NEW ORLEANS - Today, Council President Helena Moreno introduced ordinances to fully decriminalize municipal simple possession of marijuana. She is also releasing the full report on marijuana summons and equity by City Council analyst Jeff Asher that led to her proposal.
The report shows various samples of data, including that 2400 municipal summons were issued in 2019 with 86% issued to Black people. The manpower hours for writing police reports, supervisor review, and logging of evidence associated with the summons averages about an hour per summons issued. Council President Moreno believes that police manpower can be better utilized focusing on more serious matters than writing pot tickets.
The Council President’s proposal includes:
- Only simple possession of marijuana in the City Code is applicable.
- Automatically pardons any future summons, which means all future tickets are void.
- Retroactively pardons those previously convicted or have pending cases.
- Expands smoke-free NOLA regulations to address public smoking.
Obstacles that led to this proposal:
Simple possession of marijuana is both in state law and in the municipal code. Council action over previous years forced the NOPD to utilize the municipal charge for adults and issue a summons in lieu of arrest. While arrests significantly decreased, thousands of tickets are written annually predominantly to Black people. 60% of the accused fail to appear in court which leads to additional summons or warrant attachments. A further issue is that even if someone pays a ticket, that means they have pleaded guilty and now have a drug conviction that can result in employment and housing challenges.
Police manpower is also a major factor since NOPD must write a report and drop off/log evidence associated with each ticket. That’s time that could be spent responding to calls for service and preventing major crime. Since the City Council does not have the power to locally legalize recreational cannabis use, President Moreno and her team initially considered striking simple possession of marijuana from the municipal code to prevent future enforcement by the NOPD. Unfortunately, since the State still considers cannabis a controlled substance that would mean NOPD would have to resort to the more punitive state charge if the municipal charge was eliminated.
From that point on, advocates and dedicated Council central staff searched for alternative solutions, and it was through their work that it was determined the best option is to keep the municipal marijuana charge in the books but pardon past offenses and preemptively pardon future offenses. The Mayor and Council both have the ability to pardon. A pardon can occur at any point after someone is accused of a crime.
This proposal also includes expanding the “smoke-free” section of the municipal code to prohibit cannabis smoking where tobacco smoking is prohibited and in any public spaces. This is consistent with municipalities across the country that allow for possession of small amounts of cannabis but restrict smoking it for public health purposes. To allow for due diligence for administrative and potential police policy changes that may need to be worked through, the effective date in the ordinances is September 1.
Why this change must happen:
- Prioritizes police and court resources for more serious matters.
- It’s a positive step toward racial and social justice.
- Keeps people from being entangled in fines and fees of the criminal justice system.
"Decriminalizing cannabis isn’t just about promoting equal justice, this also speaks to better use of our NOPD resources and a force multiplier to help focus on calls for service," said Council President Moreno. "I really appreciate the partnership with the Mayor and Chief to work together. What I’m proposing is out of the box and automatic preemptive pardons are the first to be attempted. I know this is a heavy lift and this work will be hard, but it is important and I’m dedicated to making this happen. The legalization of recreational cannabis may not happen this year in the state legislature, but it will happen soon. The good news is we don’t have to wait to take action in New Orleans. We can continue to lead in cannabis reform as the Council has proven to have done for more than a decade now.”
Read the Council's report on equity and cannabis summons here.
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Media Contact:
Andrew Tuozzolo
Chief of Staff, Office of Helena Moreno
AVTuozzolo@nola.gov
504.281.9882