E Harlem Is No. 2 In Manhattan For Marijuana Arrests: Comptroller

EAST HARLEM, NY — East Harlem has been one of the Manhattan neighborhoods hit the hardest by the city's drug enforcement policies in the past decade, according to a study published this week by New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer.

Since 2010, 6,540 marijuana-related arrests were made in the uptown neighborhoods for a rate of 670 arrests per 100,000 residents, Stringer's study found. The arrest rate was the fifth highest citywide, behind just the Brownsville, East New York, Grand Concourse and Highbridge and Uptown Manhattan neighborhoods.

Stringer's report also found that a majority of people arrested this decade for marijuana are people of color. About 51 percent of people arrested for marijuana since 2010 are black and 35 percent are Latinx, according to the report.

East Harlem's arrests numbers are even more glaring when considering the neighborhood borders an area with one of the lowest arrest rates. With just 892 marijuana-related arrests in the past decade, the more affluent and whiter Upper East Side has the third lowest arrest rate in the city.

The comptroller conducted the study to analyze which communities in New York City should benefit if and when marijuana is legalized for recreational use.

"As New York joins neighboring jurisdictions in moving closer to legalizing cannabis for adult use, the State and the City must take action to ensure that the communities who have been most harmed by policies of the past are able to access the revenue, jobs, and opportunities that a regulated adult-use marijuana program would inevitably generate," Stringer's report reads.

Here are the 10 neighborhoods with the highest and lowest marijuana arrest rates:

Highest:

1. Brownsville & Ocean Hill (Brooklyn)
2. East New York & Starrett City (Brooklyn)
3. Concourse, Highbridge & Mount Eden (Bronx)
4. Washington Heights, Inwood & Marble Hill (Manhattan)
5. East Harlem (Manhattan)
6. Belmont, Crotona Park East & East Tremont (Bronx)
7. Bedford Park, Fordham North & Norwood (Bronx)
8. Morris Heights, Fordham South & Mount Hope (Bronx)
9. Hamilton Heights, Manhattanville & West Harlem (Manhattan)
10. Crown Heights South, Prospect Lefferts & Wingate (Brooklyn)

Lowest:

1. Forest Hills & Rego Park (Queens)
2. Borough Park, Kensington & Ocean Parkway (Brooklyn)
3. Upper East Side (Manhattan)
4. Tottenville, Great Kills & Annadale (Staten Island)
5. Bensonhurst & Bath Beach (Brooklyn)
6. Bayside, Douglaston & Little Neck (Queens)
7. New Springville & South Beach (Staten Island)
8. Flushing, Murray Hill & Whitestone (Queens)
9. Sheepshead Bay, Gerritsen Beach & Homecrest (Brooklyn)
10. Richmond Hill & Woodhaven (Queens)

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