An Alabama Senate committee just recently approved of a plan to make way for medical cannabis in the state.

The vote was 6-2 and will allow for use and production in the state, for those who have specific medical conditions. Similar legislation is also pending in the Alabama House and that bill has been sponsored by a retired law enforcement investigator, Rep. M Ball.

This change would be significant for Alabama because they arrest and detain many people for “crimes” involving this plant.

Increasingly though, we see that people are coming around to change, hopefully sooner rather than later, on embracing the right of individuals to consume, grow, and trade, this plant.

Just recently, Jefferson County sheriff's deputies decided to reportedly stop small cannabis arrests, a move that would end misdemeanor cannabis arrests, and they were instead allegedly going to prefer to cite and release offenders over the issue. However, for now that plan has been put on hold, despite a spokesperson for the Sheriff's Office announcing recently that this would be the plan.

A Result Of Too Many Complaints?

If lawmakers and law enforcers in the region can in any way decrease the violence that they initiate against peaceful people over cannabis then that's a good thing. People in the state shouldn't have to suffer, having their right to explore natural potential remedies infringed upon in a cruel manner.

The plan also called the “Big Ticket” was allegedly devised by several DAs along with help from the police, which was branded as an effort at criminal justice reform. Several police officers voiced their discontent with the move, insisting that they were determined to enforce whatever was written on paper, suggesting that state law on cannabis was very clear and that there are misdemeanor crimes to be enforced and not overlooked in this case.

The majority of police chiefs have asserted that their officers will continue to make arrests over cannabis, even for small amounts.

Other cities in Alabama have also publicly asserted their position on the issue as well, that they won't be following Jefferson County in seeking to issue citations instead of arresting people as usual. The entire plan at the moment seems to be a complete mess, with no consensus on how to move forward and deal with cannabis activities.

Unfortunately for police in Alabama, they don't have unlimited resources, and they like to often fill the pool with arguably unconstitutional confiscations of private property from hard-working American citizens. Their limited resources might be spent more effectively on other issues, they should prioritize other offenses which would not only benefit them but it would benefit the people of the state as well. Dozens of children go missing in Alabama every year, and there are dozens of human trafficking cases that get reported, let's start there as just one example of what's more important than policing a plant.

People who have been convicted of drug offenses continue to represent a large portion of the prison population.

It's reported that more than 50 percent of the individuals who were admitted in 2016 and 2017 had been convicted of either drug or property offenses. This state has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world and it's never too early to seek to try and change that.

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