On Friday afternoon, standing on the sidewalk at Joplin City Hall, Kelly Maddy, the president of the Joplin chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, flanked by Kris Krane, the executive director of the national organization, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, and Ryan Denham, President of the Alliance for Drug Reform Policy in Arkansas, fired the first shot in what will be a year-long battle to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana within the city of Joplin and the paraphernalia that’s used to smoke it.
“We are here today to introduce an opportunity for the citizens of Joplin to enact a more sensible marijuana policy,” he announced. “Over 200 people were arrested in 2005 for marijuana possession in Joplin,” he continued. “This is a waste of police resources that could otherwise be allocated to more serious crime. Our cities marijuana laws are not only a waste of taxpayer money and police resources, they are by definition a failed policy.”
The Sensible Sentencing Initiative, as proposed by Maddy and Joplin NORML, would, if endorsed by a majority of Joplin voters in November of 2008, make possession of a misdemeanor amount of marijuana or marijuana paraphernalia an administrative offense.
The petition also makes clear that adults arrested for simple possession of marijuana or marijuana paraphernalia would not be jailed or have to post bond. Those found guilty of the infraction in municipal court would be subject to a $250 maximum fine.
Maddy said that petitions will be available for signing beginning Saturday at the Cannabis Revival festival to be held from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. in Joplin’s Landrith Park.
For more on this story and to read an interview with Joplin Police Chief Lane Roberts concerning marijuana decriminalization see Saturday’s Joplin Globe.
