ATLANTA — When Jeff Breedlove bought $20 price of crack in 2016 in Georgia, it in the end led to his arrest and a felony cost.
On the time, he was secretly battling dependancy whereas working for an elected official in DeKalb County. He admits that his hypocritical life-style of being powerful on medicine as a politician whereas fighting medicine himself opened his eyes to the necessity for coverage reform.
“It’s a illness, not a life-style selection. We’re treating them like a prison as an alternative of like a affected person,” stated Breedlove, who’s now chief of communications and coverage at Georgia Council on Substance Abuse.
GCSA and different teams assist Pres. Joe Biden’s push to assist decriminalization of marijuana, although it has lesser assist amongst legislation enforcement.
In October, Biden issued an government order pardoning prior federal convictions for easy possession of marijuana, starting the method of probably reducing the classification of marijuana from a Schedule 1 drug. In keeping with the Drug Enforcement Administration, Schedule 1 medicine are “outlined as medicine with no at present accepted medical use and a excessive potential for abuse.”
Biden’s order additionally encourages governors to decriminalize possession of low quantities of marijuana of their respective states.
Breedlove stated whereas most people who find themselves in possession of medicine, significantly marijuana, aren’t typically a significant menace to the neighborhood, arrests for drug possession typically result in setbacks of their lives.
“An individual who’s sick with substance use dysfunction, which is what is often referred to as dependancy, they shouldn’t be handled like a prison, they need to get medical consideration,” Breedlove stated. “And there’s individuals who’ve additionally perhaps not gone to jail and jail, however perhaps they bought arrested and so they get out on parole or probation … however they’ve had 1000’s and 1000’s of {dollars} of authorized charges that they by no means ought to have had and that impacts them financially. They get a report and so they can’t get a job or they will’t get into a school or college due to their report.”
Leah Nelson, analysis director for Alabama Appleseed, a public coverage group in Alabama, advocates for drug coverage reform. An investigative report printed by the group discovered that the sum of money Alabama spent in 2016 on the enforcement of its marijuana possession legal guidelines value $22 million.
Getting into the prison system for minor infractions akin to easy possession of marijuana, she stated, is extra harmful than the drug itself.
“Once I take a look at people who find themselves in jail, they typically have possession of marijuana convictions of their histories, and that’s not shocking as a result of involvement with the prison justice system begets additional involvement within the prison justice system,” Nelson stated. “It’s very arduous to get out from beneath even probation. We want a prison punishment system as a result of some individuals are harming different individuals. So I’m not arguing for abolition of all legal guidelines. However [we] have to have a look at which aspect of the size is extra harmful, and I believe after we take a look at marijuana possession, what we’re doing now could be much more harmful than decriminalization.
She continued: “We aren’t on the secure aspect proper now as a result of now we have prisons the place individuals are dying, actually dying of drug overdoses, repeatedly dying by murder, repeatedly dying by suicide inside Alabama’s prisons. We have now a really harmful scenario inside our prisons.”
Marijuana arrests largely affect Black individuals
In keeping with the 2020 census, white individuals make up almost 62% of the U.S. inhabitants and Black individuals make up 12.4% of the inhabitants.
FBI information means that Black individuals are arrested at a disproportionate fee for marijuana possession.
In keeping with 2021 FBI information, although underreported attributable to lack of company participation, white individuals have been 53% of arrests for marijuana possession whereas Black individuals have been 41% of arrests.
The disparity was a lot larger in Georgia.
Among the many 13 of 432 businesses that reported to the FBI in 2020, almost 66% of arrests for marijuana possession have been Black individuals, and 33% have been white. Reported information for 2021 reveals 69% of arrests have been Black individuals, and 29% have been white amongst 301 of 657 that reported to the FBI.
In 2021, marijuana possession led to 40% of drug-related arrests amongst these businesses; different harmful non-narcotics made up the biggest share, 43%.
Race information was not obtainable from Alabama the place solely 186 of 436 reported information, although marijuana possession constituted the best quantity of drug-related arrests, roughly 43%.
“In 2016, which was the 12 months we have been capable of get information for, Black individuals in Alabama have been 4 occasions as seemingly as white individuals to be arrested for possession of marijuana, and that’s extraordinarily regarding,” Nelson stated, “due to longstanding analysis by the federal authorities exhibiting that Black individuals and white individuals use marijuana on the identical charges. So if you happen to use it, you commit the crime of possessing so there’s no affordable rationalization for that disparity.”
She referenced the case of disabled Iraqi Warfare veteran Sean Worsley, who served 9 months in an Alabama jail in 2020 after an arrest for legally possessing medical marijuana. An Arizona resident on the time, Worsley was prescribed the drug to deal with PTSD and different medical points. He was touring by Alabama when he was stopped by police for a site visitors violation.
“And no one that I do know thinks that that’s an affordable final result,” Nelson stated. “He’s a Black man and he ended up in jail for making this error. Sean, all by itself, is nice purpose to decriminalize marijuana. We have now to take that device away from legislation enforcement as a result of clearly, they’re not utilizing it in a approach that anyone thinks is affordable.”
Native efforts to decriminalize marijuana
In keeping with the Nationwide Convention of State Legislatures, 27 states and the District of Columbia have decriminalized small quantities of marijuana, basically making it a civil infraction or not against the law that constitutes an arrest or jail time.
In 2016, metro-Atlanta metropolis Clarkston turned the primary metropolis in Georgia to decriminalize possession of lower than an oz of weed. The nice is $75.
Atlanta, Forest Park, Kingsland, unincorporated Fulton County, Savannah, South Fulton, Tybee Island, and most lately Athens and Stonecrest have additionally decriminalized small quantities of marijuana.
