7 days ago
Reading City Council calls on PA for marijuana reform
Reading City Council is calling on the state Legislature for marijuana reform and taking steps toward decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of cannabis within the city limits.
In a 6-1 vote last week, council adopted a resolution calling on the Legislature for the immediate decriminalization of adult-use marijuana and voicing support for Gov. Josh Shapiro's initiative on statewide cannabis reform.
Councilman O. Christopher Miller cast the lone no vote, saying he wanted to hear from additional stakeholders, including organizations such as the Council on Chemical Abuse of Berks County.
'This is great advocacy,' Councilman Jaime Baez Jr. said of the resolution, 'but I am looking forward to two weeks from now being able to pass an ordinance to decriminalize marijuana and make sure we are not affecting our residents, our minorities, supporting our governor, and making sure that we're not behind (other states).'
Introduced by Baez, the proposed ordinance would amend the city code to make possession of under 30 grams of marijuana a civil offense rather than a criminal one.
Councilman Jaime Baez Jr. (Courtesy of Jaime Baez Jr.)
Supporters say the change is long overdue and would help reduce unnecessary incarceration and its cascading effects. But the measure is not without opposition.
'Reform is necessary to create a more fair and just criminal justice system, especially when it's affecting the majority of Reading residents, who are people of color,' Councilwoman Melissa Ventura said. 'We shouldn't have to make people jump through hoops to clear their records for small amounts.'
Baez and Ventura said cannabis enforcement disproportionately impacts communities of color and young people.
The resolution received praise from several residents and advocates.
Jane Palmer and Crystal Kowalski, both of Wyomissing and members of Building Justice in Berks, submitted letters urging council to act.
Citing findings from the organization's recent study of the Berks County jail system, they argued that cannabis possession arrests waste public resources and needlessly harm individuals' lives.
'The true cost of jail detention in Berks County is roughly $150 per day, or $54,000 a year,' Palmer wrote. 'Treatment is much more effective and less costly. Jail detention is ruinous, especially for our youth.'
DA opposes measure
But in an interview, District Attorney John Adams said, 'We do not and will not put people in jail for small amounts of marijuana.'
Adams said his office strongly opposes the proposed ordinance, citing legal, operational and policy concerns.
'We don't need separate laws for separate jurisdictions,' he said. 'The city cannot pass a law that supersedes state law. It's questionable whether it could pass without constitutional challenge.'
Adams also said the ordinance would undercut a marijuana diversion program already in place countywide that provides education through the Council on Chemical Abuse. Upon successful completion of the program, he said, the individual's charges are dismissed and their record is expunged.
'To have a different standard in the city of Reading would just bring confusion to the process,' he said.
Adams also raised technical concerns about testing substances to confirm they are illegal marijuana and not another substance, such as hemp, a variety of cannabis sativa that has lower levels of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the primary psychoactive compound in cannabis.
Hemp is cultivated for fiber, seed and floral extracts, and federal and state law requires its concentration of THC be not more than 0.3%, according to
Testing of confiscated substances is handled by the state police, but that would not be the case if the citations were civil rather than criminal, Adams said.
He said the ordinance, if passed, would accomplish nothing, while creating legal confusion and potentially jeopardizing funding his office provides to the Reading Police Department.
'If the state decriminalizes marijuana, we will abide by that,' he said. 'But all this ordinance does is cause chaos.'
'Thoughtful conversation'
City Managing Director Jack Gombach acknowledged those concerns but stressed the city's administration and Mayor Eddie Moran are committed to addressing them collaboratively.
City Managing Director Jack Gombach
'Philosophically, we agree with decriminalization,' Gombach said in an interview. 'The mayor supports this, and the police department supports this. We should not be jamming up people's lives for small amounts of marijuana.'
Gombach praised the DA's office as a valuable partner and credited its collaboration for the city's recent reduction in crime.
Still, he said, a thoughtful conversation about how to implement local reform in compliance with state and federal law is necessary.
'This is not something that is going to happen overnight,' Gombach said. 'Responsible government means getting it right.'
Council President Donna Reed said she co-sponsored the resolution and supports the governor's push for reform.
Donna Reed
Reed said she would like to see a state system for sales of recreational marijuana, similar to the state store system used for alcohol.
'I'd like to see the state get the kind of revenue our surrounding states already do,' she said.
Taxes on sales of recreational marijuana serve as a significant source of revenue for some states that have legalized cannabis sales, according to the Marijuana Policy Project website.
However, Reed said, she is more cautious about the proposed ordinance.
'I'm comfortable with this as an advocacy resolution,' she said. 'I supported it, and I co-sponsored it. I feel differently about the ordinance, and I'll speak to that in the future.'
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