LAST WEEK: IS ATLANTA’S NEW MARIJUANA LAW A GOOD IDEA?

Atlanta has joined the ranks of Kansas City, Dallas, St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Nashville as a city that has lessened the criminalization of marijuana possession. New legislation eliminates jail time and reduces penalties on possession of small amounts of marijuana.

A city council news release announcing the new ordinance said it“will dramatically reduce the penalty for marijuana possession and make it a non-arrestable offense.”

It will reduce the financial penalty for possession of one ounce or less from up to $1,000 to a maximum of $75. Jail time, currently six months for possession, would be eliminated for an ounce or less. Is fining ounce-possession of marijuana right step? No there should be no fines. It should be legal as it is in many states.

Firstly, let’s dispel the myth that marijuana is a gateway drug that leads users to harder and more addictive substances. Study after study for over 40 years has shown that to be simply not true. Drug usage today is completely mutually exclusive. Pot is a recreational drug and to ruin a kid’s life, spend taxpayers dollars on punishment and court time, is no longer reasonable or rational

Everyone in Atlanta city government has gone crazy! Unless it’s a prescription, all drugs should be illegal. What they are proposing is refer madness!

Why even fine people? Marijuana is less debilitating than alcohol. Create an industry and tax it. I had my doubts about the mayor and the city council in regards to whether they were really trying to help their citizens, so I was glad to see the policy change on marijuana. The “gateway drug” myth is just that. Since there is no physiological link between marijuana and harder drugs, it must be the argument that it put you in proximity of that group. In a previous article in the AJC it stated that 92 percent of those arrested were African Americans. The most insightful and thought provoking quote came from Xochid Brevera of the Racial Justice Center. He said “Criminalization is the real gateway to drugs. The vast number of marijuana users, like smokers and drinkers, don’t go on to harder drugs. But jail can and does have a spiral effect on those who are criminalized.

Marijuana has potential for pain relief and could be an answer to ending the opioid crisis. Researchers have collected data to show marijuana’s usefulness in treating pain and symptoms associated with opioid withdrawal.