{"id":1150,"date":"2016-01-14T19:41:23","date_gmt":"2016-01-14T19:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/?p=1150"},"modified":"2016-01-14T19:41:23","modified_gmt":"2016-01-14T19:41:23","slug":"pinellas-county-to-consider-marijuana-decriminalization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/2016\/01\/14\/pinellas-county-to-consider-marijuana-decriminalization\/","title":{"rendered":"Pinellas County to consider Marijuana Decriminalization"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pinellas County Commissioner\u2019s Agree to Hear Marijuana Decriminalization<\/p>\n<p>By Christopher Cano\u00a0|\u00a0Executive Director, Central Florida\u00a0NORML<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1152\" src=\"http:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/bcc-meeting.jpg\" alt=\"bcc-meeting\" width=\"520\" height=\"195\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/bcc-meeting.jpg 520w, https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/bcc-meeting-300x113.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Last month the City of St. Petersburg entertained the idea of civil citations for marijuana<\/p>\n<p>decriminalization at the behest of Councilman Steve Kornell. Pinellas County was used most<\/p>\n<p>recently as a national example of how marijuana arrest have serious racial disparities. Pinellas<\/p>\n<p>County Commissioner Ken Welch introduced the subject during the final commission meeting<\/p>\n<p>of 2015. Welch said the request stems from concerns that there are more arrests of minorities<\/p>\n<p>and arrests made in certain areas of the county for marijuana possession. He is interested in<\/p>\n<p>exploring alternatives and the possibility of a countywide ordinance that would address these<\/p>\n<p>concerns. \u201cThere\u2019s a disparity,\u201d Welch said. \u201cWe need to do something about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Other members of the Pinellas Commission are receptive to the idea. Commissioner<\/p>\n<p>Dave Eggers said he would like more information and Commissioner Karen Seel suggests<\/p>\n<p>scheduling a workshop. Pinellas Clerk of the Court Ken Burke says that other Florida Counties<\/p>\n<p>such as Leon and Hernando are talking about the use of civil citations for minor possession<\/p>\n<p>charges. He has suggested forming a small task force to explore the alternatives and include<\/p>\n<p>Sheriff Bob Gualtieri and State Attorney Bernie McCabe on it. Sheriffs in Florida have not been<\/p>\n<p>open to marijuana legalization. The Florida Sheriffs Association was a leading voice against<\/p>\n<p>2014\u2019s Medical Marijuana Amendment sponsored by United for Care.<\/p>\n<p>Tampa City Council is set to discuss this same issue on February 18th. Unfortunately,<\/p>\n<p>Chair of Pinellas County Commission, Charlie Justice, said he would be \u201chappy to do a<\/p>\n<p>workshop,\u201d but that the January and February workshop schedule was full. Therefore, this<\/p>\n<p>spring will be the most crucial time for cannabis activists to fill city hall and county chambers<\/p>\n<p>alike.<\/p>\n<p>By Christopher Cano, Canna-Chronicle Staff Writer,\u00a0Executive 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>Pinellas County Commissioner\u2019s Agree to Hear Marijuana Decriminalization By Christopher Cano\u00a0|\u00a0Executive Director, Central Florida\u00a0NORML Last month the City of St. Petersburg entertained the idea of civil citations for marijuana decriminalization at the behest of Councilman Steve Kornell. Pinellas County was used most recently as a national example of how marijuana arrest have serious racial disparities. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1153,"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":[62,79,9,78],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/1200x628-med-mj.001-2.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150"}],"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=1150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannachronicle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}