Mothers of Murdered Sons and Daughters United is taking their call for Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh to end marijuana arrests and focus policing on violent offenders to the streets \u2014 via a mobile billboard.<\/p>\n
MOMS<\/a> commissioned the billboard on wheels, which they unveiled in a news conference on Thursday<\/a>, to do laps around downtown Baltimore, including stops at police headquarters and City Hall on Thursday for six hours. MOMS argues most of the people murdered in Baltimore, and their families, never see justice. They believe resources should be spent on finding killers \u2014 not arresting marijuana users.<\/p>\n \u201cMayor Pugh, stop pot arrests, solve murders instead,\u201d read the truck\u2019s billboard.<\/p>\n HAPPENING TODAY: The group MOMS, Mothers of Murdered Sons & Daughters is rolling out a new billboard with a message to Mayor Catherine Pugh to \u201cStop pot arrests. Solve murders instead.\u201d @WMAR2News<\/a> #GMM2<\/a> @momsstopmurder<\/a><\/p>\n READ MORE: https:\/\/t.co\/J7FWMgOF0U<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/25jOa2w09F<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Shannel Pearman (@ShannelPearman) February 21, 2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n A worthwhile message no doubt, but the very recent history of cannabis possession in Baltimore is a hazy situation. It all started in January, when the city\u2019s attorney announced it would stop prosecuting cannabis possession cases.<\/p>\n \u201cEffective immediately, the Baltimore City State\u2019s Attorney\u2019s Office will no longer prosecute marijuana possession cases regardless of weight and or criminal history,\u201d Baltimore State\u2019s Attorney Marilyn Mosby told a packed press conference<\/a> last month. She continued that cases that showed a clear intent to sell, like bagging the flower up or having a scale, would still be prosecuted by her office.<\/p>\n She also noted those still getting caught up in the criminal justice system would be sent to a diversion program for their first felony offense.<\/p>\n Hours later, the mayor announced that she backed the idea of the plan<\/a>. Pugh said she believed there is a need to commit full efforts and resources to get violent criminals off the streets. She also noted it\u2019s important to look at common sense approaches to the laws around personal possession of marijuana like so many other places already have.<\/p>\n \u201cI am supportive of what State\u2019s Attorney Marilyn Mosby is attempting to address, namely the unnecessary criminalization of those who possess marijuana merely for personal use,\u201d said Pugh in a statement. \u201cBut at the same time, we also need to understand that those who deal illegal substances fuel criminality in our neighborhoods which leads to violence.\u201d<\/p>\n Pugh also backed the plan to continue going after distributors, saying she believes people dealing in illegal substances fuel criminality in neighborhoods that leads to violence.<\/p>\n The weird thing about this is everyone is seemingly supporting the same plan. Baltimore news station WMAR noted MOMS is specifically supporting the Baltimore City State\u2019s Attorney plan to prosecute people for selling marijuana and not for possession.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want them to spend their time wisely on some of the violent offenders, violent crimes,\u201d said<\/a> MOMS co-founder Daphne Alston, who lost her son to Baltimore\u2019s violence 11 years ago. \u201cMostly the homicides because a lot of our moms don\u2019t have any justice for our children.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite all this confusion about who\u2019s on what side of the issue with MOMS and the mayor, the Baltimore Police department is definitely on the \u201clet\u2019s keep arresting people\u201d side \u2014 apparently regardless of whether the case will ever be prosecuted. Part of the reason is that Baltimore\u2019s current interim police commissioner Gary Tuggle is a former DEA agent.<\/p>\n \u201cBaltimore Police will continue to make arrests for illegal marijuana possession unless and until the state legislature changes the law regarding marijuana possession,\u201d Tuggle said in a statement, also just hours after the state\u2019s attorney\u2019s, according to the AP<\/a>. At the time, Tuggle noted Baltimore police will only ever stop making arrests if Maryland\u2019s legislature ever changes the law to make all possession legal. Tuggle did note the plan isn\u2019t to go after pot, it\u2019s to go after violence<\/a>.<\/p>\n Detective Debbie Ramsey formerly worked with the Baltimore Police Department\u2019s narcotics unit prior to her retirement and now works with The Law Enforcement Action Partnership spreading awareness of better alternatives to the failures of the war on drugs.\u00a0We asked her what she thought was the point of arresting Baltimore offenders who won\u2019t be prosecuted.<\/p>\n \u201cIn my opinion as a former officer right here in Baltimore, it\u2019s a matter of listing your priorities,\u201d Ramsey told Cannabis Now. Ramsey wondered if when these arrests are being made if the officers believe they\u2019re really helping to protect the community \u2014 a community that also tends to bear the brunt of enforcement already.<\/p>\n All in all, it looks like MOMS billboard may have made a bit more sense if Commissioner Tuggle\u2019s face was on it, but pressing the mayor again on an issue she claimed to be on your side about less than a month ago never hurt a worthy cause.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, do you support cannabis decriminalization?<\/p>\n The post MOMS Call on Baltimore Mayor to Stop Cannabis Arrests<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Mothers of Murdered Sons and Daughters United is taking their call for Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh to end marijuana arrests and focus policing on violent offenders to the streets \u2014 via a mobile billboard. MOMS commissioned the billboard on wheels, which they unveiled in a news conference on Thursday, toContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2112,50,4627,94,90,443,8034,8035],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33087"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33087"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33088,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33087\/revisions\/33088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
MOMS & the Mayor: On the Same Side?<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: MOMS Call on Baltimore Mayor to Stop Cannabis Arrests<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"