Cops will continue to make arrests for smoking marijuana in public at least until an NYPD working group finishes studying the issue next month, police officials said Monday.
Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday said he would instruct the NYPD to issues summonses instead of arrests for public toking, but the police response shows they’re in no rush to change the regulations.
“The communication to the officers is not to today shift policy and procedure. I think that that’s why we really have to let the working group do its work and identify the stages moving forward and not get ahead of ourselves as far as what it looks like,” said NYPD spokesman Phil Walzak, who used to be a senior aide to de Blasio.
“Understand there has to be a transitional period. My understanding talking to them [City Hall] is that this is not viewed as an immediate right away, but there will be a transitional period to look at this…” he added.
Hizzoner has strongly opposed the legalization of marijuana for recreational use statewide, but recently announced a desire to address enforcement disparities that far more often penalize blacks and Hispanics than whites for getting high in public places.
Those disparities were most recently highlighted by City Council members at a hearing in February.
But the mayor showed no willingness to tackle the issue until last week — only after a number of statewide and local officials called for outright legalization.
A number of those officials applauded the mayor’s shift, while saying it wasn’t enough.
“I would hope he would go a little farther, and I hope that he would stand with me in support of the legalization of marijuana across the state of New York,” Public Advocate Letitia James, a candidate for state Attorney General, said at an unrelated campaign event in downtown Manhattan.
Council Speaker Corey Johnson, who endorsed James’ candidacy at that event, said he agrees with her on the matter.
“We believe that you should legalize it, tax it, regulate it, use that money to fund drug treatment and education programs, and I think the mayor announcing what he announced… showed that he is believing that we are heading down the path toward legalization,” said Johnson.
