Manhattan federal Judge Robert Sweet has raised eyebrows in the past for his stance on drugs: that they should be legalized and the drug war abandoned.
Sweet gave a speech in 1989 saying the drug war had failed, and legalization may be “an idea whose time has come.”
Sweet, a former deputy mayor to John Lindsay, sparked an avalanche of criticism when he called for legalization of marijuana, cocaine and heroin.
The judge said that drug cases had clogged the courts and had no impact on addiction or crime.
He argued that the money used arresting drug dealers and users should be used for treatment and prevention programs.
Sweet also made headlines three years later when he junked a city law banning panhandling.
He said a law against aggressive panhandling may be legal, but a complete bar on anyone asking someone else on the street for change was impermissible.