The recent arrest of Macon, Georgia radio talk show host, Shayne McBryde (WMAC News Talk 940) for possessing a small amount of cannabis in his home should light a fire under Georgia’s Gold Dome to decriminalize the personal and private possession of marijuana.
With our jails and courts full, law enforcement personnel certainly have better things to do than harass otherwise law abiding citizens. Around one million Americans are arrested each year for marijuana. Taxpayers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars locally and billions nationally chasing the “evil weed” and those who use it.
It still eludes me how McBryde poses any threat to me or his neighbors for possessing marijuana in his home. A bottle of wine in my neighbor’s house certainly poses no threat to me.
Cases like this should be used to challenge the constitutionality of Georgia’s marijuana laws. In 1974, the last time the constitutionality was challenged, the court required the defendant to prove that marijuana was a “completely harmless substance” rather than a “relatively harmless substance”. Of course, the bar was set too high. It’s like having to prove that water is a completely harmless substance or that sex or sky diving are harmless activities. In life there are many risks. We live our lives based on our willingness to take such risks. It should be legal to take risks as long as we don’t harm others or violate their rights.
In Georgia possession of less than one ounce (28 grams) is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison. Possession of more than one ounce (29 grams) can get you up to ten years in state prison.
Here are a few steps we can take to reduce the harm these laws create. Short of legalization there are many options. Decriminalization is just one of them.
The state legislature should pass a reform bill that will:
While this reform proposal is far short of what most reformers would consider adequate, it will save taxpayers millions; will free up needed jail space; shift limited resources to more important issues; and will remove tens of thousands of citizens from the criminal element and restore some of the personal freedoms we are guaranteed by our Constitutions.
Most citizens never think about these issues until it hits home and their loved one is standing before the judge. Only then do they pray for mercy.
Another southern gentleman, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, summed it up best when he said: “Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against the possession of marijuana in private for personal use.”
It’s time we begin a real discussion about this issue and change these Draconian laws.
My message to the Georgia General Assembly… Have Mercy!
