FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 9/8/2014

Breaking news via KYW1060AM – http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2014/09/08/nutter-agrees-to-sign-bill-softening-marijuana-laws-in-philadelphia/

Mayor Nutter today agreed to sign into law a bill that essentially decriminalizes possession of small amounts of marijuana.

Statement from Chris Goldstein, the co-chair of PhillyNORML

PhillyNORML applauds Mayor Michael Nutter for seeing the light in the effort to stop custodial arrests for marijuana possession in Philadelphia.

This will mean that more than 4,000 people will no longer be put into handcuffs and holding cells every year. Most important is that those caught with small amounts of cannabis will no longer have an arrest record or criminal record. This means no more losses of housing, jobs or education because of such a minimal transgression.

As the national conversation continues about full legalization Philadelphia residents will no longer have to endure what was one of the harshest marijuana procedures in the country.

PhillyNORML will continue to monitor the volume of citations and ethnicity of those cited under the new policy. We hope the new procedures will be implemented as soon as possible and that they will alleviate some of the racial disparities in prohibition enforcement.

We want to thank Councilman James Kenney for being a tenacious champion, the ACLU-PA for their expertise and the years-long effort of our PhillyNORML volunteers along with the numerous community groups and individual citizens who helped to make this important change a reality.

Follow us on Twitter: @PhillyNORML

Contact: Chris Goldstein chris@phillynormal.org

Added on September 8, 2014marijuana, mayor nutter, PhiladelphiaNews