Nashville passes measure to decriminalize pot
NASHVILLE — Tennessee's capital city passed a measure Tuesday to decriminalize pot possession in small amounts, but the council's move might set the stage for a confrontation with the state and give people fewer options later to erase their encounters with law enforcement from public record.
The council, which makes laws for all of the 675,000 residents of Davidson County, voted 35-3 to give final approval of legislation that will give police the option of reducing the penalty for people found in possession of a half ounce of marijuana or less to a $50 fine or 10 hours of community service.
The misdemeanor penalty under state law for a first-time possession of a half ounce or less of marijuana is 11 months, 29 days in jail, a minimum fine of $250 and a maximum fine of $2,500. Subsequent offenses of the same amount remain misdemeanors but the minimum fine doubles to $500.
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At least 20 states, including Mississippi and North Carolina in the South, have no criminal penalties for adults with small amounts of marijuana; Missouri's law takes effect Jan. 1, according to the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws. Four states and the District of Columbia have legalized pot possession in amounts of 1 or 2 ounces.
"All this bill does is give police the option of not treating someone with a little pot like a hardened criminal because when you start treating good members of our society like criminals they begin acting like criminal," said Councilman Dave Rosenberg, lead sponsor of the bill. "As much as as I'd like to think we're cutting edge on this one, we're not. We're catching up."
Memphis is scheduled to take up a similar ordinance in two weeks.
Nashville’s pot legislation now heads to the desk of Mayor Megan Barry, who told The Tennessean this week that she would sign the measure into law. Wording in the ordinance makes it effective when the mayor signs it.
"This legislation is a positive step forward in addressing the overly punitive treatment of marijuana possession in our state that disproportionately impacts low-income and minority residents," Barry said in a statement after the council's vote. The mayor had previously been noncommittal on the measure.
“It is important to stress that this ordinance is not a license to sell, possess or use marijuana in Nashville," she said. "When this ordinance becomes law, police officers will still have the ability to make arrests or issue state criminal citations for marijuana possession as circumstances warrant, which is a Class A misdemeanor under state law.”
Supporters of Nashville’s marijuana legislation have argued the ordinance would work within the confines of state law. They’ve likened the measure to Metro’s laws for litter and seat belts, both of which have penalties that are not as severe as those outlined in state law.
However, others disagree, and a new Nashville pot ordinance may get attention from the Republican-controlled Tennessee legislature in 2017. GOP state Rep. William Lamberth of Cottontown, Tenn., has argued that Nashville's pot ordinance would create “two standards of justice” whereby one person caught with small amounts of pot could face a $50 fine and another could face 11 months and 29 days in jail.
The Sumner County lawmaker has said he is “strongly considering" filing a state bill next session that, as a penalty, would seek to halt state highway money for cities that do not enforce criminal penalties outlined in state law. The money would flow again if a violating city overturns its policy.
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Barry said Nashville shouldn’t govern “based on what the state may or may not do.”
One of the council members who voted in favor of the decriminalization, Councilman Russ Pulley, called Lamberth's legal arguments a big government overreach.
Nashville's marijuana bill originally was drafted to move closer to universal decriminalization because it would have made a civil penalty automatic. But after Metro Nashville Police Department concerns, the council approved an amended version to give police the option of handing out a civil penalty instead of misdemeanor charge.
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As a result, Nashville police went from being opposed to the bill to being neutral.
Supporters have touted the proposal as a way to allow people caught with small amounts of pot to avoid accumulating a criminal record, which they say can have lifelong consequences by making employment, housing and education harder to obtain. They say that young people of color are disproportionately affected.
Davidson County's sheriff and public defender, the state legislature's black caucus and Tennessee's American Civil Liberties Union chapter back the measure.
But some Nashville judges say civil records will be tougher to erase because they can be expunged only when a matter is dismissed or is not prosecuted.
Contributing: Stacey Barchenger, The Tennessean. Follow Joey Garrison on Twitter: @joeygarrison
State marijuana laws
Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia now have laws legalizing marijuana in some form. At least 20 states and the District also have decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana, according to NORML. The map below looks at statewide legalized medical and recreational marijuana.
Source: Governing magazine, data current as of May 25, 2016