The editorial board of the Providence Journal has come out in favor of bill H-5031/S-270 so that we may join the 14 other states that have eliminated jail time for possession of small amounts of marijuana. (ProJo 6.23.11)
. . . we strongly support a bill in the Rhode Island General Assembly sponsored by state Senators [sic] John G. Edwards and Joshua Miller to decriminalize possession of up to an ounce of pot.
Rather than facing up to a year in jail, people found with this amount would pay a civil fine of $200. (Even as people found drunk in the street with a bottle of bourbon are left alone . . .) Half the money would go to fund drug education and half to localities that issued the citations.
It’s past time to bring some reason to the needlessly fierce and expensive battle against marijuana use and better allocate strained law-enforcement resources.
In a recent editorial to The Tiverton-Little Compton Patch (also signed by Senator Miller) Representative Edwards lays out his position to his constituency. Both he and the ProJo note that in the states that have decriminalized marijuana, “the sky has not fallen in.” Dose readers drive through Massachusetts all the time, noticed anything different?
Let’s get this done! Make sure your State Reps and Senators know that you support this bill!
(On the national front: Students for a Sensible Drug Policy are rallying behind legislation aimed at eliminating the federal government’s authority in marijuana prohibition, “Congressmen Barney Frank and Ron Paul, along with courageous co-sponsors, have introduced H.R. 2306 the “Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011″ and we need your help to pass this historic piece of legislation that would end federal marijuana prohibition as we know it.”)
Projo does a hair test as preemployment drug screen, strange.