Marijuana Bust No Longer Automatic Arrest in New Orleans

In a bid to reduce congestion in the city's criminal courts, the New Orleans City Council voted last Thursday [12] to make marijuana possession, prostitution, and two other minor crimes municipal offenses. That gives police the option to issue a summons instead of making an arrest.

Up until now, pot possession and the other offenses have only been addressed by state laws, which required police to arrest and book offenders. With the offenses now municipal, police are no longer required to make arrests, saving the city the expense of booking, housing and feeding jailed pot smokers. The move will also reduce the caseload of judges and prosecutors, who also handle serious felonies.

"These ordinances will contribute significantly to the city's efforts to promote greater efficiency and equity in our criminal justice system, particularly for our police officers, the District Attorney's office and in the criminal court," said Councilwoman Susan Guidry, co-chair of the council's Criminal Justice Committee. "These measures have unanimous support from the City's criminal justice agencies, and we are thankful for the many people who have worked so hard on this initiative."

Possession of marijuana or synthetic cannabinoids, prostitution, a driver's failure to stop when a police officer has used flashing lights and a siren to signal the driver to stop, and refusing to leave the scene of a crime or accident when ordered to do so by police are the four offenses that will now be dealt with by summonses.

While it is a scaling back of marijuana enforcement, the council's move does not amount to true decriminalization. Like Louisiana state law, the new city municipal ordinance carries a maximum penalty of a $500 fine and/or six months in jail.

District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro complained mightily when he took office in 2008, only to find more than a thousand marijuana possession cases clogging his docket. At his urging, the city already tries pot possession cases in municipal court, but Thursday's ordinances mean the prosecution of those cases can be shifted from Cannizzaro's office to the city attorney's office.

The ordinances are a continuation of ongoing efforts by the city council to reduce the number of people arrested and jailed for minor offenses in the city. Two years ago, the council passed ordinances directing police to issue written summons instead of arresting people found with outstanding traffic warrants and a number of municipal offenses, including disturbing the peace, trespassing, making threats, urinating in public, playing loud music and public intoxication.

New Orleans police arrested 58,219 people in 2007. Half of those arrested were for municipal or traffic offenses. Although no hard numbers are available, the measures undertaken since then have certainly decreased that percentage, and Thursday's ordinance should see it decline further.