Louisville Moves To Make Cannabis A Low Priority For Police
In the summer of this year, Louisville lawmakers sought to ease up on their criminalization of cannabis by passing an ordinance which would make small amounts of cannabis a low priority for police in the region.
They were looking to make a change that would help decrease the number of cannabis users who are going to jail and ending up being shuffled through the criminal justice system.
Kentucky has previously been known to have an incarceration rate that's worse than Russia, ranked 7th in the world several years ago. Prison space shouldn't be reserved for non-violent, peaceful people, such as those who have been put behind bars for cannabis possession or trafficking etc.
Under Kentucky criminal law, cannabis possession is still classified as a misdemeanor and could potentially be punishable by up to 45 days behind bars or someone might see a fine of several hundred dollars.
However, on the effort to transform their approach to cannabis activities, they continue to make progress in Louisville, or at least they're trying.
Now, some arrests for possession of small amounts will no longer be prosecuted in the city under a new policy that was just announced.
And it's about time for some common sense to spread, because the war on cannabis and all drugs has already proven to be little more than a complete failure in the way of trying to achieve its supposed objectives.
The new policy in Louisville makes changes so that the county attorney's office won't prioritize cannabis possession cases any longer, those involving small amounts. They are also going to stop prosecuting cases involving drug paraphernalia when it's allegedly more than clear that the paraphernalia is used for cannabis consumption.
The county attorney's office insists that they have the authority to decline to prosecute those charges relating to small cannabis possession under state law, and that this new change will allow them to spend more resources on serious deadly crimes.
Pics:
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This reminded me of a man from New Orleans, he was riding his bike, was stopped by the police, and had marijuana on him.
I forget the details, but I do know, that he was a father of 6, was a small business owner, took care of his family, and got 10 years in jail for marijuana. Once in there, circumstance after circumstance has him in prison for years.
Similar stories here, from time to time. It's so not in the public interest - breaks up families, creates poverty, removes taxes from the system.
Yeh, I think the policy here is to confiscate anything that's found, but not to prosecute. We have more serious violence and organised crime to deal with.
@doitvoluntarily, Hope that these efforts will succeed and process will ease up.
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