Wisconsin and federal lawmakers are keeping marijuana illegal in Milwaukee, but it is up to the city’s Board of Supervisors to determine how severe the punishment is when a resident is caught with a small amount of weed. A proposal that has been making its way through local committees seeks to reduce that punishment to a $1 fine, almost fully decriminalizing marijuana possession in the city.
Sponsored by Supervisor Sylvia Ortiz-Velez, this resolution would apply to violations regarding possession of 25 grams or less of marijuana. While law enforcement would still be able to issue citations for larger amounts, this is the closest that local authorities can come to allowing marijuana possession within county borders, a move that would help address racial and class inequities in Milwaukee, one of the nation’s most segregated cities to this day.
Between 2012 and 2015, in the City of Milwaukee, 72% of people arrested for small-scale marijuana possession were black. Since then, that proportion went up, not down; 83% of people arrested for marijuana-related offenses in 2019 were black. Black people barely make up 27% of Milwaukee County’s population. According to a 2016 study by the Public Policy Forum, Milwaukee's most black zip codes see marijuana-related arrests more than 10 times as often as the city’s whitest zip codes, despite a similar rate of marijuana use between black and white Milwaukeeans.
The current penalty for marijuana possession in Milwaukee is a fine of no less than $250 and no more than $500, according to existing local ordinances, which represents a heavy burden for the thousands of black Milwaukeeans arrested every year for minor possession offenses. This penalty was established a quarter-century ago, long before the wave of reforms and efforts to legalize marijuana, which justifies reconsidering it, especially in light of social justice efforts made by neighbors like Illinois and Canada.
The decriminalization resolution has already been approved by the County Board’s Judiciary Committee, and it is expected to be subjected to a full floor vote on Thursday, March 25.
“I would like to thank my colleagues on the Judiciary Committee for supporting this proposal,” said Supervisor Ortiz-Velez. “Their support means those who use marijuana for medicine are one step closer to not being harshly penalized in Milwaukee County and is another step towards achieving our vision of racial equity.”
