New Orleans Council President Moreno says she will highlight racial inequities in cannabis enforcement at Monday's Criminal Justice Committee meeting.
She has called experts to the meeting to present data to support her claims and to push for further decriminalizing marijuana in New Orleans.
“While the City is restricted from legalizing cannabis, we do have the power to decrease municipal penalties for marijuana possession to the point that it’s no longer worth enforcing," Moreno said in a news release. "Decriminalizing cannabis isn’t just about reducing incarceration, but about ending historic bias in enforcement and promoting equal justice."
She says it would also free up resources so that officers can focus on serious crimes.
State and federal laws, however, would still be enforceable.
Moreno says that preliminary indications from recent data reveal over 85% of municipal citations for cannabis possession are imposed on African-Americans.
"The reports to be presented Monday highlight the ways in which criminalization of cannabis overwhelmingly impact communities of color without any appreciable effect on public safety," Moreno insisted. "It’s up to us to end these unjust practices and build a more equitable city from the ground up.”
The city council president says that fines and fees assessed for cannabis possession total more than $250,000 in costs annually.
Monday's meeting is at 10:00am. You can watch the meeting by clicking here...
