The full Milwaukee Common Council voted on May 12 to delay a final vote on a proposal to lower the fine for possessing a small amount of marijuana to no more than $50.
The proposed ordinance had been heard in committee twice with the $250-$500 fine reduced to $1-$5, but hadn’t received approval. To alleviate concerns about a too-low penalty, Alderman Nik Kovac raised it to up to $50 and took it to the full council. Combined with court costs, Kovac estimated that those cited for possessing less than 25 grams of cannabis in Milwaukee—without a valid prescription—would have to pay $94.
Kovac said the proposal is intended, in part, to reduce the “intense and severe” racial disparities created by enforcement of the ordinance. According to data he received from the city, in 2013 roughly 1,255 marijuana possession tickets were written. But just 249 white people received those tickets. The rest were written to people of color. Even though African American and white city residents are roughly equal in number and use pot at roughly the same rate.
“To me, that’s the main reason to change the law,” Kovac told the council.
He said the racial disparities are the consequence of stepped-up policing in Milwaukee’s black, low-income neighborhoods.
“It is a consequence of segregation and increased policing, that these kinds of small offenses, these victimless crimes, be disproportionately enforced and become a tax on the people who can least afford to pay it,” Kovac said.
The high cost of a ticket for possessing marijuana can lead to even more trouble. Under the existing ordinance, those who don’t pay their fine can be sent to jail, although judges can mandate that violators do community service to work off their fine.
A recent report from the Justice Initiatives Institute found that between 2008 and 2013, 84% of those jailed for failure to pay the fine for possessing pot were African American. The researchers found that judges offered the community service option in just 36 marijuana cases.
Kovac told the Shepherd that he hoped that those ticketed could pay the reduced fine and avoid jail time, and that police officers wouldn’t feel that they needed to write a large number of tickets for a violation with such a small fine.
Kovac was quick to explain during the council meeting that the fine for smoking marijuana in public would be $250-$500 and that selling marijuana would still be illegal.
Alderman Ashanti Hamilton, a cosponsor of the ordinance, told the council that the heavy fine wasn’t creating a safer community but adding to the city’s racial disparities.
“The message is that public policy around drug enforcement should make sense for communities,” Hamilton said. “This doesn’t make sense for communities. It’s not producing anything positive for the community. So our move forward should take that into consideration.”
The ordinance was opposed by the conservatives on the council, including prospective mayoral candidates Bob Donovan and Joe Davis Jr.
The council will take it up again at its next meeting on June 2. They can pass or reject it or send it back to committee. Kovac told the Shepherd that he thought the measure, which has five sponsors, has enough support to pass.
Bills in the Legislature
The Milwaukee proposal joins a growing list of efforts to decriminalize and potentially legalize marijuana in the state.
Last year, the state took one small step forward by legalizing cannabidiol (CBD) oil for children with seizure disorders. Sadly, 7-year-old Lydia Schaeffer, whose mom, Sally, crusaded for the bill, died on Mother’s Day 2014, before the law was implemented.
On April 20 of this year, state Rep. Mandela Barnes (D-Milwaukee) introduced a measure that would decriminalize small-scale pot possession. These cases would no longer be charged as felonies under Barnes’ bill, but local municipalities could still enforce their own ordinances and levy fines. He said the change was necessary to reduce mass incarceration in our state prisons and to reduce racial disparities in drug charges.
State Rep. Melissa Sargent (D-Madison) has gone one step further and has reintroduced her proposal to fully legalize marijuana in Wisconsin for recreational and medical uses. Sargent would allow licenses to be issued to those who want to sell small amounts of cannabis to those over 21; permits could also be issued to those who want to grow up to a dozen plants. Pot sales would be taxed and regulated. The sale of edibles for recreational use and smoking pot in public would be prohibited. Sargent’s bill would also empower the state Department of Health Services (DHS) to issue permits for medical marijuana users, their caregivers, and nonprofit “compassion centers” that would distribute medicinal cannabis and related paraphernalia.
The Barnes and Sargent proposals will likely face stiff opposition in the Republican-controlled Legislature, even though marijuana decriminalization is popular with the public. A 2013 Marquette Law School poll found that 49.7% of Wisconsinites polled support fully legalizing marijuana, with only 44.9% in opposition. A 2005 survey found that 80% of Wisconsinites support medical marijuana. Medical marijuana is legal in 23 states and in Washington, D.C.
