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Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett
Even though last week the voters of Colorado overwhelmingly approved Amendment 64, it will be roughly a month before it is officially added to the state constitution and goes into effect. In the meantime adult marijuana possession is still technically a crime under state law. But already at least one district attorney is responding to the clear will of the electorate. In Boulder the DA is dismissing several pending minor marijuana cases. From the Boulder Daily Camera:
District Attorney Stan Garnett will dismiss all pending criminal cases of possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, saying the overwhelming support for Amendment 64 in Boulder County makes it highly unlikely a jury would ever reach a guilty verdict in any of those cases.
“You’ve seen an end to mere possession cases in Boulder County under my office,” Garnett said Wednesday, becoming the first Colorado district attorney to drop pot cases because Colorado voters approved Amendment 64 earlier this month.
As a result of the announcement, police officials across Boulder County also stated they will no longer issue marijuana-possession citations in light of Amendment 64. The constitutional amendment will legalize possession of up to one ounce of marijuana in Colorado for those 21 or older.
Earlier this week a similar thing happened in Washington State, with two of the largest counties dismissing hundreds of pending marijuana cases as a result of the recently approved marijuana legalization initiative. Hopefully these actions will encourage other district attorneys in both states to follow suit. It is simply a waste of resources to prosecute individuals for something the electorate doesn’t think should be a crime and won’t be a crime by the beginning of next year.
Photo by Jeffrey Bealle under Creative Commons license.
9 Comments
May all deities bless this fellow.
Jake
PHX
At long last — a glimmer of sanity.
The beginning of the end of the idiotic “War on Drugs”? We can only hope.
Now it’s time for the governor to pardon/commute all prisoners held in lockup with simple possession charges. Too expensive to house them anyway.
I wonder how much money that will save the justice system? Hundreds of cases? That must be substantial.
Except (per Maddow) the Spokane (WA) County DA’s office says they plan to continue to prosecute pot users and possessors since the only legal pot under the recently passed legalization is pot purchased from WA State Stores, and there won’t be any state stores for another year at least. So there’s not even going to be consistent enforcement within the state.
My sentiments exactly. Clear their records of the conviction as well. Let’s stop ruining lives over this.
the problem is the “amounts”. often over a certain amount you get pinned with intent to sell.
My own personal buying habits would still be illegal in both states since I buy an ounze at a time and at any time could have over.
The thing is that generally cops dont really bother with small amounts anyway reagrdless of where you are. Seems like if you do get busted its because it was all they could charge you with and they wanted to charge you with SOMETHING. In my own life experience the most common charge is a ticket for paraphanlia while your weed is simply “confiscated”
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ahem..
any and all MJ legalization referrenda MUST contain language regarding amnesty for convicted persons and release for jailed parties -
bringing sanity and morality to this issue will be incomplete until our friends neighbors and brethren are freed from jail
visit&contribute to mLaw (marijuana legalization awareness wiki) to help to educate our fellow citizens about these grave and important medical and moral matters