RE: Anti-Marijuana Group Created a Poll to Demonize Weed — and It Backfired Epically
In some ways we were a lot better off in MA with decriminalization, when it was decriminalized then if you had pot in your car you would get a $100 civil fine, they no longer had anything to harass kids and minorities about, now that it is legal if they catch you with a bag of weed in the car they will hit you with a criminal DUI and open container violation, now they have something to once again arrest young people and minorities for. So we went from a situation were you got a small ticket to one where you get your life ruined by the criminal justice system. When it was decriminalized they could not search your car if they smelled weed because possessing weed was a civil offense and thus smelling it was not evidence of a crime, now of course that is all gone.
Oh there's still harassment. In Maryland it's decriminalized but the police are still shaking down citizens who they know will have cannabis on them as frequently as they can with bogus traffic stops. You only get to have 3 citations before they can make the decision to incarcerate you. Even for medical patients in Maryland. The police will confinscate your medicine despite your medical card on the side of the road and issue a citation anyway. Sure you can go to court with your paperwork and the charges will be thrown out but they've destroyed $100's of your property at that point. It's hard enough for patients to afford their medicine as it is considering there's no help from insurance companies.