Ramos discusses impacts of criminalization of
cannabis and sex work at Jax Hgts town hall
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
State Senator Jessica Ramos
recently explained to the Jackson
Heights community how
and why legislators and advocates
throughout New York are
working to legalize cannabis
and decriminalize sex work in
a responsible way.
“What all of this is about is
harm reduction. What we want
is to make sure that all of our
neighbors are safe,” Ramos said
during the Feb. 6 town hall.
Ramos was joined by a panel
of advocates and lawyers, including
public defender and political
organizer Tiffany Cabán,
Legal Aid Society Representatives
Anthony Posada and
Jared Trujillo, Green Worker
Cooperatives’ Advocacy Coordinator
Raybblin Vargas, High
Mi Madre’s Co-founder Emily
Ramos, and DeCrimNY Member
TS Candii.
Panelists believed the law
enforcement system has disproportionately
affects communities
of color — in both issues of
cannabis and sex work. Ramos
and other elected officials are
working to introduce laws that
will change that.
“I realize that drugs and sex
are things that we often have
swept under the rug in our community
except for complaining
about aesthetics — that it
doesn’t look good, or that people
don’t want their children seeing
that,” Ramos said.
The mother of two said that
living right off of Roosevelt
Avenue has made for “very interesting
conversations” with
her children, and that although
she isn’t one to tell people how
to parent, those conversations
matter.
What it could mean to
fully legalize cannabis in
New York
Gov. Andrew Cuomo passed
a law last year that reduces the
penalty for unlawful possession
of marijuana to a violation and
creates a process to expunge the
records of individuals who’ve
been convicted for possessing
small amounts of it. But, according
to Ramos and panelists, that
was only a small step.
“For the last few years, the
governor has promised in nearly
every major speech that it’s
Sen. Jessica Ramos hosted an issue-based town hall on cannabis and sex work. Photo: Angélica Acevedo/QNS
going to get done. It’s never been
a matter of if, it’s been a matter
of when — and, more importantly
to me, how,” Ramos said.
She urges fellow lawmakers
to keep communities of color –
who have been disproportionately
arrested for marijuana
and sex offenses – in mind when
considering legalization.
“When we look at the criminalization
of cannabis, over
80 percent of folks who are arrested
for marijuana or cannabis
related offenses are black
or Latino folks, and majority
men,”Tiffany Cabán said. “We
look at that alongside the fact
that there really isn’t any
difference in consumption of
cannabis amongst our communities
of color and white communities,
for example.”
This criminalization is connected
to mass-incarceration
and unequal opportunities in
housing, health care and education,
Cabán said.
Legal Aid Society Representative
Anthony Posada pointed
to the millions of dollars in tax
revenue states like Colorado and
California have generated since
legalizing recreational use. The
revenue, Posada explained,
could be used to fund services
like education, job placement,
community banking, mental
TIMESLEDGER | 2 QNS.COM | FEB. 21-27, 2020
health, and women’s health —
as outlined in the Marijuana
Regulation and Taxation Act
(MRTA), sponsored by Senator
Liz Krueger.
Raybblin Vargas and Emily
Ramos (who isn’t related to
the Senator), emphasized that
legalizing cannabis could lead
to more education of other,
healthier ways to consume the
product.
Why decriminalizing
sex work will protect
transgender people of
color
Bianey Garcia and Joselyn
Castillo, Queens-based transgender
rights advocates in
Make the Road New York, told
their stories as immigrants
who struggled to find jobs — not
because of their citizenship status,
but because of their gender
identity and expression. Different
circumstances led Garcia
and Castillo into sex work, such
as sex trafficking and struggling
to pay bills.
TS Candii, a member of De-
CrimNY, a coalition of 30-plus
organizations advocating to
“decriminalize, decarcerate,
and destigmatize” sex trades,
also told her story. Originally
from Georgia, TS Candii moved
to New York after losing her job
when she changed her name
but not the gender marker in
her license. When she arrived
in NYC, she found herself struggling
to find employment and
housing.
All three advocates had one
thing in common — the consequence
of what advocates call
the criminalization of “walking
while trans,” or Section
240.37 of the state penal code.
This gives police the ability to
arrest people for “loitering for
the purpose of engaging in a
prostitution offense.”
Many advocates maintain
that the law disproportionately
targets transgender people of
color.
“I’m here to fight for our
right to due process, because
we all should have the right to
do over our own body,” TS Candii
said. “And I’m also here for
fulfilling our human rights to
be able to do whatever we want
to do with our body and our
rights to form associations, our
rights to be free of discrimination,
abuse, and violence.”
Legal Aid Society Representative
Jared Trujillo mentioned
the Stop Violence in the
Sex Trades Act, introduced
by Ramos and several other
legislators including Senator
Julia Salazar, which is meant
to decriminalize sex work and
repeal Section 240.37. He also
mentioned the detrimental effects
of FOFSTA-SESTA, which
sex workers have said put them
at greater risk.
“About 47 percent of black
trans women, are incarcerated
at some point in their lives and
a lot of that is driven by the fact
that sex work is criminalized,”
Trujillo said. “It’s immigrants,
who oftentimes don’t’ have any
other means of survival because
so many systems are so
xenophobic and racist that this
is the way that they can support
themselves — same way with
a lot of trans and queer folks
too.”R
amos said she wants
Queens, and Jackson Heights,
in particular, to lead this cause
— because of the numerous arrests
made under Section 240.37
in Roosevelt Avenue.
In a City and State New
York article about New York
lawmakers’ reevaluating sex
work, Ramos explained that decriminalizing
sex work is about
“empowering the worker, trusting
the worker and hopefully allowing
them to create their safe
environments in which they’re
able to take care of themselves
and take care of each other.”
TIMESLEDGER is published weekly by Queens CNG LLC, 38-15 Bell Boulevard, Bayside, NY.11361, (718) 229-0300. The entire contents of this publication are copyright 2020. All rights reserved. The newspaper will not be
liable for errors appearing in any advertising beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. Periodicals postage paid at Flushing, N.Y. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the TimesLedger C/O News Queens
CNG LLC. 38-15 Bell Boulevard, Bayside, N.Y. 11361.
/QNS.COM
