Marijuana Activist Doug Greene Dies After Being Hit by Train on UWS
Doug Greene holding up the cover of Crain’s with his picture, from Greene’s Facebook page.
Doug Greene, an activist focused on the legalization of marijuana, died this week after being hit by a train at 72nd Street. Initial reports from the Daily News said he “fell in front of a southbound train” on Tuesday around 10:45 p.m. NYPD told us they’re waiting for the medical examiner to weigh in on the cause of the incident. They said there was no criminality suspected or observed.
Greene, the New York legislative director for NORML (the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), was hit at the 72nd Street B and C station at Central Park West after attending a George Clinton concert in Central Park, according to Celebstoner and Crain’s.
“After the show ended at 10 pm, they walked west and left the park, crossing Central Park West, and parted ways after a fun evening of music, Hinden on bicycle and Greene on foot,” Celebstoner reported. “The last time Hinden saw Greene was when he descended the stairs into the 72 Street subway station at approximately 10:30 pm.”
Greene was working hard in the past few months on getting recreational marijuana legalized in New York state. He told Crain’s he believed it was a matter of social justice.
“I am a highly educated legal professional from the suburbs, and I’ve never been arrested,” he said during an interview with Crain’s in January. “But obviously millions of people have been affected by being arrested [for cannabis use], the vast majority of them people of color. It’s obscene to make people suffer those consequences for something that is relatively benign.”
A remembrance was posted on the NORML blog here.
Very sad.
Sad indeed.
This is awful. How does anyone die like that?
One European airportrail had guards and only opened when the train cane to a full stop.
This type of safety arrangements only a dream here in NY.
Re: “This type of safety arrangements only a dream here in NY.”
Thank goodness it’s only a dream; just imagine the subway delays AND costs if each station had to be retrofitted with a similar system.
Those European airport-rail safety guards were probably envisioned as part of the original construction.
Besides, this idea is more NIGHTMARE than dream considering the outrageous costs of:
1). JUST THREE Second Ave. Subway stations @ $2.4 BILLION; and
2). the estimated $11 BILLION cost to finally bring the LIRR to Grand Central (begun years ago and finished, perhaps, in 2022).
Bottom line…don’t dream; just stay far away from the edge of the platform.
Ruth talks about money trumping passenger safety. Check out the US and worldwide subway systems who protect the health of passengers with noiseless rubber tires. Notice the Paris metro system built in 1901 who converted for passenger health and safety. The MTA is controlled by the banks which take ‘theirs’ from fare income before they leave the rest for the MTA and passengers…that’s why the richest city in the world is in such miserable condition and people die. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber-tyred_metro