A man lights marijuana during a demo in support of the legalization of marijuana, in Mexico City, on May 7, 2011. Hundreds of youngsters marched in several events throughout Latin America, under the slogan “Cultivate your rights”.
Photo: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images
NYPD arrests for low-level marijuana possession went up for the seventh straight year, according to advocacy group the Drug Policy Alliance, despite Commissioner Ray Kelly’s order to officers to chill out with the pot busts. Arrests have dipped some since Kelly’s memo, but based on the number of stop-and-frisks earlier in the year, the department’s streak, which relies inordinately on the arrest of black and Hispanic men, lives on. The number to beat for 2012 is 50,684.
