According to UN anti-drug chief Yury Fedotov, states like Colorado and Washington – and most recently Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia – that have voted to make recreational use of marijuana legal are in violation of international law.
“I don’t see how [the new laws] can be compatible with existing conventions,” Fedotov told reporters on Wednesday. He said he will address his concerns to the U.S. State Department soon.
In New York this week, city police officers are reportedly upset with Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton’s announcement on Monday that smalltime possession of pot (up to 25 grams) will no longer be an arrestable offence in the city.
As of next week, those found to be carrying a couple joints or a dime bag for personal use will be issued a $100 fine instead. Smoking out in the open remains a felony misdemeanor.
As reported by the New York Daily News, the buzz in high ranks at the NYPD is that cops may respond with a work slowdown, saying the new policy will make it harder for police to fight crime.
Meanwhile, the trend to reduce or eliminate criminal prosecution on the state and local levels shows no sign of going up in smoke anytime soon. The midterm elections last week saw two more states and the US capital joining the legal recreational cannabis club, bringing total membership to four states and one district. Activists are working now to get legalization measures on 2016 ballots in at least half a dozen additional states. 23 states currently allow for the medical use of marijuana, and of those, 18 have decriminalized the drug, meaning possession of pot for those without prescriptions won’t stick to the criminal records of first-time offenders or land them in jail. New York is only the latest of a growing list of cities nationwide with some form of local marijuana decriminalization.
Decriminalization – and legalization – of a federally illegal drug is a sticky matter. Even in places where marijuana is legal on the state level, sparking up could still land you in big trouble.
The federal government owns more than 600 million acres of land in the U.S., much of it in states where voters have chosen to legalize the green stuff. The Washington Post reports that the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service – all run by federal agencies – or the Department of Defense control nearly 55% of all land in states where recreational use of marijuana is legal by state law.
The Post reported last year on a hiker in Olympia National Park in Washington, one of the first states to legalize, who was cited and ticketed by a park ranger for possessing a small amount of the drug. Strand was also in possession of a medical license for marijuana use, and said she thought the feds had, in President Barack Obama’s words, “bigger fish to fry” than people who smoke in states where the drug had been made legal.
Though not openly endorsing the legalization of marijuana nationwide, President Obama has supported states’ legalization efforts and said he doesn’t think it to be more dangerous than alcohol.
His recent nomination of Loretta Lynch as the country’s next attorney general has already attracted the attention of proponents and critics of legalization alike. Though Lynch has remained rather silent on the issue, many hope she may be able to clear away the smoke surrounding one of the U.S.’ most chronic, and confusing, issues.
