CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Community leaders in Charleston have submitted a petition to the city that aims to create a new city code for simple possession of cannabis.
Charleston City Council members began working on a proposed ordinance Monday night. “The Sensible Marijuana Ordinance” would make penalties as minimal as possible for the simple possession of marijuana, effectively removing jail time and court fees for adults arrested in Charleston for cannabis possession.
The city’s Committee on Ordinance & Rules discussed two bills (Bill No. 8039 & Bill No. 8043) that would make the change. Bill No. 8039 sets out to amend the Municipal Code relating to jail time for the possession of controlled substances, making the first offense of simple marijuana a non-jailable offense.
Bill No. 8043 sets out to amend the Municipal Code by making the penalty for misdemeanor marijuana possession the lowest penalty by State Law.
Committee Chairman Chad Robinson said they’re still working to iron out the details before submitted a final version of the proposed ordinance to the full council for a vote.
“We did lay it over until my next meeting, which will be next Monday night to work on a committee substitute, but I think that the finished version will be a good, workable document that we can take to full council,” Robinson said after the meeting.
A factor that the committee will be looking over is signatures received by Charleston Can’t Wait volunteers. According to City Charter, ballot initiatives allow residents of the city to introduce to the ballot by petition an ordinance or amendment, and for this year’s election, 1,518 signatures have to be collected equal to 10% of votes cast in the municipal election.
Corey Zinn, a supporter of the ordinance, said he believes they have more signatures than what is required.
“We estimated that over 2,000 were valid, and we expect maybe even more are, depending on people updating their registration, which we encouraged a lot of people to register to vote and update their voter registration as well,” Zinn said Monday evening.
Zinn said marijuana possession is not always tied to violent crimes. He said he’s passionate about ending the stigma.
“I would really like to see cannabis be decriminalized for everybody,” Zinn said. “I have pretty core beliefs in decriminalization in general for drugs and what I would call ‘non-serious crimes’ that aren’t harming others.”
Robinson said if the ordinance went to a ballot, the city could face large fees.
“If it ever went to a ballot, the city could incur up to $100,000 in fees to have it on the ballot,” Robinson said. “Hopefully we can get to a compromise with Bill No. 8039 that would suffice the requests from the citizens who filed a petition.”
Last year, 173 arrests were made in the City of Charleston for simple possession of cannabis, which is the seventh most common reason for arrest.