Decriminalization

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was criticized on Thursday by black and Hispanic Democrats who said he wasn't doing enough to stop the tidal wave of "stop and frisk" arrests of minority youth.

Cuomo recently proposed making the "public display" of 25 grams or less of marijuana a violation for which police officers issue a summons instead of an arrest. New York lawmakers decriminalized pot back in the 1970s, but New York City Police Department officers got around that by asking suspects to remove the marijuana from their pockets, then busting them for "public display" of pot, an arrestable offense.

The decrim bill was seen as an attempt to address the fallout over the NYPD's controversial tactics, which critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have pointed out leads to disproportionate rates of minorities being busted for pot.

Gov. Cuomo failed last year to reach a deal with Senate Republicans on the public display decrim bill; they opposed the measure, reports Mara Gay at The Wall Street Journal. He again pushed for a slightly different bill, this time decriminalizing public possession of less than 15 grams, in March but again lost.

The issue appears dead again for this year, according to lawmakers.

Solid Majority Also Now Supports Legalizing, Taxing and Regulating Marijuana for Personal Use

Overwhelming Public Support Adds Momentum to Pending Senate Bill that Decriminalizes Small Amounts of Marijuana for Personal Use

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

An overwhelming majority of New Jersey voters support reducing the penalty for simple marijuana possession from a criminal offense to a small fine similar to a traffic ticket, according to a new poll of likely voters by Lake Research Partners. The poll was commissioned by the Drug Policy Alliance.

The poll found that 61 percent of those asked support a proposal to make possession of two ounces or less of marijuana a civil violation. Currently, possession of this amount is a criminal offense that carries a penalty of up to a $1,000 fine and six months in jail. A conviction also results in a criminal record that cannot be expunged for at least five years.

The poll also found that support for decriminalization is broad-based, traversing North, Central and South Jersey, and that it bridges gender, race and partisan divides. An overwhelming 82 percent of those polled said that they would either be more likely to vote for an elected official who supported reducing penalties for marijuana possession or that it would make no difference in their vote.

You Can Still Get 20 Years For Simple Possession of Marijuana in Louisiana

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

A bill which would have reduced penalties for marijuana possession died on the Louisiana Senate floor on Thursday after lawmakers tried three times to get the votes necessary to begin debate.

Sen. J.P. Morrell (D-New Orleans), who tried twice on Wednesday and once more on Thursday to get the 26 votes needed, was heard to say "I'm done. That's it," as he walked away from the podium on Thursday, reports Lauren McGaughy of the New Orleans Times Picayune. The final effort fell short by just two votes.

House Bill 103, sponsored by Rep. Austin Badon (D-New Orleans), needed a two-thirds vote of state senators to even be brought up for debate, since it came up after the deadline for normal passage of bills in this year's legislative session.

Opponents claimed the bill would send "the wrong message that it's OK to smoke marijuana in Louisiana." Lawmakers reportedly chuckled and rolled their eyes as Morrell took to the podium on Thursday to rally votes for the bill. Families of those incarcerated for 20 years or more for marijuana possession -- including a few prisoners who got life sentences for pot under the state's habitual offender law -- were less amused.

"I heard the groaning," Morrell said. "I hear the inhaling and exhaling. I think it would be appropriate to at least attempt to have debate on this bill."

Proposal backed by tripartisan group of legislators and state's top law enforcement officials will replace criminal penalties for simple marijuana possession with a civil fine similar to a traffic ticket

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

Gov. Peter Shumlin signed a bill into law Thursday that decriminalizes possession of limited amounts of marijuana in Vermont, making it the 17th state in the nation to decriminalize or legalize marijuana. The signing took place during the governor’s remarks at the Statewide Criminal & Juvenile Justice Training Conference.

Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell and Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn testified in favor of the bill, which was approved in the Senate (24-6) on May 7 and in the House (98-44) on April 12. Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of Vermont voters support such a proposal, according to a survey conducted by Public Policy Polling in February 2012.

“We applaud Gov. Shumlin, the state’s top law enforcement officials, and the legislature for their leadership and support of this important legislation,” said Matt Simon, a legislative analyst for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), which lobbied in support of the bill. “Decriminalizing marijuana possession will allow law enforcement officials to spend more time and attention addressing serious crimes and prevent people from being branded as criminals just for using a substance that most Americans agree should be legal.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

A bill which would reduce the penalties for marijuana possession in Louisiana passed a legislative hurdle on Tuesday. House Bill 103 was approved in a Senate judicial committee and sent to the floor of the full Senate. If approved there, the bill would go to Governor Bobby Jindal's desk.

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Austin Badon (D-New Orleans), would lessen the jail time and fines imposed on people convicted of simple marijuana possession, reports Lauren McGaughy of The New Orleans Times Picayune.

