California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a new law into effect which decriminalizes possession of less than an ounce of marijuana. Still, those caught with less than an ounce of marijuana will still face the maximum penalty of $100, but will not be faced with a criminal record or jail time.
Wow, the one thing he kept in place was the penalty of a financial payment to the state. Shocker…
Schwarzenegger, although he’s against the upcoming Proposition 19, which makes marijuana legal for any citizen in California, states that…
"In this time of drastic budget cuts, prosecutors, defense attorneys, law enforcement, and the courts cannot afford to expend limited resources prosecuting a crime that carries the same punishment as a traffic ticket."
Let’s face it, the Governor makes sense in his decision as far as the cost of lawsuits and prosecution. Does he make sense in the larger sense of the insanity of marijuana laws? Of course not. Still, it’s a step. A self serving step wherein the state releases themselves from the expense of prosecuting non-crimes while still collecting finances from the non-criminals they find guilty, but in terms of the evolution of marijuana law, it’s a step, none the less…
