Philadelphia has implemented a plan called SAM, The Small Amount of Marijuana Program and it makes so much sense I double and triple checked to make sure it was actually a government program. It treats arrests for marijuana possession of up to 30 grams - slightly more than an ounce - as a summary offense, rather than a misdemeanor.
The old misdemeanor charge carried a maximum penalty of 30 days' probation or jail time and a $500 fine.
Even under the old system there were not many pot arrests that resulted in a jail sentence. But if you were caught with a joint, you had a permanent criminal record, kind of like that horrid tattoo you got of some Chinese symbols except unlike the tattoo, you can’t hid it from a potential employer under a long sleeved shirt.
The new program has offenders (as defined by possession of 30 grams or less) pay $200 for a three-hour class about drug abuse. After that their record is expunged. No trial, no judge, no court-appointed defense attorneys, no prosecutor, no lab tests to confirm the "leafy green substance" is actually marijuana, no cops getting paid overtime to testify.
"We were spending thousands of dollars for when someone possessed $10 or $15 worth of weed," Seth Williams said of the way marijuana cases were prosecuted when he was elected. "It just didn't make any sense." Seth is the new District Attorney and is responsible for this little fresh breath of common sense.
Approximately 4,160 defendants enrolled in the SAM program during its first year, according to Jodi Lobel, deputy of the D.A.'s Pretrial Division. "We decided to design a smarter way," Lobel said.
Think how much money was saved.
In a related story, there is a chronic (pun intended) shortage of Pringles and snickedoodles in the Philadelphia area. But I digress.
A 2005 study by Dr. Jeffrey Miron, a Harvard professor of Economics that was endorsed by over 500 economists identified that between $10 – 14 billion of annual savings and revenues if we replace the prohibition of pot with a system of taxation and regulation similar to what we use for liquor.
The fact that we would rather make laws eliminating toys from Happy Meals and not deal with legislation that is costing billions of dollars, has no victims, disrupts lives of average Americans, and is totally ineffective in its intent is just another sign of our society’s perverse avoidance of the sane and rational.
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