ABOUT

MARIJUANA-ARRESTS.COM has been created by the Marijuana Arrest Research Project. We study race, police policy, and the large  number of arrests  for marijuana possession and other victimless crimes in large U.S. cities, especially New York City.

Our publications rely on public data and first-hand knowledge of people who have been arrested for marijuana possession and other minor offenses as well as current and former police officers, public defenders, judges, assistant district attorneys, and others who work daily in the criminal justice system.

We are located in New York City and  work in conjunction with Community Studies of New York. The Marijuana Arrest Research Project is supported in part by grants from foundations and individuals. We can be reached at marijuana.arrests @ gmail.com

Harry G. Levine and Loren Siegel direct the project. We work with Jesse P. Levine, Jon B. Gettman, and others.  Our reports have been created for and distributed by the Drug Policy Alliance, the New York Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU, the NAACP, and other groups focusing on civil liberties, social justice, and the war on drugs.

Our work has been cited in editorials, columns and news stories in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, National Public Radio, WNYC, Associated Press, New York Magazine, New York Daily News, and other prominent publications. It has served as a model such research in the U.S. and internationally and contributed to the ongoing reform of marijuana policy, policing and law in New York and across the U.S.

Loren Siegel is an attorney and independent consultant specializing in media and communications for non-profits. She was for many years the director of public education for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Harry G. Levine is a professor of sociology at Queens College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He has won awards for his research and writing on the history and sociology of alcohol and drug issues, and sometime on the anthropology of Jewish Americans and the meanings they attach to Chinese and Deli food.

We began this work around 2005. Our first, big, and influential report ("Marijuana Arrest Crusade") was released by the NYCLU in 2008. This website first went online in 2011. Our work has been remarkably effective in calling attention to the national and even international character of racially-biased or just racist policiing policing and practices, especially around stopping and searching young people and then finding a small amount of marijuana. Right now, in the Spring of 2020, under quarantine, we are still at it.