PA Pot Pardon Program Unveiled, New York City Rally for Safe Injection Sites Statewide, More… (9/2/22)

New York City's child welfare agency is still holding marijuana use against parents–especially black ones–San Francisco's new DA is approaching misdemeanor drug prosecutions much like the old one she accused of being "soft on crime," and more. 

Marijuana Policy

New York City Child Welfare Agency Still Citing Marijuana in Family Separations Despite Legalization and Policy Changes. Marijuana legalization went into effect in New York in March 2021, but court records and interviews with people involved show that the city's child welfare agency continues to use marijuana use by parents to take their children from them. Many interviewees were parents who said "it has felt impossible to extricate themselves from deeply rooted biases in the child welfare system surrounding marijuana use, specifically toward people of color." City child welfare authorities cite parental marijuana use to justify initial separations and prolong family separations by demanding drug testing or participation in drug treatment programs. All of the parents interviewed were black and all of them said marijuana was used against them because of their race. Child welfare said official policy is not to remove children solely on the basis of parental marijuana use, but families and attorneys say the agency does not follow the policy, pointing to petitions in which the only evidence of neglect cited was parental marijuana use.

Pennsylvania Announces Month-Long Pardon Project for People with Small-Time Marijuana Convictions. Gov. Tom Wolf and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for US Senate in the state, who is running on a platform of marijuana legalization, announced a one-time, large-scale project to pardon people with past minor and non-violent marijuana convictions. The state Board of Pardons will accept applications for the PA Marijuana Pardon Project from Thursday, Sept. 1, through Friday, Sept. 30.  People who were convicted of simple marijuana possession or possession of marijuana for personal use are eligible for the pardons if they have no other criminal convictions. Those who do have additional convictions are invited to apply for clemency. The state estimates that "thousands" of people will qualify for the program.

Harm Reduction

New York City Harm Reductionists Take to Streets on International Overdose Awareness Day to Demand Safe Injection Sites Statewide. At least nine people were arrested outside Gov. Kathy Hochul's Manhattan office Wednesday as hundreds of people rallied to advocate for an expansion of safe injection sites statewide as they marked International Overdose Awareness Day. Two safe injection sites operate in New York City, but none in the rest of the state. Protestors changed "no more drug war" and blocked traffic, leading to the nine arrests. "It’s exhausting to keep experiencing loss after loss after loss, and to keep fighting without a proper response to this epidemic from politicians, said Alicia Singham Goodwin, drug policy campaign coordinator at VOCAL-NY, which helped organize the action. There were also actions to mark the day in Boston, New Hampshire, and California, where a coalition of more than 50 harm reduction groups rallied across the state and criticized Gov. Gain Newsom (D), who just a week ago vetoed a safe injection site pilot project bill. "Governor Newsom not only used his pen to cosign our participants to death, he did so while blaming his choice on our harm reduction infrastructure," said Soma Snakeoil, executive director of Sidewalk Project.

Law Enforcement

San Francisco's New DA Prosecuting Few Misdemeanor Drug Cases. After city voters ousted former DA Chesa Boudin for being "soft on crime," they expected a crackdown from his successor, Brooke Jenkins. But while police have brought three times as many drug cases to her office than in Boudin's time, about two-thirds of them are not being prosecuted. When it comes to misdemeanor offenses such as simple drug or paraphernalia possession, 99 percent of those cases are being dismissed, sent to another law enforcement agency, or recommended for probation or parole revocation. Jenkins spearheaded the recall effort against Boudin, but she looks to be just as "soft on crime" as Boudin was.

(This article was prepared by StoptheDrugWar.org's 501(c)(4) lobbying nonprofit, the Drug Reform Coordination Network, which also pays the cost of maintaining this website. DRCNet Foundationtakes no positions on candidates for public office, in compliance with section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and does not pay for reporting that could be interpreted or misinterpreted as doing so.)