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HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — Marijuana-related laws could be changing in North Carolina.
Lawmakers are looking at two bills — one would make it legal for you to possess four ounces or less and the other would ease punishments for low-level drug users.
Greg Newman is the chief prosecutor for three counties in North Carolina. His office handles thousands of cases a year with about 70 percent of them dealing in some way with drugs.
"It's never possession of narcotics. It's taking narcotics, selling narcotics and that unfolding to various other crimes," Newman said.
According to an ACLU study from 2010, the most recent and accurate numbers we have, the state that year spent about $55 million enforcing marijuana possession laws.
"We know that there was almost 21,000 marijuana arrests in North Carolina, which put us at 10th most in the nation,” attorney Jesse Scharff said.
He supports decriminalization and legalization of marijuana.
"I think it's a good thing," Scharff said.
He said taxpayer money is being wasted on non-violent offenders.
"It seems to me there are more serious drugs out there that cause more serious problems not only personally for the people, but for society at whole," Scharff said.
But, Newman said society would benefit from keeping those drugs — and marijuana — off the streets.
"It's a problem, and to me it's more of a public health issue. I don't know why they don't talk about it in those terms, because that's really what it is," Newman said.
Almost a century after failed alcohol prohibition, in addition to a blatantly failed ongoing war-on-drugs, so many hard-headed people STILL don't get it. The part about wasting taxpayer money on non-violent offenders is spot-on. I don't give a rat's *** what other people put into their own bodies, nor do I care about those making business transactions on those substances. They're doing their own thing and obviously will continue to do so regardless of legality. How about more concern for violent crimes, theft, vandalism, etc.?
My wife and I are looking to relocate in our retirement to WNC. There are so many beautiful areas from which to choose from, but as retirees our only fear is the crime, violent and property in any area we decide on. We don't give a rat's ass if our neighbors are smoking pot, that's their choice, what we do care about is the violence and robberies associated with heroin, meth, etc. That's where law should be focused, protecting citizens from violence, armed robberies, and theft. Marijuana is no better or worse than alcohol, although many studies show alcohol to cause far more deaths.
I'd like to add that in no way do we think this is a WNC issue.
It is a nation-wide issue.
Last edited by Bellacatahoula; 04-18-2019 at 09:44 AM..
My wife and I are looking to relocate in our retirement to WNC. There are so many beautiful areas from which to choose from, but as retirees our only fear is the crime, violent and property in any area we decide on. We don't give a rat's ass if our neighbors are smoking pot, that's their choice, what we do care about is the violence and robberies associated with heroin, meth, etc. That's where law should be focused, protecting citizens from violence, armed robberies, and theft. Marijuana is no better or worse than alcohol, although many studies show alcohol to cause far more deaths.
I'd like to add that in no way do we think this is a WNC issue.
It is a nation-wide issue.
It’s an issue any where a town is growing WNC crime rate has gotten higher.
My wife and I are looking to relocate in our retirement to WNC. There are so many beautiful areas from which to choose from, but as retirees our only fear is the crime, violent and property in any area we decide on. We don't give a rat's ass if our neighbors are smoking pot, that's their choice, what we do care about is the violence and robberies associated with heroin, meth, etc. That's where law should be focused, protecting citizens from violence, armed robberies, and theft. Marijuana is no better or worse than alcohol, although many studies show alcohol to cause far more deaths.
I'd like to add that in no way do we think this is a WNC issue.
It is a nation-wide issue.
Just a matter of time before it is legal across the nation. Younger people are overwelmingly in favor of legalization.
With so much violence going on in our country, it just seems so very wrong for the focus to be on peaceful civil disobedience. If the cops are out hunting down people using pot, the gates are open for the pushers getting our kids hooked on hard drugs, crimes of violence, and robberies.
And as Reed stated a few uses of pot, there are so many more uses medicinally that it's almost a crime to keep this relief from folks who could benefit from its use.
The article doesn't mention which members of the GA are sponsoring these bills, or what the republican leadership of the GA thinks about them, but I'd be very surprised if they pass.
Edit: I researched the bills on the GA website, and there are no republican co-sponsors on the these bills. I predict they'll never even come to a vote, much less get passed, unfortunately.
Just a matter of time before it is legal across the nation. Younger people are overwelmingly in favor of legalization.
I agree, on the flip side, with that clouded, party time attitude, our colleges appear to be producing far more wrong angle attitudes with a socialist flavor...future voters.
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