#Letters to the Editor — April 3, 2021

The Issue: The NYPD’s memo to officers not to arrest anyone smoking now-legal marijuana in the streets.

The race to the bottom continues with more handcuffing of our police (“Skunky town,” April 2).

New York is releasing cop-killers and parolees onto the streets and allowing potheads to light up in public.

When will the rights of normal, law-abiding citizens — the people who pay taxes, go to work and just want to survive their subway ride — get taken seriously? They’re the ones who make this city run.

People do not want to smell the sickening scent of weed. The utter lack of respect for law-abiding citizens is amazing.

To Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio: Our run to the bottom is just about complete. You have done your best to destroy our city. Now please leave, ASAP.

Leo Kibler, The Bronx

The NYPD sent a memo to its officers, instructing them not to arrest or issue tickets to anyone 21 years or older if they are smoking weed in public.

We have a homeless problem, crime is out of control, the city is filthy and now you can smoke weed and get high in public places.

It’s just another problem New York City will have to deal with. What a disgrace! The governor and mayor have ruined New York City.

Bill McCreary

Levittown

Cuomo is to be congratulated for signing into law the legalization of marijuana.

He has pushed legislation to reform the police, reformed the bail system (exposing citizens to more crime) and now legalized a drug.

In short, he has embraced the criminal element, druggies and potheads, while constantly criticizing the Police Department and putting us law-abiding citizens in more danger.

It isn’t bad enough that responsible and senior drivers have to contend with drunk drivers and distracted cellphone ­users? Now we’ll have the driving-while-high potheads to deal with. More than likely we’ll have an increase in vehicle accidents.

Thanks again, Governor, for putting the needs of derelicts, thugs and druggies ahead of other citizens.

H. Steven Andres

Oakdale

Cuomo was dead wrong to legalize marijuana in New York. How many lives will be destroyed by this new law?

How many motor-vehicle accidents will happen because of people driving high on legalized pot?

Thomas Patrick Folan

Miller Place

Legalization of marijuana is a political decision and not a medical one. However, decriminalization and prescribed medical usage has always had merit.

Cannabis, like alcohol, is a mind-altering drug. There is nothing “recreational” about it.

As a former police officer, I can attest to the fact that it has been a gateway drug for too many people, causing widespread pain and heartache to families whose children went down this road.

We should be teaching people how to cope with life, not escape from it.

Phil Serpico, Queens

I don’t understand how it can be legal to smoke marijuana on the street or how you can compare that to smoking tobacco. Tobacco does not impair.

I work in Midtown, and even before it became legal to smoke marijuana, I witnessed delivery people, construction workers and livery drivers casually smoking on their break. How scary is that?

And the smell is atrocious, only adding to the smell of urine and garbage. Our city has become a cesspool of filth.

M. Musolino

Staten Island

I’m just happy to know that — in addition to drinking alcohol, defecating on the street and shoving riders onto subway tracks — the homeless will now be able to smoke weed.

Jake McNicholas

Whitestone

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