More than half of Americans live in states that have decriminalized marijuana possession. Georgia isn’t one of them. Yet.
But even on a national level, the movement is toward decriminalization. This fall President Biden issued pardons for people convicted of simple possession of marijuana and granted the release of anyone in prison for the crime. Those pardons only apply to federal cases, however. No one in the Southern District of Georgia is in prison for simple possession of marijuana, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
In November, voters in two more states, Missouri and Maryland, chose to legalize possession of marijuana, bringing the total of 21 states which have moved to decriminalized. The latest Gallup poll shows 68 percent of American support decriminalization.
Georgia is inching slowly to possibly more in that direction, but it would be a major change. The latest bill, HB 12, would change the punishment for misdemeanor possession of marijuana from a possible 12 months in jail and a $1,000 fine to a $300 fine only, but it died in this year’s General Assembly session. It would have also changed of the amount of misdemeanor possession from less than an ounce to less than two ounces. The bill would have also reduced the penalty for felony possession from a maximum 10 years to a maximum of five years.
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Defense attorney Keith Johnson believes it would be a good idea for states to follow Biden’s lead in decriminalizing simple possession of marijuana and make it retroactive so people with those convictions on their records can be freed from the stigma of a felony conviction.
A marijuana conviction can eliminate people from even being considered for a variety of jobs and most professions that require licenses. In Georgia, it can result in the revocation of driver’s licenses.
“It would have a very practical and have real effect,” Johnson said of decriminalization. “It could be a game changer for the criminal justice system.”
The NAACP has called for the decriminalization of marijuana for nearly a decade. The criminalization of marijuana is tainted by racism, the organization contends. It has led to a disproportionate number of Blacks arrested and prosecuted. According to a 2013 study by the American Civil Liberties Union, Blacks are 3.73 times more likely to be arrested and prosecuted than Whites.
According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, in 2018, the percentage of Blacks who have used marijuana during their lives was 45.3 percent, and the percentage of Whites was 53.6 percent.
In Richmond County, Superior Court records also reveal a disproportionate number of Blacks being prosecuted for felony marijuana charges. Since 2000, 1,446 Blacks were indicted on simple possession charges while only 310 Whites were indicted on that charge. Of those indicted for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute (possessing more than one ounce of marijuana) 1,314 were Black while 114 were White.
The acceptance of marijuana use has become more mainstream through the generations, defense attorney Johnson said. Young people today can’t understand why it is legal in some places but not others, and why it’s illegal anywhere while alcohol is legal, he said.
“Younger people think it doesn’t make any sense,” he said.
Not only is it still a crime in Georgia, people on bond and on probation can both have their freedom end if they test positive for marijuana use.
Keeping marijuana illegal makes sense to Augusta Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Ashley Wright, who presides over the circuit’s drug court.
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“In this position, I see the harm that drug usage inflicts on the family and the community. Self-medicating using marijuana may treat symptoms, but it does not solve underlying problems,” Wright said.
The increased potency of marijuana today is also a concern, Wright said. And there’s the fact that, like tobacco, marijuana is manufactured using chemicals that are not required to be disclosed.
“It’s not natural or organic,” she said.
“Risks for addiction to marijuana are growing. Further, studies are beginning to show a link between prolonged marijuana use and bipolar and schizophrenia not only in the user but also in the child of the chronic user. Where we recognize the symptoms of a child born with fetal alcohol syndrome in the developmental stages, the child born of a male or female chronic user may not exhibit the symptoms until later in life and thus not be able to ameliorate the issues until they are well-developed,” Wright said.
While a bill to lessen punishment for marijuana offenses was the latest effort in the General Assembly, similar bills have been filed and died for at least the past decade in Georgia, according to legislation data of the General Assembly.
Sandy Hodson is a staff reporter covering courts for The Augusta Press. Reach her at sandy@theaugustapress.com.
