Prosecutor becomes latest in Georgia to drop marijuana cases

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — The district legal professional of coastal Georgia’s major county has turn into the latest prosecutor statewide to say she’ll typically stop prosecuting misdemeanor marijuana cases involving possession of fewer than an ounce of the drug.

Chatham County District Attorney Shalena Cook Jones built the announcement Tuesday. Like other prosecutors, law enforcement chiefs and sheriffs who have stopped cannabis enforcement, she cited the Ga Bureau of Investigation’s refusal to exam for smaller quantities of marijuana until other felony expenses are associated.

“Without a verified exam, the condition cannot confirm that the accused violated the regulation,” Jones claimed in a statement.

She also cited Georgia’s 2019 legislation that created hemp farming illegal, indicating it’s really hard to convey to the difference in between legal hemp and illegal marijuana.

The adjust began right away.

Officials in other jurisdictions such as the Atlanta suburbs of Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnett counties, as very well as Athens-Clarke County and Augusta-Richmond County have produced very similar bulletins considering that 2019.

“Disposing of minimal-stage petty offenses that do not threaten community security and do not include a target makes it possible for the state to emphasis presently-constrained sources on the really serious situations that do,” Jones stated.

A number of Ga metropolitan areas and counties, including Savannah, Atlanta and Macon-Bibb County have also lessened penalties for possessing marijuana. They’ve informed police to only create a ticket and not just take somebody to jail.

Jones claimed she would however prosecute people today with more than an ounce of cannabis, these who sell the drug, all those who possess it around kids or in faculty zones and all those who generate even though impaired.

Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, who led that city’s past initiatives to cut cannabis penalties, informed WTOC-Television set that he supports the shift. “I imagine it just can make sense,“ he said.

But Chatham County Sheriff John Wilcher reported he must uphold state and federal guidelines and that his deputies will continue to arrest anybody possessing any amount of cannabis.

Point out lawmakers, largely Democrats, have launched a quantity of charges in the Ga Standard Assembly looking for to legalize cannabis or decrease penalties for possession, but none have superior.

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