{"id":1132,"date":"2016-01-08T09:56:04","date_gmt":"2016-01-08T09:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/?p=1132"},"modified":"2016-01-08T20:03:57","modified_gmt":"2016-01-08T20:03:57","slug":"tampa-city-council-to-consider-marijuana-decriminalization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/2016\/01\/08\/tampa-city-council-to-consider-marijuana-decriminalization\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa to consider Marijuana Decriminalization"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1133\" src=\"http:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/tampa-police-chief.jpg\" alt=\"tampa police chief\" width=\"746\" height=\"497\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/tampa-police-chief.jpg 746w, https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/tampa-police-chief-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 746px) 100vw, 746px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Tampa police Chief Eric Ward supports civil citations for small amounts of marijuana.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The City of Tampa is on the verge of taking steps to reform the criminal justice system<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to cannabis prohibition. Much like Miami-Dade, Miami Beach, Fernandina<\/p>\n<p>Beach, and Hallandale Beach which all launched citation programs last year, the Tampa City<\/p>\n<p>Council voted 6-0 to discuss the matter on February 18th. Public attendance and comment at<\/p>\n<p>the meeting is highly encouraged.<\/p>\n<p>This matter is significant since in December the St. Petersburg City Council brought up<\/p>\n<p>the same issue and resolved to discuss it further while seeking collaboration from the county<\/p>\n<p>and surrounding municipalities. This would a great step in serving to unclog the criminal justice<\/p>\n<p>system in this county and remove the monetarization of local Drug Courts.<\/p>\n<p>While the Mayor of Tampa, Bob Buckhorn, has expressed support for the civil citation<\/p>\n<p>program he still stands against the legalization of cannabis. This mixed bag of positions will<\/p>\n<p>undoubtedly be reflective in the policies presented to the council and will require a push from<\/p>\n<p>the re-legalization to do what they can in our own backyard.<\/p>\n<p>The issue of citation issuance is a major civil rights issue in Tampa. The Tampa Police<\/p>\n<p>Department is currently under Federal investigation for its bicycle citation program. This<\/p>\n<p>program issued citations to residents who did not have adequate lighting, reflectors, or other<\/p>\n<p>safety equipment on their bicycles. Unfortunately, the Tampa Police issued nine out of every<\/p>\n<p>ten citations to African Americans. These clear disparities and examples of institutionalized<\/p>\n<p>racism at TPD will only be further reflected in the cannabis citation program. Any real reform<\/p>\n<p>needs to begin with the culture at the department itself.<\/p>\n<p>By Christopher Cano, Canna-Chronicle Staff Writer &amp; Executive Director, Central Florida\u00a0NORML<\/p>\n<div id=\"mantis__recommended__wordpress\"><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\">\n    MANTIS_RECOMMEND = {\n        property: '556c86bbbf60bd001d672ecb',\n        render: 'mantis__recommended__wordpress'\n    };\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\">\n\tvar z = document.createElement(\"script\");\n\tz.type = \"text\/javascript\";\n\tz.async = true;\n\tz.src = \"\/\/assets.mantisadnetwork.com\/recommend.min.js\";\n\tvar s = document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];\n\ts.parentNode.insertBefore(z, s);\n<\/script><\/p>\n<link href=\"\/\/assets.mantisadnetwork.com\/recommend.3columns.css\" rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text\/css\" \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Tampa police Chief Eric Ward supports civil citations for small amounts of marijuana. &nbsp; &nbsp; The City of Tampa is on the verge of taking steps to reform the criminal justice system When it comes to cannabis prohibition. Much like Miami-Dade, Miami Beach, Fernandina Beach, and Hallandale Beach which all launched citation programs last [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1200x628-med-mj.001-1.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}