. Communities of color have been devastated by bad drug policies and hyper-criminalization for the last 40 years. It is an approach that has never worked and has caused significantly more harm than good to our communities and to our families. If today’s moment of increased attention to heroin encourages us to center public health in our drug policy, then we need to ensure that we are making amends to communities of color by alleviating the burden bad policies have had on their lives. Sealing low-level marijuana possession convictions is the first step to reintegrating thousands of New Yorkers who are inhibited daily from accessing employment, housing and an education all due to a conviction on their record for simple possession of marijuana.”
This bill was sponsored by Assembly member Crystal Peoples-Stokes of Buffalo and members of the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Caucus, who last week called once again for equity in our state’s drug policies, citing the impact the discriminatory enforcement of these policies have had on communities of color.
“For too long communities of color have been plagued by the consequences of a broken legal system that has unfairly targeted certain neighborhoods, and created a drug policy that has done little to decrease drug use”, said Assemblymember Robert Rodriguez. “New York needs to atone for its 20 year crusade of unconstitutional marijuana arrests and convictions. Sealing the convictions of those who have been saddled with unjust criminal records is but the first step in repairing the harms of the last 20 years of failed policies.”
New York State first decriminalized personal marijuana possession in 1977, recognizing the harmful impact an arrest could have on young people. Although New York officials, including Governor Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, have previously recognized these arrests as ineffective, unjust, and racially discriminatory, they still continue across the state because of a loophole in the law. In 2015 over 20,000 New Yorkers were arrested for possession of small amounts of marijuana – 83% of whom were black or Latino.
“In the 80s and 90s, racially-motivated drug policy sentenced a generation of young people of color to lives labeled as a criminal,” said Assembly member Linda B. Rosenthal, Chair of the Assembly Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse. “We now have the opportunity to mete out a measure of justice by sealing prior marijuana conviction, and I call upon the Senate to follow suit.”
The discriminatory practices are statewide. For example, in the city of Buffalo in Erie County, African Americans represent 48% of the marijuana arrests – despite only being 14% of the population of Erie County, and using marijuana at similar rates as other groups.
Once convicted, a permanent record can follow these mostly young people of color for the rest of their lives – a record easily found on the internet by banks, schools, employers, landlords, and licensing boards.
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