Decriminalization of Marijuana Possession

The city of Chicago Heights recently passed an ordinance making possession of small amounts of marijuana a municipal ticket offense. Passed under the city’s home rule authority, the ordinance allows local police to write a ticket rather than charging the suspect with a violation of state law when less than 30 grams of marijuana are found. Upon receiving a ticket, suspects will go through an administrative hearing in city court rather than a criminal proceeding in a state court. Local officials hope that the new procedure for handling small marijuana possession cases will help unclog the criminal justice system. They also hope it will provide additional revenue to the city, which under the new rule, will no longer be required to share fines with the Cook County courts.

Several state and local ballot measures liberalizing the penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana were decided in the November election. Sixty-five percent of voters in Massachusetts voted in favor of Question 2. Passage of Question 2 reduces the penalty for possession by an adult of less than one ounce of marijuana for personal use from possible jail time to a one hundred dollar fine. Before Question 2, offenders would become subject of a Criminal Offender Record Information that would follow them throughout their lives when looking for school loans, jobs or housing. That has been eliminated for those charged with minor marijuana possession.

Several local precincts in Massachusetts were also given a choice to call on their state representatives to vote in favor of legislation allowing seriously ill patients to possess and grow small amounts of marijuana for personal, medical use. All of these measures passed by over 70%. The state of Michigan also approved a ballot initiative legalizing medical marijuana with 63% of the vote. Under the new Michigan law, marijuana use and cultivation must be physician-supervised and patients must be pre-authorized by the state.

In Berkeley, California, Measure JJ a zoning law expanding the non-residential zones wherein medical cannabis collectives may be located passed with 62% of the vote. However, voters in the State of California rejected Proposition 5 that would have diverted certain non-violent drug possession offenders from prison to treatment programs and decreased penalties for minor marijuana possession offenses, under 28.5 grams, to a non-criminal infraction similar to the Chicago Heights ordinance.

In Hawaii County, Hawaii, 58% of voters favored Project Peaceful Sky making the cultivation, possession and adult personal use of cannabis the single the lowest law enforcement priority. This is a prioritization rule making all other offenses a higher priority than adult personal use of cannabis. The rule applies to single cases involving twenty-four or fewer cannabis plants at any stage of maturity or the equivalent in dried cannabis, which is set by law at twenty-four or fewer ounces. A similar prioritization measure passed in Fayetteville, Arkansas with 66% of the vote. Now, adult marijuana possession has the lowest law enforcement priority in Fayetteville. The ballot measure also requires the city clerk to send a letter each year to elected state and federal representatives seeking similar laws at higher levels. Similar de-prioritization laws previously passed in Seattle, Oakland, Columbia, Missouri, and Denver.

In Illinois, Senate Bill 2865 would decriminalize doctor recommended medical use of marijuana. The bill recently passed Senate Committee in a 6 to 4 vote.