Posted on 02/16/2017 9:00:46 AM PST by Snickering Hound
Houston and Harris County are poised to decriminalize low-level possession of marijuana in a sweeping move that puts the area at the forefront of efforts in Texas to halt minor drug arrests that clog jails and courts.
District Attorney Kim Ogg is set to announce the new policy Thursday with Mayor Sylvester Turner, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo and Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
The new policy, set to begin March 1, means that misdemeanor offenders with less than four ounces of marijuana will not be arrested, ticketed or required to appear in court if they agree to take a four-hour drug education class, officials said.
"You do not get charged with anything," Assistant District Attorney David Mitcham, who heads the DA's trial bureau, said Wednesday. "You have a pathway where you can avoid going to court."
The move would save Harris County more than $10 million a year by diverting an estimated 12,000 people from the criminal justice system and would save officers hours of processing time now spent on low-level cases, officials said.
Since there is no arrest, there is no arrest record. Since there is no court date, there are no court documents connected to the encounter. The plan calls for officers to seize the marijuana and drop it off at a police station at the end of their shift, along with a record of the encounter in case the suspect does not take the class.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
4oz is a lot of weed.
Please got this story to Willie Nelson.
A city cannot “decriminalize” a state law. What a poorly written article.
Sounds more like they are going to flout the law, like Democrats always do.
Damn! I live here.
For your interest.
Thanks for the ping.
If it’s legal under current state law for these municipalities to do this I see no problem with decriminalizing 4oz of cannabis.
It should have never been criminalized in the 1st place.
Wow, I do not think in my entire life I possessed 4 ozs of pot at one time.
That is a lot of pot.
PS: The drug awareness class: Do they cover the different doobie-rolling methods? I remember kids used to use a dollar bill, and I’m pretty sure they still sell those little doobie rolling devices.
They should cover all the different strains and the difference between them. Texans, IMO, tend to be ignorant of those nuances.
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