Just over a year ago, the powers that be in Philadelphia effectively decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana by offering offenders the chance to enroll in a three-hour class that would expunge the offense from their records. Not only did this give Philadelphia police more time and energy to focus on more serious crimes, it has also saved the city a pretty sizable Ziploc bag of green stuff.
"We were spending thousands of dollars for when someone possessed $10 or $15 worth of weed," District Attorney Seth Williams tells the Philadelphia Daily News. "It just didn't make any sense."
Under the program, being caught with up to 30 grams of marijuana is no longer a misdemeanor but a summary offense. By simply paying $200 to attend the three-hour class on the ills of drug use and abuse, the arrestee's record is wiped clean of the offense.
8 comments:
So now we spend thousands of dollars educating them in the weed habit. Good ole government decision.
I they had given them a year in jail , not to worry anymore.
The city of bother love , not brotherly.
It's not decriminalized if it's still an offense.
Anon 6:27 A.M.
You are clueless aren't you? You can't stop pot smokers just as much as you can't stop drinking and driving or to stop production of tobacco products and alcohol. Yet, tobacco is a drug, and alcohol and coffee are drugs too... I don;t see you complaining about them...
Also I guess you don't know about the benefits of smoking pot for the chronically ill... I guess you haven't read the research papers that says less deaths come from smoking pot than alcohol or cigarettes...
Also to point out, people will do what they want when they want and any amount of jail time will not stop that and in fact when people are put in jail for small infractions they are thought by other inmates, on how to be better criminals and may even venture into other areas of crime...
As stated above, police cant stop this, it is a natural growing plant... they spend millions on trying to stop it than if they didn't... There is no stopping it tot he point that cops are now realizing it and decided that since they can't stop it they will join it and try to get it regulated...
@6:27
I don't know if you read the entire article but it does make clear that the offender will absord the cost of treatment
That's nice, I don't thinks it's very Christian to throw a person in jail for their choice of herbs.
Hey, 9:30, it is if their choice of herbs is illegal. Idiot.
9:52 - so do YOU want your taxes raised to pay the $30,000 or so a year it takes to lock someone up for a few ounces of marijuana? I'm not.
If the person caught is selling, that's a different deal. But to jail someone for a year for possession of a ounce or two is just plain stupid fiscal management by a government.
The government cannot allow people to eat drink or smoke products which can be harmful to their health. Unless it is manufactured by one of the preferred campaign finance corporations like Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Ag, etc.
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