---

The City Council will consider a resolution vote to symbolically decriminalize marijuana across the state.

A presentation by Help Not Handcuffs campaign organizer Randy Thompson during Monday night’s City Council Workshop meeting asked city officials to lead the state in creating laws that recognize the specific harms prohibition of marijuana causes.

Marijuana use is a criminal offense. Decriminalizing its use would mean taking away the criminal entities associated with marijuana, Thompson said.

“Arrest for petty possession of marijuana enters individuals who have caused no harm to person or property into a traumatizing, stigmatizing and debilitating cycle of arrest, fines, possible incarceration and shackles them with a criminal record that becomes a barrier to employment, education, housing, social services and other necessities,” Thompson said.  “These arrests distract police from addressing actual crimes, which harm person or property.”

A resolution would also call for legalizing and regulating marijuana use within city limits, Thompson said.

But Acting Deputy Police Chief Anthony Salerno said Thompson’s figures that show 10 percent of all Asbury Park arrest are marijuana related is “a bit high.”

Currently Washington DC, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska have similar laws in place, Thompson said.

“We, legally and morally, cannot ask our Police Department to ignore the laws of the state of New Jersey,” Mayor John Moor said. “I have no problem with a resolution saying we support what you want but we cannot tell the police department to step down and not do their jobs.”

Moor said Acting Chief Salerno and Acting City Manager Tony Nuccio will be a part of the legislation

Thompson said, if passed, the resolution would give police officers the ability to use their discretion in prioritizing the pursuance of the criminal matter.

Highlights of a fact sheet Thompson gave to the City Council include the following:

• 51.3 percent of Asbury Park’s residents are African Americans. African Americans are arrested at over three times the rate of their Caucasian counterparts despite using marijuana at the same rate. Monmouth County has one of the highest disparities in the state of New Jersey with African Americans being arrested for marijuana possession at a rate of 4.6 times the rate that whites do.

• 2013 police numbers show the Asbury Park Police Department made 1,991 arrests, 440 of those arrests were under the category of simple drug possession or possession of paraphernalia. This amounts to over 22% [close to one-quarter] of the police arrests for the year. Over 45% of the possession arrests in Asbury Park were for marijuana alone.

• 24.4 percent of Asbury Park’s residents are migrants – A possession arrest can mean deportation for someone applying for lawful permanent resident status [LPR] and for someone who has earned LPR status a possession arrest can make him or her deportable.

For more information, visit Help Not Handcuffs website.

——————————————————–

Follow the Asbury Park Sun on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

---