POT ARRESTS VARY IN CITY, NATION

Albany, NY, July 9 - The odds of getting arrested for marijuana use or
possession are better in New York than in any other state except
Alaska, according to a statistical analysis conducted for a
marijuana-law reform group.

THE STUDY, BASED ON FBI crime data, also shows a wide disparity
between the way police enforce marijuana laws from county to county in
New York.

The five boroughs of New York City, for instance, are all in the top
10 among counties of 250,000 people or larger in America for marijuana
arrests per 100,000 residents. However, Nassau County, which borders
Queens and Brooklyn, has the lowest marijuana arrest rate in the
state, one roughly nine times lower than New York City's.

The second-lowest county marijuana arrest rate was in Westchester,
which borders New York City to the north.

The statistics were compiled and analyzed for the NORML Foundation,
the research arm of the Washington, D.C.-based group the National
Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws. The foundation's executive
director Allen St. Pierre said that the study shows the arbitrary and
excessive enforcement of marijuana laws.

"One can look and properly question why one jurisdiction has 350
arrests (per 100,000) a year and another nearby will have 100," St.
Pierre said. "Why is there a disparity? It really can't be that there
are three times more people using marijuana in the next county."

The state averaged 404.6 marijuana arrests per 100,000 residents in
1997, the last year analyzed in the study, second only to Alaska's
rate of 417.7. The national average was 256 arrests per 100,000 residents.

St. Pierre said that the numbers contain no great mysteries. Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani's policy of ridding the streets of New York City of
lawbreakers has been aimed squarely at the low-level "nuisance" kind
of offenders like aggressive panhandlers, windshield washers and
marijuana smokers.

However, St. Pierre argued that activities by New York City police
officers run counter to the intent of New York state's
decriminalization of the possession of less than an ounce of
marijuana. New York City police officers are going too far by
arresting people ­ sometimes keeping them in jail overnight or over a
weekend until they can be arraigned ­ when they should be writing
violators a ticket and letting them go on their way.

"All of this seems extraordinarily excessive when the [New York State]
Legislature intended for this to be treated like a speeding ticket,"
St. Pierre said.

Norman Siegel, head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said that
the NORML-commissioned study suggests "serious and substantial civil
liberties questions regarding the exceptionally high number of
marijuana arrests in New York City."

"The figures are very troubling," Siegel said. "Should we be arresting
people for possessing a joint of marijuana? It is reminiscent of the
'20s when people were arrested for drinking a beer."

Siegel said that the disparity between New York City's marijuana
arrest numbers and those in nearby counties also raises doubts about
the equal application of the law by authorities in the city.

When asked to comment on the arrest statistics, Det. Walter Burnes of
the New York Police Department responded, "Smoking marijuana is
against the law and the New York City Police Department enforces the
law."

The five boroughs of New York City had per-100,000 marijuana arrest
rates of between 646.7 (Manhattan) and 632.4 (Brooklyn).

The highest arrest rate in the state was in Greene County, at 895.5
arrests per 100,000 residents.

Sheriff Richard Hussey said that the rural county just south of Albany
has long been favored territory for commercial marijuana growers,. In
addition, state police patrol the state Thruway which runs through
Greene County, including the New Baltimore rest stop.

"There are places on the road where troopers can really eyeball the
cars," Hussey said.

St. Pierre said that in addition to counties along major roadways like
the Thruway, resort areas where young people congregate also tend to
have higher-than-average marijuana arrest rates.