Can someone tell me how marijuana is currently treated by the police in New York? According to the article, New York has "long one of the nation’s most punitive states for those caught using or dealing drugs", but according to Wikipedia, marijuana is decriminalized in New York, which as far as I understand the term means that those caught with marijuana only get a relatively small penalty.
For quite a long time now, simple possession of under an ounce has been treated as a civil infraction. Anything else (sale, cultivation) is still a crime, of course.
I can't comment on how the police treat it currently but your quote is referring to the Rockefeller Drug Laws (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockefeller_Drug_Laws) which mandated a 15 year minimum sentence for possessing or selling above certain limits until as recently as 2009. They have historically been some of the harshest and most punitive drug laws in the country.
My understanding is that many in NY are "gotten" by the additional charges, such as having paraphernalia on them, or merely exposing it or the paraphernalia when the cop asks about it which makes it no longer concealed.
