Florida Reps Want to Reclassify Marijuana Misdemeanors

Florida Reps Want to Reclassify Marijuana Misdemeanors

Florida Reps Want to Reclassify Marijuana Misdemeanors

Bill would lessen the punishment for possession

Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith has proposed a bill that would lessen the punishment for misdemeanor marijuana arrests, of which made up nearly 43000 Floridians in the last year. Smith states that instead of trying to bust people for smoking pot, law enforcement should be focusing more on catching violent and dangerous criminals. What he proposes is if one is caught by police with under 20 grams of marijuana they would not be arrested. Instead, they would be fined $100, however, if they weren’t able to pay the fine, they face up to 15 hours of community service.

Smith is turning his focus to this because of the disproportionate number of low-income folks that are being arrested for this specific misdemeanor crimes and that Florida’s possession laws are some of the strictest in the country. While Florida was locking up people for 20 grams, most other states are 28 grams an ounce or more, and states like Ohio, it’s up to four ounces before an arrest would take place.

Most of the arrests came out of traffic stops in Florida and in many cases, the client was not’ able to pay the legal fees pertaining to their case. Rep. Smith along with members of the Florida Cannabis Action Network, and National Advocate for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML are advocating for this change, which really targets young people between the ages of 21 to 25, who were about 23 percent of the misdemeanor arrests in 2017 for marijuana. Not only would the passing of this bill relieve a great financial burden on those who can’t afford it and give them the option for community service instead, it would also cost taxpayers less, as the focus wouldn’t be on smaller crimes that are non-violent in nature.

Florida Reps Want to Reclassify Marijuana Misdemeanors, but what do you think?

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