$75 Million a Year: The Cost of New York City's Marijuana Possession Arrests

March 15, 2011

Levine, Harry G. and Loren Siegel - Marijuana Arrest Research Project

Commissioned by the Drug Policy Alliance

PDF $75 Million a Year

Marijuana possession was decriminalized in New York in 1977. Yet since the 1990s, the New York Police Department's "marijuana arrest crusade" has led to the arrest of nearly 550,000 people for small amounts of marijuana.

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