{"id":5444,"date":"2016-01-28T00:24:31","date_gmt":"2016-01-28T00:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marijuana.com\/?p=46498"},"modified":"2016-01-28T00:24:31","modified_gmt":"2016-01-28T00:24:31","slug":"baltimore-mayoral-candidate-pledges-to-end-marijuana-arrests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/baltimore-mayoral-candidate-pledges-to-end-marijuana-arrests\/","title":{"rendered":"Baltimore Mayoral Candidate Pledges to End Marijuana Arrests"},"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\/baltimore-mayoral-candidate-pledges-to-end-marijuana-arrests\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>Baltimore voters will elect a new mayor this November, and one candidate just pledged to &#8220;end the drug war&#8221; and\u00a0stop arrests for simple possession of marijuana.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5\">&#8220;This is an area where the Mayor has\u00a0the power to act immediately,&#8221;\u00a0Elizabeth Embry, a former prosecutor, wrote in a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/news\/maryland\/politics\/blog\/bal-mayoral-candidate-elizabeth-embry-released-anti-crime-plan-20160126-story.html\">criminal justice plan<\/a>\u00a0released Wednesday. \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"line-height: 1.5\">&#8220;We don\u2019t want people using marijuana, but we also shouldn\u2019t\u00a0lock our youth up for doing so, or saddle them with a criminal record that does long-lasting\u00a0harm to their future and educational and employment prospects. It costs taxpayers too much\u00a0money, and it causes a host of other detrimental and counterproductive effects on individuals\u00a0and their families when alternatives to arrest are more effective at reducing use.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Embry&#8217;s campaign didn&#8217;t respond to a request for comment on what the plan\u00a0means by &#8220;simple possession,&#8221; but since\u00a0holding up to 10 grams of marijuana is already decriminalized in Maryland, presumably she would direct police officers to cease\u00a0arrests for quantities greater than that.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5\">In the\u00a0plan, Embry also pledges to:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>? Rewrite the criminal justice playbook to divert drug offenders to treatment and\u00a0rehabilitation instead of central booking and prison.<br \/>\n? End the cash bail system.<br \/>\n? Invest in specialized programs for mental health, sex work, veterans and the\u00a0homeless.<br \/>\n? Make drug treatment more readily available.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5\">&#8220;We need to bring an end, at\u00a0long last, to the misguided and inhumane war on drugs that has criminalized rather than treated\u00a0addiction, and led to the mass incarceration of Baltimore citizens, fueling for too long the breakup\u00a0of families and the erosion of entire neighborhoods,&#8221; the campaign document says. &#8220;For a half-century, we have been jamming a square peg into a round hole by addressing a\u00a0public health issue \u2013 namely, drug addiction \u2013 through a criminal justice model. This flawed\u00a0framework has had unintended consequences for both addicts and the community as a whole.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5\">The plan caught the eye of &#8220;The Wire&#8221; creator David Simon, a Baltimore resident and vocal critic of the war on drugs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>After initially saying that Embry&#8217;s proposal would earn his vote, he quickly walked the endorsement\u00a0back after a Baltimore Sun reporter pointed out that the plan might not go as far as Simon would like.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" width=\"550\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Thereby capturing at least one vote in South Baltimore, to be sure. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HDsXryy1HG\">https:\/\/t.co\/HDsXryy1HG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; David Simon (@AoDespair) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AoDespair\/status\/692376751712800768\">January 27, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js?a8203f\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" width=\"550\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/iduncan\">@iduncan<\/a> Hey, she&#39;s my vote on that singular redirection, unless you tell me she&#39;s anti-choice or fiscally insane or such. Big ups on this.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; David Simon (@AoDespair) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AoDespair\/status\/692377545388462080\">January 27, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js?a8203f\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" width=\"550\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/justin_fenton\">@justin_fenton<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/iduncan\">@iduncan<\/a> Ah crap. I just got to that part. Okay, I&#39;m backing away from the betting window to read my tote sheet some more.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; David Simon (@AoDespair) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AoDespair\/status\/692378537555132416\">January 27, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js?a8203f\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>When Marijuana.com asked Simon for comment on what else he would ideally want the city&#8217;s mayor to do, he said he worried that simply scaling back marijuana prohibition might\u00a0pacify some critics of the broader drug war, which would then continue.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" width=\"550\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tomangell\">@tomangell<\/a> In the same fashion that once the middle-class could avoid draft, a volunteer army was more free for Wars of Choice overseas.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; David Simon (@AoDespair) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AoDespair\/status\/692381097066278912\">January 27, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js?a8203f\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Simon, himself a former Baltimore Sun reporter, said he wants police to focus on &#8220;good arrests&#8221; for guns and violence, not on drugs. He said current drug policies incentivize &#8220;bad police work.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" width=\"550\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tomangell\">@tomangell<\/a> ASAs should NOT be signing slips for court pay and PD should not pay OT for non-violent street level drug cases, loitering, etc.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; David Simon (@AoDespair) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AoDespair\/status\/692382365923016706\">January 27, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js?a8203f\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" width=\"550\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tomangell\">@tomangell<\/a> Do not incentivize bad police work. Make felony cases an empirical conduit to promotion. Create post-contuinity in patrol div.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; David Simon (@AoDespair) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AoDespair\/status\/692382678302212100\">January 27, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js?a8203f\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" width=\"550\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tomangell\">@tomangell<\/a> A good PD runs not on guns or equipment or bluster. It is fed by information. The phone rings when a crime happens.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; David Simon (@AoDespair) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AoDespair\/status\/692383244109500418\">January 27, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js?a8203f\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" width=\"550\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tomangell\">@tomangell<\/a> Can&#39;t maintain quality sources when you are abusing ppl. on your post. &#10;Incentivize the creation of informant\/cooperator culture.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; David Simon (@AoDespair) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AoDespair\/status\/692383593973321728\">January 27, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js?a8203f\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" width=\"550\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tomangell\">@tomangell<\/a> Use OT and court pay unspent on shit street arrests to do proper pretrial to make sure cases against targeted offenders succeed.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; David Simon (@AoDespair) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AoDespair\/status\/692384100099985408\">January 27, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js?a8203f\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" width=\"550\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tomangell\">@tomangell<\/a> I could go on. And on. But this is fucking Twitter, no?<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; David Simon (@AoDespair) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AoDespair\/status\/692384535808512001\">January 27, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js?a8203f\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/news\/maryland\/baltimore-city\/2016-mayor-race\/bs-md-ci-mayors-race-20160119-story.html\">poll released last week<\/a>, Embry trailed behind other candidates in the Democratic primary, including former Mayor Sheila Dixon, State Sen. Catherine Pugh and City Councilmembers Carl Stokes and Nick Mosby.<\/p>\n<p><em>This story will be updated if the Embry campaign provides more details about its marijuana proposal.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Baltimore voters will elect a new mayor this November, and one candidate just pledged to &#8220;end the drug war&#8221; and\u00a0stop arrests for simple possession of marijuana. &#8220;This is an area where the Mayor has\u00a0the power to act immediately,&#8221;\u00a0Elizabeth Embry, a former prosecutor, wrote in a criminal justice plan\u00a0released Wednesday. \u00a0&#8220;We don\u2019t want people using marijuana, [&#8230;] <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2417,9,2418,1,3],"tags":[2419,2420],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5444"}],"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=5444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5444\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}