Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
NYC Taxpayers Spent $75 Million On Tiny Marijuana Busts In 2010
By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 16, 2011
Modified Mar 16, 2011
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
View all 3
By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 16, 2011
Modified Mar 16, 2011
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
You'll recall that during his first mayoral campaign, a New York magazine reporter asked Mike Bloomberg if he'd ever smoked grass, to which the future plutocrat replied, "You bet I did. And I enjoyed it." And since taking office, he's also enjoyed locking up New Yorkers (most of them minorities) for low-level marijuana possession. During his administration, the NYPD has made more than 350,000 misdemeanor pot arrests—more than Dinkins, Koch, and Giuliani combined. Last year this folly cost NYC an estimated $75 million dollars, according to a report by the Drug Policy Alliance (below).
The report is based on studies that estimate the legal costs of processing a misdemeanor arrest, which the DPA pegs at between $1,500 and $2,000 in NYC. (You'd think for that much they could get sheets with better thread count in the Tombs, or maybe even sheets.) Using those figures, the report estimates that the 50,300 misdemeanor pot busts last year cost between $75,450,000 on the low end and $100,600,000 on the high end. Since 1996, taxpayers have funded a war on pot possession that's cost perhaps as over a billion dollars. WINNING!
The "human costs" of the crusade are also examined in the report, which urges New Yorkers to consider the long-lasting effects of black and Latino teenagers establishing permanent criminal records at a young age. Although national studies have shown that white people smoke marijuana in greater numbers than any other group, in NYC black and Latinos are overwhelmingly the ones getting arrested for low-level possession.
It's no coincidence that this racial disparity is also seen in the city's stop and frisk data, which disproportionately impacts the same groups. Possession of 25 grams or less of marijuana and should not lead to arrest unless it is burning or "in public view." So when police conduct their beloved stop and frisks, they tell the suspect to empty his or her pockets. And voila, the marijuana is in public view!
At a budget hearing yesterday, Harlem Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito pressed NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly about the costs of low-level marijuana arrests. Kelly insisted that that his police tactics have kept crime down, and, the Daily News reports, he added, "f you think the law is not written correctly, then you should petition the state Legislature to change it. The law clearly says if you have marijuana in public view, you should be arrested. It's a misdemeanor."
Tagged
drug war
gallery
hypocrisy
marijuana
marijuana arrest
marijuana possession
pot arrest
pot possession
war on drugs
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Central Park birders, others remember 63-year-old woman killed in park
People who said they knew her described her as an artist and a familiar presence in the Ramble.
By
Charles Lane
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 7:04 p.m. ET
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
News
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .