The mayor of Philadelphia announced yesterday that citizens will no longer be arrested for possessing marijuana, making the city the largest in the country to decriminalize weed.
According to CBS News, Mayor Michael Nutter said that Philadelphia’s current punishment for marijuana possession is too harsh and has resulted in far too many upstanding people having criminal records for being caught with relatively small amounts of pot.
So, instead of a drug abuse course, an arrest record and a $200 fine, possession of less than an ounce of marijuana will now be punished with a $25 fine.
The fine will be raised to $100 for smoking in public.
The bill, sponsored by City Councilman Jim Kenney, also allows the latter fine to be waived with just a few hours of community service.
Kenney told CBS News,
“There’s no more handcuffs, no more bookings, no more criminal record… We have so many people that we are putting in the prison pipeline, and the poverty pipeline, because a criminal record is a debilitating thing.
Those cited for possession would still have to appear before a municipal court judge, but the summons will not go on their record as a crime.
The penalty for possessing more than an ounce or enough to suggest intent to sell was not disclosed.
Kenney claims his bill will save the Philadelphia Police Department approximately $4 million a year, as roughly 4,000 people are arrested for marijuana possession a year in the Pennsylvania city.
The bill will be amended on Thursday and voted on one last time a week later before Nutter signs it into law.
