The third-time possession of marijuana in Louisiana results in a criminal felony, but the city of New Orleans hopes to become a positive influence on the overly-strict rules governing pot use in the state.
Considering the over-crowded jails in this country, New Orleans’ idea to protect habitual pot users is refreshing. Over 50 percent of inmates currently in federal prison are there for drug offenses, according to an infographic recently released by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Many of them committed non-violent crimes and are there simply for pot possession.
This past week, New Orleans’ City Council (NOCC) approved an ordinance in a unanimous vote of 7 to zero that would allow the police department to give all small-time marijuana offenders a simple citation, instead of sending them through the criminal justice system and in many cases, straight to jail.
Read Decriminalization Law: “No Fines, No Jail Time” for Felony Marijuana Offenses
Officers in New Orleans already have the option to simply ticket first-time offenders, but the same option is not there for those who already have a possession charge on their record.
The new ordinance, introduced earlier this year by Councilwoman Susan Guidry would allow anyone caught with small amounts of weed to just pay a small fine, despite their past.
Guidry’s earlier draft would have allowed officers to just give a verbal warning, but that was changed prior to the vote. First-time offenders will now have to pay $40, and repeat offenders’ monetary fines would top out at $100.
The ordinance awaits Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s signature to become effective. Landrieu has stated, “The ordinance will become law.”
The state of Louisiana has much steeper fines for possession of 14 grams or less. A person can spend more than two weeks in jail and have to pay $500 for such an offense.
Local police in New Orleans are still trying to figure out how to enforce the ordinance, but are currently developing:
“guidelines for determining when it is appropriate to charge under state law instead of local law.”
Current Louisiana Legislature offers a proposal by Representative Greg Miller that would allow pot offenders to get a second chance as long as they can stay out of trouble for two years. This bill is among several marijuana-related measures to be discussed sometime this year. Hopefully the New Orleans ordinance will persuade the state to be more lenient in marijuana possession matters.
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Small-time offenders to get a simple citation
The only true “offender” when a cop meets a pot smoker is the cop, IMHO: anyone who tries to prevent someone from exercising his natural right to run his own life is subject to being stopped from his predations by any means that prove necessary.
Still, a small step in the right direction, New Orleans.
I’m not a pot-user, but I agree with you 100%. And the real problem is, that we have too many amoral citizens who are willing to interfere with and deprive their fellow man of his rights in exchange for a paycheck (Paid for courtesy of the taxes paid by the poor sap whom he is depriving of his rights!). And then the mercenary goes out and gets blotto on vodka at night to try and soothe what’s left of his pesky conscience.
Up until the onset of the 20th Century there were no laws forbidding the sale and use of any substances whatever. Heroin and morphine were freely available at any pharmacy, and America wasn’t exactly a nation of drug-addicts, crackheads, and drunken layabouts. The puritanical “war on drugs” actually began with the idiotically ill-advised period of Prohibition, which gave rise to the organized crime families of America, most notably the Capone gang. Even today our prison populations consist of half non-violent criminals in the slam for “drug offenses,” wherein they’re exposed to real and violent criminals. And no, I’m not a drug user and don’t even drink anymore. But I say it’s none of any government’s business what supposedly free people eat, drink, or shoot up. What’s next? A government agent supervising our eating habits? “Hey, don’t butter that piece of bread. And don’t eat that piece of chicken skin – it’s full of cholesterol and triglycerides!”
Well-said! Apparently, they didn’t learn a thing from Prohibition. When we had Prohibition, we had tons of alcohol-related crime. The gangsters supported Prohibition, because it enabled them to get rich in a trade in which they otherwise would not have been able to. When Prohibition ended, so did all the crime and violence connected to the illegal alcohol trade. And now it’s the same thing with drug prohibition, a.k.a. “The War On Drugs”, which over the last 40 years has done NOTHING to stop drug use, but has actually seen it increase drastically, while also negatively impacting the lives of the innocent, creating ridiculous levels of violent crime, and doing more to destroy the lives of drug users and their families than the actual drugs ever could.
They tell us we’re “free”- but even moist slaves throughout history have had the option of choosing what or what not to consume. We have no such right today.
Thanks, Jay. Nice to know I’m not the only one out in the wilderness railing against federal micro-management of our every activity!
Hey, Slobo, It’s kind of ironic. Most people just don’t “get it”- i.e. that we may be totally opposed to drugs (I’ve NEVER used any), but that doesn’t mean that we should support drug prohibition. Like you say, it’s a matter of freedom and not having others micro-manage our lives or the lives of our neighbors. And for all the money spent (BILLIONS of dollars per year) and all the violence produced, and all the interference in the lives of even non drug-users, the prohibition simply doesn’t work, and people who want to use drugs are going to anyway, and even if they didn’t, it is pretty obvious that such people are going to make other poor decisions in their lives too. People need to realize that freedom is about having the power to make your own choices and decisions, and to reap the consequences or rewards of your own actions. When the government appoints itself as the guardian of everyone’s “safety” (as opposed to the guardian of their rights, which is their legitimate function, but the one thing they DON’T do….) then they become a dictatorship, and it matters not that we can vote for which dictator gets to rule us.
I guess it’s a step in the right direction, but dont’t ya just ‘love’ how they still have to make money off of it, and how someone’s mere choice of using the intoxicant that they prefer is still reason for the armed goons to interfere with them? Let’s face it folks…the police state is never going away until someone nukes us, and then, the idiots who are left will probably just build a new one.
And it’s kind of ironic: All this talk lately of decriminalizing pot…and meanwhile they’ve all but criminalized tobacco. Also, it seems the more they “decriminalize” something, the more they regulate it. They get control over it, then let people use it, but only after a mechanism is in place to collect more taxes and fees….which the people are then happy to pay, just for “privilege” of not having the state ruin their life. It’s like a Mafia protection racket- pay for protection, and the ones doing the “protecting” won’t break your kneecaps.