{"id":5212,"date":"2015-12-16T21:09:19","date_gmt":"2015-12-16T21:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marijuana.com\/?p=45783"},"modified":"2015-12-16T21:09:19","modified_gmt":"2015-12-16T21:09:19","slug":"palm-beach-county-commissioners-vote-4-1-to-decriminalize-marijuana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/palm-beach-county-commissioners-vote-4-1-to-decriminalize-marijuana\/","title":{"rendered":"Palm Beach County Commissioners Vote 4-1 to Decriminalize Marijuana"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/palm-beach-county-commissioners-vote-4-1-to-decriminalize-marijuana\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>Assuring their citizens have the same civil liberties as those in Broward County, Key West, Hallandale Beach, and Miami-Dade County; on Tuesday the Palm Beach County Commissioners approved a motion by a 4 to 1 vote,\u00a0<strong>officially decriminalizing the possession of less than 20 grams of cannabis<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The newly implemented law provides local law enforcement an alternative to the odious route of incarcerating individuals caught with\u00a0<strong>small amounts of marijuana<\/strong>. Now, rather than being hauled off to jail, police catching individuals with less than\u00a0<strong>20 grams of weed<\/strong>\u00a0will have the option to issue\u00a0<strong>a $100 citation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Provided an individual is incapable of paying off the citation, community service would be offered as an alternative.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.com\/blog\/news\/2015\/09\/west-palm-beach-cultivates-civil-fines-for-personal-marijuana-infractions\/\">The decriminalization issue<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0was expected to pass after it received preliminary approval by the commissioners in October; unfortunately the final vote was rescheduled for December, providing extra time for the county commissioners to work out the ordinance&#8217;s language.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_45788\" style=\"width: 210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-45788\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Screen-Shot-2015-12-16-at-8.35.48-AM.png?8bcc36\" alt=\"Palm Beach County Commissioner, Priscilla Taylor\" width=\"200\" height=\"165\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Palm Beach County Commissioner, Priscilla Taylor<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Priscilla Taylor, the County Commissioner who first proposed decriminalization explained the county\u2019s new approach on weed to the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/local\/palm-beach\/fl-palm-beach-pot-vote-20151215-story.html#Palm%20Beach%20County%20eases%20penalty%20for%20marijuana%20possession\">Sun Sentinel<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>&#8220;We have to understand that we cannot legislate and lock up everybody for everything they do.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Looking to ease the overcrowding problem at the county jail, while protecting the lives of hard-working individuals, Taylor pointed to the carnage created by the old ordinance as the impetus for change.<\/p>\n<p>Between 2010 and 2014, approximately<strong> 7,500 cases<\/strong> in Palm Beach County involved the possession of\u00a0<strong>20g of pot or less<\/strong>. In nearly 90% of those cases, the individual caught with their stash ended up incarcerated.<\/p>\n<p><span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text\/html' width='702' height='425' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Jg_CjNSJdbE?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;autohide=2&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen='true'><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Palm Beach\u2019s newest ordinance only applies to adults 18 and over.\u00a0For those recidivists in the group, a cap of two pot citations would mean a third hit and you&#8217;re SOL.<\/p>\n<p>(Photo Courtesy of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dopemagazine.com\/florida-cities-moving-to-decriminalize-cannabis\/\">Dope Magazine<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Assuring their citizens have the same civil liberties as those in Broward County, Key West, Hallandale Beach, and Miami-Dade County; on Tuesday the Palm Beach County Commissioners approved a motion by a 4 to 1 vote,\u00a0officially decriminalizing the possession of less than 20 grams of cannabis. The newly implemented law provides local law enforcement an [&#8230;] <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[67,2437,9,4983,4984,1,3],"tags":[2646,2443,4985,4986],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5212"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}