Lil' Marijuana, Coke, Heroin in Your Pocket? Californians Support Making It a Misdemeanor

By Dennis Romero Wed., May 23 2012 at 1:23 PM

Goodiez

If you get caught with a little dope in your pocket you could see up to three years behind bars. While that kind of time is rare these days, you'd still be strip searched and treated like the worst kind of criminal by the cops.

The thing is, we the people, who are supposed to run this world we live in, don't agree with that at all, it seems. At least in California.

According to a poll this week by Tulchin Research and distributed by the ACLU (PDF), 70 percent of California voters ...

... support a proposal by state Sen. Mark Leno (SB 1506) that would downgrade possession of small amounts of drugs from a felony to a misdemeanor. Forty-three percent "strongly support" such reform.

The ACLU is trumpeting the results.

Leno's bill would reduce possible jail time to 1 year. And an analysis claims it would save counties about $159 million a year in jail and court costs. The state would save $64.4 million. Five years' worth of savings could be $1 billion.

Leno, who represents the San Francisco area, says:

Convicting drug users of felonies and incarcerating them without drug treatment does nothing to help them overcome addiction and denies them career and educational opportunities when they are released.

The bill is headed for a vote by the end of the month.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

Tags:

ACLU, decriminalization, drugs, felony, marijuana, Mark Leno, misdemeanor, poll, SB 1506

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JohnT

Drugs should be legal. Alcohol and tobacco are known killers and they are available on every corner. There should be no penalties for drug abuse - immediate penalties are provided by the products, no legal intervention is required. Marijuana especially is scientifically proven to be incrementally less toxic than alcohol, tobacco, sugar or fat - so why is it held to a different standard? I propose that marijuana be removed from all state and federal laws, statutes, regulations, schedules and treaties. Cocaine is its own punishment. Psychotic meth users maybe need mandatory counseling as far as I can tell....but you could say that about drunks and smokers.

Brett

"...and denies them career and educational opportunities when they are released." They made the decision to take drugs, and they were caught. I know of no law that says we are supposed to be concerned with the career or educational opportunities available to people who knowingly break the law. You may disagree with the law and think possession of small amounts (or any amounts) of drugs like marijuana, cocaine, or heroin should not be considered a crime at all, much less a felony, but right now, it is a crime. We aren't taking into consideration the effects of felony convictions on the "career and educational opportunities" available to persons convicted of any OTHER felonies, are we? Leno's justification for the bill fails. Call it for what it is: We cannot afford to incarcerate all of the felons that get convicted for the amounts of time that they should be serving. Reducing small amount possession to a misdemeanor is an economic decision, nothing more.

Lonnie

Is it that we cannot afford to incarcerate or just realized how stupid it was to be incarcerating this whole time? Sometimes the systems we put in place just take a while to figure out. If a person dabbles in drugs I don't think it means their lives should instantly go down the drain.

Is it better to lock up small time users and WE pay the bill? Or would it make more sense for them to pay a huge fine in court, that way they pay for their own mistake, not the taxpayers.