Badon said the bill would "keep families together, to keep people [from] going on the unemployment rolls," speaking before the Senate Judiciary C Committee on Tuesday. According to Badon, keeping people charged with marijuana possession out of jail would save Louisiana taxpayers $2.2 million in incarceration costs; the bill's fiscal note backs up his assertion.

The lowered penalties would not apply to those charged with intent to distribute or to those in possession of synthetic products like K2 or Spice.

ACLU Report Finds D.C. Leads All 50 States in Per Capita Marijuana Arrests and Money Wasted

Recent Poll Finds Three Out of Four D.C. Voters Want to Remove Criminal Penalties for Marijuana Possession

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

District of Columbia residents are arrested for marijuana possession at greater rates than residents of any U.S. state, and D.C. taxpayers pay for the "privilege" -- the most per capita on marijuana arrests in the country, according to a groundbreaking report issued yesterday by the American Civil Liberties Union that examines nationwide state and county marijuana arrest data by race.

"The War on Marijuana in Black and White: Billions of Dollars Wasted on Racially Biased Arrests" also found that African Americans comprise just over half the D.C. population, but accounted for more than nine out of every ten marijuana possession arrests in 2010. All told, African Americans were eight times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession that white residents, and more than 90 percent of all marijuana arrests in 2010 were of African Americans.

The report found that the racial disparity in D.C. marijuana arrests widened by more than 75 percent since 2001, as the overall marijuana arrest rate in D.C. grew more than 60 percent.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

A conservative New York Assemblyman who was busted for marijuana possession after voting against medical marijuana changed his course last week, voting for cannabis decriminalization.

Assemblyman Steve Katz on May 30 voted in favor of A. 6716, which would make small amounts of cannabis in public view a ticketable offense rather than an arrestable one. In 2011, Katz voted against a medical marijuana law in the Assembly.

Katz was stopped for speeding in March and ticketed for having a couple joints' worth of pot in the car. "At his court date, Katz got his case dismissed in an almost textbook instance of white privilege," writes David Downs at Smell the Truth.

The lawmaker had been going 80 miles per hour in a 65 mph zone on the New York State Thruway, according to the police report. It was the 59-year-old Putnam County lawmaker's first known pot bust.

Assemblyman Katz sits on committees for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, as well as Higher Education.

Earlier this month, the hacktivist collective Anonymous Team Vendetta temporarily took down Katz's website for what the group called his hypocrisy.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

If you get caught with a small amount of marijuana in St. Louis, you'll get a summons like a traffic ticket instead of being charged under the more severe state law.

The new law, which took effect on Saturday, was sponsored by Alderman Shane Cohn, who said he thinks smoking pot is a bad health decision, reports KMOX.

"I think my message is always 'Just say no," Cohn said. "I think I've made it perfectly clear that I've never even smoked cigarettes, let alone marijuana."

Cohn said the decriminalization law is just an attempt to "streamline city processes."

"This isn't something that's radical," Cohn said. "This is being done in other parts of the state of Missouri."

The ordinance doesn’t define "small amount," which will largely be left up to the interpretation of police officers, reports Nicholas J.C. Pistor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The police department is expected to have a written policy on handling such matters.

8th Ward Alderman Stephen Conway noted that offenders would now wind up with a ticket. In the past, he said, many of them were being let go without any formal legal charge at all. “In a way, this actually reintroduces a penalty,” Conway said in April.

Bill Would Have Ended Life Sentences For Marijuana In Louisiana

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

Legislation that would have reduced Louisiana's draconian marijuana penalties found a majority of support in the state House of Representatives on a 46-45 vote -- but it failed anyway, because House rules require any bill to pass with a simple majority of total House members, making 53 votes necessary to enact a new law.

The bill would have greatly reduced prison sentences and fines for marijuana offenders in the state. On May 21 it went to the House floor for the third reading; the final 46-45 vote was tantalizingly close to changing the face of marijuana enforcement in Louisiana.

HB 103 would have concentrated more on fines and less on prison sentences than the current law, and thus would have helped reduce Louisiana's world-record prison population with more realistic sentencing guidelines, reports William Dilella at NOLA Defender.

The law, notably, would also have created separation between penalties for marijuana and its synthetic imitators such as Spice and K2, which have been shown to have actual side effects and can create legitimate health concerns.

New Poll: At Least 60% of All Voters Continue to Call for Fixing Marijuana Possession Laws, Including Half of Republicans; Poll is Third This Year Showing Strong Majority Support For Reform

Thousands More New Yorkers Have Been Arrested – at Cost of Estimated $7.5 Million – for Possessing Small Amounts of Marijuana Since April 1 When Reform Talks Failed During Budget Negotiation

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

Members of the New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic, and Asian Legislative Caucus on Wednesday, May 22, will gather with commuity groups to demand an end to the biased and costly practice of falsely arresting tens of thousands of people in New York for low-level marijuana possession every year.

