Leon County workshop focuses on alternatives to arrest
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Prosecutors and legislation enforcement are on differing sides of a doable ordinance that will make minor possession of marijuana a civil offense, a transfer the Leon County Fee is being urged to not make.
Commissioners will contemplate whether or not to maneuver forward with an ordinance throughout a workshop Tuesday centered on alternate options to incarceration for misdemeanor possession of marijuana, lower than 20 grams.
Commissioners meet at 9 a.m. on the Leon County Courthouse. Leon County employees are recommending in opposition to the civil quotation ordinance.
The difficulty lies in the truth that marijuana remains to be a Schedule 1 drug on the federal degree, regardless of it being authorized for medical functions and out there recreationally in dozens of states.
No less than 15 communities round Florida have adopted ordinances, none of which have been challenged legally, that enable legislation enforcement to situation civil citations which have been developed with the assist of the native state legal professional.
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However State Legal professional Jack Campbell “maintains his opposition to any ordinance that makes an attempt to decriminalize marijuana possession by characterizing the offense as a civil infraction and imposing a civil tremendous,” in accordance with agenda supplies.
Campbell, nevertheless, has labored by means of the years to bolster diversionary applications which have been in place for the final 20 years throughout the six-county 2nd Judicial Circuit. This system offers first-time offenders the chance to keep away from jail time or different punishment given they full the necessities.
Each the Tallahassee Police Division and Leon County Sheriff’s Workplace have insurance policies that enable officers discretion in alternate options to arrest, together with diversion programing or issuing a discover to seem.
Sheriff Walt McNeil is open to exploring a neighborhood civil ordinance, in accordance with agenda supplies, based mostly on the choice of the County Fee.
They voted 4-3 in September 2019 to maneuver ahead with the ordinance dialogue set to come back earlier than them subsequent week. The thought-about an ordinance a month later, however voted to take no motion.
That very same 12 months, Campbell paused prosecuting some marijuana instances as a result of there was no legitimate check that would differentiate it from hemp, a non-euphoric hashish plant that was legalized by the federal authorities and Florida in 2018.
There are considerations over what persevering with to arrest individuals for minor marijuana possession may do to a ballooning jail inhabitants, one other situation set for a workshop Tuesday.
Nonetheless, county officers reviewed the Leon County Detention Facility inhabitants between 2019 and 2022 and located no inmates have been being detained on solely expenses of misdemeanor marijuana possession.
Commissioners have already signaled they’re keen to create a civil ordinance, which might be largely ceremonial as a result of they’ve little energy to direct legislation enforcement or circumvent state and federal legislation the place leisure marijuana possession stays unlawful.
“If challenged, an ordinance adopted by a neighborhood authorities to decriminalize misdemeanor marijuana possession by decreasing the offense to a civil penalty could also be dominated invalid,” employees wrote in agenda supplies. “In jurisdictions which have adopted ordinances offering for civil fines in lieu of a felony cost, the respective State Legal professional nonetheless has the authority to prosecute individuals charged with marijuana possession.”
Contact Karl Etters at ketters@tallahassee.com or @KarlEtters on Twitter.
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