Indopedia All Things Marijuana
The city of Atlanta is on the verge of eliminating the criminal penalties associated with the possession of marijuana.
Earlier this week, a city council committee voted in approval of a decriminalization ordinance that would allow local police to deal with pot offenders with a small fine rather than dragging them to jail.
The goal of the measure, which was brought to the table by Councilman and mayoral candidate Kwanza Hall, is to prevent non-violent offenders from getting jammed up in the criminal justice system because they were caught holding a plant that is now legal in more than half the nation.
“Court costs, the jail time, ruining young peoples lives, they lose their scholarships, it breaks up families, and it wastes our tax dollars. That’s the reason for doing this,” Hall told NBC affiliate WXIA-TV.
Last week, Hall demanded the city council take up a vote on the decriminalization issue after letting the proposal die due to some backlash at the beginning of the year from the Atlanta Police Department. He told his colleagues that “the legislation doesn’t need to be tweaked or amended, it just needs an up or down vote.”
The measure is now set to go…
