This vote means that the full Atlanta City Council will vote on decriminalizing possession of <1 ounce of marijuana. Vote Oct 2nd pic.twitter.com/sMxuAQNZNS
— Carl Willis (@CarlWillisWSB) September 26, 2017
On Tuesday the Atlanta City Council Public Safety Committee voted 3-1 in favor of ordinance 17-O-1152, which would reduce the penalty for possessing less than an ounce of marijuana to $75 and get rid of mandatory jail time. That’s a big step down from the city’s current law, which mirrors that of the state as a whole – a fine of up to $1,000 and up to 6 months behind bars.
The bill was authored by city councilman Kwanza Hall, one of the four city council members actively running for Mayor of Atlanta. Clearly a hot button topic, look for the other mayoral candidates voting Monday, (Ceasar Mitchell, Mary Norwood, and Keisha Lance-Bottoms) to carefully weigh their decisions. Current Mayor Kasim Reed, for his part, has been uneven on whether he supports the measure. He has called marijuana a gateway drug, but also lamented its harsh punishment as disproportionately weighing on the black community. “I’m following the debate very closely,” he said in April, when the city council sent a similar proposal back to committee for review after not coming to a consensus.
Should the bill pass on Monday, Reed would have 8 days to either sign decriminalization into law or veto.