Georgia and Alabama are among the many 19 states that may impose jail time for possession of low quantities of marijuana.
This 12 months, a number of marijuana-related reform payments didn’t advance.
SB 263 in Georgia would have legalized and controlled hashish for adults. HR 281 and SR 165 would have referred a constitutional modification on legalization to voters, and SB 77 would have lowered the penalty for possession of lower than a half-ounce of marijuana to a nice of as much as $300. HB 738 and SB 264 would have created complete medical hashish applications.
In a Democrat advisory query in the course of the Might 2022 main election, voters have been requested: “Ought to marijuana be legalized, taxed, and controlled in the identical method as alcohol for adults 21 years of age or older, with proceeds going towards schooling, infrastructure and well being care applications?”
Simply over 80%, or 588,253, voted “sure” and 141,394 voted “no.”
In Alabama, SB 160 didn’t advance. Democrat Rep. Bobby Singleton tried the go the invoice in a earlier session as effectively. It sought to alter penalties for possession of two or extra ounces of marijuana from jail to a nice. It could have lowered the primary offense nice from a most of $6,000 to $250. The invoice additionally supplies for potential expungement alternatives for individuals who have been charged or convicted of possession beneath sure circumstances. It could additionally expunge such prices or convictions if she or he has not been convicted of a felony, misdemeanor, or violation, excluding minor site visitors violations, inside the final 5 years.
Opposition to marijuana decriminalization
In lots of legislative classes, lawmakers have tackled different points that seem like extra outstanding than marijuana decriminalization, a subject that always results in a lot debate.
“There’s simply loads of kind of common nervousness at any time when we alter a legislation,” Nelson stated. “Folks fear a few slippery slope. … I respect the nervousness however I additionally suppose we needs to be equally anxious concerning the insupportable final result of our present scenario.”
Some argue that marijuana is a “gateway” drug that results in customers anxious to strive a drug that provides off a “larger excessive.”
“We perceive that some individuals can use that product, and so they’re by no means going to have an incident that encounters legislation enforcement or impacting different individuals, however what concerning the individuals for whom it does,” Breedlove stated, pointing to views of opponents of decriminalization. “Take the place that there are Georgians and People who’re impacted by it medically as a result of they’re. I’ve met individuals who will give public testimony that the primary drug they did was marijuana, the excessive didn’t maintain itself and so they sought out one other excessive and that was the character of meth or heroin or cocaine or no matter it was.”
Most legislation enforcement businesses are additionally in opposition to decriminalization efforts.
A March 2020 survey by Police1 and Louisiana State College analyzed 3,615 sworn legislation enforcement officers’ attitudes towards marijuana use and enforcement.
That survey revealed that 36% “strongly agree” and 37% “considerably agree” that marijuana is much less harmful than different Schedule 1 medicine, however 48% “strongly agree” and 29% “considerably agree” that it’s a gateway drug.
Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk referenced Colorado the place leisure use of marijuana is authorized for adults 21 and older. He cited a rise in site visitors deaths and emergency room visits, referencing it as an introductory drug, as causes for his opposition to marijuana decriminalization.
“It’s simply chipping away on the block, then subsequent will probably be don’t arrest for a pound of marijuana, then it’ll be make all of it authorized,” Paulk stated.
Oftentimes, the South Georgia company arrests for possession of huge quantities of marijuana, and deputies are typically centered on arresting for one thing as small as a marijuana cigarette, he stated.
“We might make them eliminate it so far as making an attempt to convey them to jail, however you will get a DUI on marijuana. Numerous occasions marijuana has made them slightly courageous,” Paulk stated. “I’d not assist (decriminalization efforts) however you simply assist the legal guidelines with frequent sense. In the event you’ve bought somebody with an open container, like half a beer, you may cost them with open container. It makes extra sense to inform them don’t have one other open container as an alternative of taking them to jail.”
Whereas the Police 1 survey reveals that just about 63% of legislation enforcement “strongly disagree” and “considerably disagree” that incarceration is an efficient solution to scale back marijuana use in society, 52% didn’t suppose marijuana needs to be decriminalized of their state.
Kenny Culpepper, the police chief in Cullman, Ala., stated he has combined feelings about decriminalization.
He stated current legalized CBD merchandise which have THC in them already make it tough for legislation enforcement to implement marijuana violations.
“If we convey a canine to the automotive and the canine alerts and someone’s bought one thing that’s labeled as CBD or some sort of authorized marijuana-like product, the one approach we are able to decide whether or not it’s unlawful or not is to ship it off to have the THC degree examined,” Culpepper stated. “And with the Division of Forensic Science in Alabama, that may very well be months earlier than you get these outcomes again. So it actually makes it tough for legislation enforcement to make these prices anyway due to the introduction of CBD-type merchandise.”
Sheriff Invoice Massee of Baldwin County Sheriff’s Workplace in Georgia stated proposals to decriminalize marijuana include many unknowns.
“There are too many unanswered questions,” he stated. “One is, individuals on probation and parole, and in addition they’re going to have to alter the best way they analyze THC in the event that they’re gonna legalize it. What’s the restrict? They’re gonna must provide you with a restrict of THC to point out whether or not you’re beneath the impact of marijuana.”
Regulation enforcement budgets typically obtain a portion of revenues derived from citations and costs related to arrests, however Breedlove stated he has encountered some legislation enforcement leaders who assist marijuana decriminalization efforts.
“We have now so many officers leaders in legislation enforcement altering their thoughts and saying, ‘You’re proper, we’ve bought to do it in another way,’ and to me, they’re heroes,” Breedlove stated. “They’re breaking stigma but it surely’s not a majority. We want extra leaders in legislation enforcement to be keen to affix their friends in saying, ‘We’re open to doing it a distinct approach.’”
