Category Archives: drug crimes
Legalizing Pot in New Jersey Comes up Again, This Time for Use at the State’s Poker Tables
We’ve discussed the potential decriminalization of marijuana before, particularly as it pertains to social and criminal justice issues, with lives derailed by what often turns out to be youthful indiscretions. Not only has a federal law been introduced, but in May, Senator Scutari of New Jersey recently introduced a bill that would allow for… Read More »
Federal Bill to Legalize Marijuana Introduced
On August 1st, Senator Cory Booker introduced legislation—the Marijuana Justice Act—to legalize cannabis at the federal level. The bill removes cannabis from the list of drugs covered by the Controlled Substances Act, automatically expunges marijuana use and possession, incentivizes states to change their own laws if they’ve had a disproportionate effect on low-income, African-American… Read More »
New Jersey Legislation Could Legalize Recreational Use of Marijuana
On the week of May 16th, Senator Nicholas Scutari introduced a bill that would allow for the recreational use of marijuana in the state of New Jersey. Not only would the legislation allow for marijuana to be recreationally used, but also grown, sold, and taxed in the state, allowing New Jersey to join the… Read More »
Does New Jersey’s New Opioid Law Go Too Far in Criminalizing Certain Activities? Doctors Express Concerns
New Jersey’s new law severely limiting the ability for doctors to prescribe opioid prescriptions has many concerned, especially doctors, who could face severe legal consequences if they step outside of its strict requirements. The law not only limits initial opioid prescriptions for acute pain to a five-day supply, but also requires doctors to have… Read More »
What’s Ahead for The Decriminalization of Marijuana?
When it comes to the legalization and regulation of marijuana, it is important to keep in mind that there is a difference between federal authority to manage recreational vs. medical marijuana insofar as what authority the Justice Department has to enforce federal laws banning the product (i.e. arresting and prosecuting citizens for drug possession)…. Read More »
Obama Continues With Presidential Clemency
On Monday, December 19th, President Obama issued 78 pardons and commuted the sentences of 153 prisoners, extending clemency to a total of 1,324 people—the highest in presidential history. Virtually all of them had been serving sentences after being convicted of nonviolent crimes under tough anti- drug laws in serious need of reform. Obama himself… Read More »
New Publication Highlights Why the War on Drugs Needs Serious Reform
A new book released by a social scientist and professor of Criminology at the University of California at Irvine—Hard Bargains: The Coercive Power of Drug Laws in Federal Court—exposes just how many prosecutors have used federal drugs laws to wage a warfare against minorities—and highlights just how badly the U.S. needs to implement serious… Read More »
This Election Season, States Take One Step Closer to Decriminalizing Marijuana
This year, while many worried about which candidate would win, many others focused on a very different aspect of the election: the legalization of marijuana, a substance that is still the culprit of many drug convictions each year in and outside of New York. In addition, two bills currently in Congress—the Marijuana Access to… Read More »
New Report Reveals Feds Targeting Minorities in “Fake Drug Crimes”
According to a report recently released by Professor Jeffrey Fagan and the University of Chicago Law School, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) has been recruiting young men to specifically target dozens of black and Latino men for drug sting operations, promising rich financial rewards, only to result in these non-violent… Read More »
Obama Commutes Sentences, Making Statement about Nonviolent Drug Offenses
On October 6th, President Obama commuted sentences for 102 federal prison inmates incarcerated for drug crimes, providing justice for individuals who were automatically cast as “career offenders” under federal law years ago and who were subject to unfair minimum mandatory sentencing. This brings the total number of sentences the president has commuted to 774,… Read More »
