Decriminalization: The first step to truly legal marijuana

Did the pollsters call at around at 4:20 p.m.? Americans want legal marijuana and Pew Research suggests that support is above 52%. While everyone waits for President Obama and Congress to take notice and deal with federal cannabis prohibition many states are taking a pragmatic middle ground of decriminalizing pot.

Decrim means that police simply stop arresting people for having small amounts of weed. Offenders get a ticket instead of handcuffs and pay a fine instead of go to court.

Under decrim policy the states do not attempt to regulate the sale, cultivation or distribution of cannabis, leaving the market untaxed and underground.

This stuff isn't rocket science or a stoner fantasy but a cost-efficient public policy that is already working across the country.

Last week Rhode Island put their decrim law into effect joining fourteen other states including Connecticut and Massachusetts. The offender still loses their stash (bummer) but doesn't have anything on their permanent record either.  The RI fine is $150.

Most marijuana possession arrests are performed by municipalities, not state police or federal agents. Thus the cost of cannabis prohibition has always been kicked down from Washington DC to Anytown, USA.

New Jersey and Pennsylvania towns are still paying top dollar for nabbing potheads by maintaining that adults caught with ANY amount of cannabis get charged with a criminal misdemeanor.

There are almost 50,000 cases for small amounts of marijuana every year in NJ and PA. The resources spent to handcuff, fingerprint, photograph and then plea or convict each person with a dime bag amounts to tens of millions of dollars. Cities like Newark, Camden and Philadelphia lose the most money.

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams created the Small Amount of Marijuana (SAM) program in 2010 to divert all of these cases out of criminal court. The move is saving the city more than $2 million a year.

But those offenders still get to SAM in handcuffs via the Philadelphia Police…and the bracelets may cost Philly taxpayers almost $3 million per year.

Then there's another uncomfortable reality about urban marijuana arrests; they are racially disparate. As we've pointed out before, more than 85% of Philly's pot arrests are young men of color.

While most of the cases are diverted into SAM program the PPD hasn't skipped a beat in how frequently they put people into a holding cell for pot.

Decriminalization is a real-world, state-level and street-level solution to some of the most disturbing problems of marijuana prohibition. The expense of enforcement is monumentally decreased while the institutional race and class biases can be addressed in a less severe environment.

On Monday, the Newark Star Ledger Editorial Board gave some renewed hope for a decrim bill that stalled in the Garden State last year.

(Assemblyman) Gusciora introduced a bill last year decriminalizing a half-ounce of marijuana, making the offense the equivalent of a parking violation. A first offense would draw a $150 fine, a second offense a $200 fine, and a third $500. Violators under 21 caught with marijuana or adults busted three times would have to attend a drug education program.

Gusciora's bill passed the Assembly but got stuck in the Senate, where Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Union) introduced a more lenient measure, increasing the legal amount of pot to 2 ounces. Scutari says he's open-minded and would consider Gusciora's version.

The NJ decrim bill that passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee 7-1 and a floor vote 41-30 had notably strong bi-partisan support. Republicans, even some friends of Governor Christie, were proud to back the measure.

Many politicians also recognize that the Christie Administration's over-regulation and ultimate failure to provide medical cannabis has kept nearly all qualifying patients underground…and at risk of prosecution.

NJ decrim would have the added bonus of affording those with MS, HIV and other medical conditions the protection from a pot arrest that was long promised but never materialized under the compassionate use law.

In Pennsylvania, St. Senator Daylin Leach's bill to legalize, tax and regulate recreational marijuana was officially assigned to committee last week. But there is also may be a separate decrim bill in the works for the Keystone State.

Stopping the arrest of PA's tax-paying marijuana consumers of the future is certainly a win-win for everyone and a good step forward.

States also send a strong, effective message to the federal government when they decriminalize cannabis…the very same communication from Americans in the Pew poll.

Chris Goldstein smoked his first joint in 1994 and has been working to legalize marijuana ever since. He serves on the Board of Directors at PhillyNORML has been covering cannabis news for over a decade. Contact Philly420 and Chris at chris@freedomisgreen.com