Queens County District Attorney Richard Brown will not join his Manhattan counterpart in declining to prosecute low-level marijuana offenses — at least not yet.
In a statement to the Queens Daily Eagle, Brown said his office will wait to see how the New York Police Department’s new marijuana enforcement directives play out.
“We will evaluate the arrests made by the NYPD and will proceed with valid cases — the vast majority of which are eligible for an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal,” Brown said in a statement. “We will continue to offer dispositions that are appropriate.”
On Tuesday, Manhattan County District Attorney Cy Vance announced that, effective Aug. 1, his office will no longer prosecute marijuana smoking and low-level possession. Vance said the DA’s office “has found virtually no public safety rationale for the ongoing arrest and prosecution of marijuana smoking, and no moral justification for the intolerable racial disparities that underlie enforcement.”
Before issuing the new policy, the Manhattan DA compiled a report titled “Marijuana, Fairness, Public Safety” that examined prosecution and legalization strategies nationwide.
“Every day I ask our prosecutors to keep Manhattan safe and make our justice system more equal and fair,” Vance said. “The needless criminalization of pot smoking frustrates this core mission, so we are removing ourselves from the equation.”