If you get caught with a small amount of marijuana in Wisconsin's Milwaukee County, it will cost you a fine — $1, to be exact.
County board members this week agreed to reduce the fine for people found with marijuana from $275 to just $1, reports local CBS News station WDJT. However, they'll still have to pay a total of $141 for court costs.
"We achieve racial equity, and we support reductions of other drug uses, and we remove large financial burdens from everybody bypassing this," 12th District Supervisor Sylvia Ortiz-Velez, commented. "[With] our existing ordinances, many people cannot afford the fines and fees associated with marijuana possession."
The local sheriff's department will lose between $8,000 and $15,000 a year, but Ortiz-Velez told WDJT that would be okay, as "we know that prohibition has caused more harm than the substance itself."
The county's decision will not affect the city of Milwaukee and its suburbs, where fines for marijuana possession can still reach up to $500. In addition, county residents with larger amounts of marijuana will still face severe penalties.
Not all local residents are happy about the move. Supervisor Anthony Staskunas read a letter from a concerned citizen who commented that the "resolution ordinance is not good for the safety of our community...the fines are a result of penalties to deter individuals for breaking the law and to keep the community safe."
There are still more severe penalties for people caught with larger amounts of marijuana.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, has proposed legalizing marijuana for recreational purposes and regulating it in hopes of bringing in hundreds of millions in revenue as part of his annual state budget.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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