Palm Beach County supports creating marijuana arrest alternative
Published on 10/6/15
A new bill must pass one more vote to become law and nearly decriminalize marijuana in Palm Beach County, Florida. Instead of seeing jail time, adults caught with less than 20 grams of marijuana will be fined similar to a traffic ticket at $100. Legislators plan to limit the amount of tickets one can recieve before being arrested. Current policy has citizens caught with marijuana to be taken to jail or given a notice to appear in court.
Supporters say jailing people for a nonviolent, low-level drug offenses such as marijuana possession bog down the court system and also create legal problems for people that can last a lifetime. Miss a court date or fail to pay a fine and the punishment for a minor offense grows much worse.
