This Wednesday (April 30) in New York City, The New York City Bar Association will be hosting a lecture called “New York City’s Marijuana Arrest Policy: Thirty Years After Decriminalization”. The lecture, based on research by Professor Harry Levine (Queens College), Deborah Small (head of Breaking the Chains), and Bruce D. Johnson (Ph.D), will discuss and review law enforcement patterns, alternative policing practices, and targeting cannabis consumers.

The research was previously submitted as testimony to the New York State senate, where they focused on law enforcement practices in New York City, revealing that Marijuana Possession arrests have risen from 39-thousand to 362-thousand in the past ten years. This testimony was also presented at the 2007 NORML Conference in Los Angeles.

I wish I was able to make it into the city this week to attend the lecture, but unfortunately I’ve got prior obligations to attend to. If you’ll be in the New York City area this Wednesday, I encourage you to attend! It starts at 6:30PM and the address is as follows:

The Association of the Bar of the City of New York, 42 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036.

If you’re like me and unable to attend the lecture, you can view the research in PDF format here.