On 10/21 the Common Council voted to decrease the municipal fines for marijuana possession. The original resolution had called for the fines to be reduced to $5 for a first offense and $15 for a 2nd and 3rd offense.
The Safety and Licensing committee amended those numbers to be $50 for a first offense and $100 for 2nd and 3rd offenses after a recommendation by the police chief. The Safety and Licensing committee opted to not reduce the fines as much as the original resolution called for out of concern that if they reduced the fines by too much people would just pay them instead of feeling a need to go through Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse (AODA) treatment to get the charge removed from their record. Apparently, if I heard correctly, a 2nd marijuana offense in Wisconsin is actually a felony, which surprised me. So Appleton could have been setting up a situation where someone gets fined $5 for 1st time possession in Appleton and it’s so cheap to just pay the fine that they do that then get caught with marijuana in another part of the state that views possession in a harder light than we might and now they’re facing felony charges.
So, they opted to reduce fines to make a first time offense more in line with the fine for underage drinking and 2nd and 3rd offenses more in line with disorderly conduct. With court costs of around $190 tacked on, it still ends up being a large enough fine that people will hopefully think about going through AODA treatment in order to get the charge removed from their record, but for those who do not go that route, paying it will be a little less onerous.
At the Council Level, alderperson Smith was the only one opposed to this resolution. He was concerned that this resolution minimized the negative health a social aspects of recreational marijuana usage and was just the first step toward legalizing marijuana. He pointed out that marijuana possession is still illegal at a the federal level.
The rest of the Common Council was more of the opinion that marijuana possession and usage is not a big deal and my impression is that there is more than one who would have happily completely legalized it at the city level.
The Council did not make any further amendments to the resolution but ended up voting on it as the Safety and Licensing committee passed it onto them. It passed 13-1 with Alderperson Smith being the nay vote.
You can view the Common Council meeting here:
And the Safety and Licensing committee meeting here:
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