Dozens of advocates and impacted people from around the state will join them at a press conference and rally to urge passage of sensible marijuana decriminalization legislation, A. 6716A (Camara)/S. 3105A (Squadron). The proposal, introduced at the request of Governor Cuomo, would decriminalize possessing up to 15 grams of marijuana in public view, though smoking in public would remain a misdemeanor.

Community members and elected officials are demanding that leadership in Albany make fixing this law a top priority. The bill would help end the practice of arresting tens of thousands of young people per year for possessing marijuana supposedly "in public view" when police demand that someone “empty their pockets” during a stop-and-frisk encounter.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

Former mayor and current city councilman Marion Barry -- who has supported marijuana law reform since the 1980s -- is one of two sponsors of a bill to decriminalize marijuana in the District of Columbia.

Barry (D-Ward 8) and fellow council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) are working on legislation that would reduce or eliminate criminal penalties for marijuana possession in the nation's capital city, reports the Huffington Post.

Barry said too many young African American men get criminal records because of minor marijuana possession cases. "These council members ought to stand up, and I think they will, on behalf of their constituency, who suffers mightily from this archaic situation," said Barry, who was busted for cocaine possession while serving as mayor of D.C. in 1980.

Barry said he and wells hope to get "six or seven" council members to cosponsor a decrim measure. David Grosso (I-At Large) on Wednesday pledged his support, but added that he wants to discuss outright legalization as well. Grosso was arrested at age 22 in 1993 in Florida for marijuana possession.

"It's time we enter the 21st century and stop criminalizing people... for what is not really a major crime," Wells told The Washington Post.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

The New York Legislature decriminalized marijuana in that state back in the 1970s. But simple marijuana possession is still the #1 cause of arrest in New York City, with 149,951 pot busts last year. What gives?

NYPD cops use the "public view" exception to the decrim law to trap people, that's what. Officers will misleadingly ask a suspect to "take the pot out of your pocket," and then bust them for "public display" of the weed, which ups what would have been a traffic ticket-like event into a violation with arrest and possible jail time.

More and more civil rights activists have noticed this disturbing phenomenon, and the NYPD is increasingly coming under pressure to stop its dishonest tactics when it comes to busting pot smokers. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo tried last year to remove the "public view" provision in the criminal code last year, reports John Surico at the Village Voice, and even NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly has asked his officers to back off with the pot arrests, already.

Happily, it seems this is finally starting to have an impact, 35 years after decrim.

Governor Peter Shumlin Expected To Sign Bill Into Law

Proposal backed by tripartisan group of legislators and state's top law enforcement officials will replace criminal penalties for simple marijuana possession with a civil fine similar to a traffic ticket

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

State lawmakers gave final approval Monday to a measure that will decriminalize possession of limited amounts of marijuana in Vermont. The bill will now go to Gov. Peter Shumlin, who is expected to sign it into law in coming weeks, at which time Vermont will become the 17th state in the nation to decriminalize or legalize marijuana.

“We applaud the Vermont Legislature for adopting this much-needed legislation and setting an example for other states in the region and around the country,” said Matt Simon, a legislative analyst for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). “The exceptionally broad support demonstrated for this measure reflects the progress our nation is making toward adopting a new and more sensible approach to marijuana policy.

“The days of criminalizing people simply for using a substance less harmful than alcohol are coming to an end,” Simon said.

By Steve Elliott
Hemp News

A Kent County, Michigan judge on Monday ruled that the voter-approved decriminalization of marijuana in Grand Rapids is valid.

Judge Paul Sullivan dismissed Kent County Prosecutor William Forsyth's attempt to nullify the charter amendment, approved by voters last November, reports John Tunison at Mlive.com.

Judge Sullivan ruled that possession of less than 2.5 ounces of cannabis in Grand Rapids can, indeed, be handled as a civil infraction, just as voters had already decided.

Prosecutor Forsyth unsuccessfully argued that the amendment conflicts with Michigan laws classifying marijuana possession as a misdemeanor. He also claimed that decriminalizing weed would "interfere with his responsibilities" as Kent County Prosecutor. (Man, does this cat enjoy busting potheads, or what?)

Even before Judge Sullivan's Monday ruling, Grand Rapids Police had begun following the amendment on May 1, and started writing civil infractions for marijuana possession.

"The voters of Grand Rapids had the power to amend the city charter and plaintiff has failed to show that any section of the charter amendment necessarily conflicts with state law," Judge Sullivan wrote in his ruling.