USA - No more automatic arrest for possesion in Texas

[old hippie 56]

About damn time.

Marijuana: No More Automatic Arrest for Possession in Texas
from Drug War Chronicle

As of September 1, people caught with up to a quarter-pound of marijuana in Texas will no longer automatically be arrested. Under HB 2391, a bill passed by the legislature and signed into law June 15 by Gov. Rick Perry (R), police will have the option of issuing a summons to appear for misdemeanor pot possession, as well as a number of other small-time offenses.

The measure was pushed by conservative legislators as a cost-cutting measure. "We want to get tough on crime, but we also want to get smart on crime," said state Rep. Jerry Madden (R), the bill's author. "Let's not spend a lot of taxpayers' money putting people in jail who don't need to be there," Madden told Fort Worth Star-Telegraph columnist Bud Kennedy last Saturday. "Let's give local police more discretion."

Possession of marijuana remains a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine. But now, instead of using up valuable police time and jail space with marijuana and other misdemeanor offenders, police will have the discretion of just ordering them to show up before a magistrate within 48 hours. If they don't show, the magistrate can issue an arrest warrant.

Other offenses for which police can now issue summonses include petty theft, graffiti, and driving without a license.

"The idea was to free up more county jail space and law officers' time for violent offenders and sex offenders," said Marc Levin of the Austin-based Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative organization that lobbied for House Bill 2391. "We looked at how to save counties money. We always came back to the same answer: Take the low-level offenders out of the county jail," he told Kennedy.

Leave it to Texas to wise up about criminal justices priorities, even if just a bit. And it wasn't bleeding hearts, but bleating wallets that did it.

Reputation Comments on this post:

thanks for some good news

[grandbaby]

WTF? How did King George II let that one slip by?

Good job, Tay-ksass.

[old hippie 56]

The only thing missing is a snappy comment by the late Molly Ivins.

[allyourbase]

this is a good step forward for our state.

[djw49]

Thats a great step in the right direction for the US. Especially in texas, (correct me if im wrong but I thought the texas law system was pretty harsh) Hopefully the hyper anti drugs government is beginning to see the light and realise that weed isn't that bad at all. I mean look at the statistics, less than 5% of regular weed smokers get mental health problems, yet (in the UK) about 1 in 6 people who drink booze are addicted. Look at holland with its legalistation of cannabis, the most astounding statistic being that more teenagers smoke weed in england than their peers in holland. Prohibition doesnt work.

[Expat98]

Well, it doesn't say the police won't put you in jail for MJ possession, it just says they don't have to do it. In some of the more conservative areas of the state (and there are some very conservative counties in Texas) I would expect them to continue treating MJ users harshly.

It's definitely still a big step forward though!

[beentheredonethatagain]

Wow texas is the only state in the union to have executed people two at a time.
which by the way is okay with me.
death sentences are drawn out too long.
texas is harsh on cooks , used to be get caught cookin in texas and they handed you a life sentence.
this new ruling about posesion of four ounces or less, dosent mean they wont later put you in jail if found guilty in court , its just not going to cost you a ton of money to bond out. which is a good thing.

[Police Officer]

Believe it or not, this is pretty common. Usually it just depends on the Police Department's policies, and the State's laws.

Heres a odd one, talking about arrest and release on summons. There are alot of States that have a law that tells a Police Officer that they must arrest someone who has a warrant issued for their arrest. This law is mainly designed so the people who have the warrant will be incarcerated for skipping out on court.

Well, many of the State laws just say that you have to arrest the person with the warrant. An arrest is most often defined mostly as the loss of freedom for commiting a crime.

So...there are many places where a Police Officer will arrest someone who has a warrant and then just release them on a summons, with another court date. Crazy, huh?

[beentheredonethatagain]

Here in cali. was the first time I'd ever heard and got to experience time and time again, it is called " cite release " short for citation release.
The other states , Oklahoma for one , if arrested you will stay in the jail until you go to court , usually takes a week. Unless you pay a bonds man, then if you do they will not allow you to use a public defender, they say if you have the dough to bond out then you can afford council.
California will take you in but after processing you and if you need detoxing for four hours , they issue you a citation with a court date on it and open the double doors and send you on your way. cool I guess , it is easy on the offender, may be a little too easy , I mean like this .. when I was eighteen I got caught with four oz of pot , i lived in the stay in jail till court state, by the time I got to court I had learned to avoid the situations that caused my detention. many years later drugs and alcoholic behavior landed me in the get out of jail on a promise , I never thought about changing my behavior because the consequences weren't a deterrent

[old hippie 56]

Swim was deemed a flight risk, so they kept his ass in jail until court. Which was a very long time to eat beans and cornbread. To this date, he still don't like beans and cornbread. But, it wasn't over no marijuana either.