READING, Pa.- A heated debate is unfolding in the City of Reading, as council members consider an ordinance that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.<\/p>\n
Supporters of the proposal say it’s a step toward justice reform, one that would prevent minor drug charges from becoming long-term barriers to jobs, housing, and education.<\/p>\n
\u201cCriminal convictions over something that really shouldn’t be a crime\u2026 that affects the ability to secure housing or employment, or even, in some cases, educational opportunities,\u201d said Joe Welsh, Director of the Lehigh Valley Justice Institute.<\/p>\n
Welsh adds that more than a dozen cities in Pennsylvania, including Easton and Bethlehem, have already passed similar ordinances.<\/p>\n
But Berks County District Attorney John Adams says local efforts to change the law won\u2019t prevent state-level enforcement, and could create legal confusion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not going to stop other police departments that operate within the city from charging this offense,\u201d Adams said. \u201cState Police, for example, will still file criminal charges, not civil citations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adams also pointed to Berks County\u2019s existing diversion program, which allows those charged with small possession to complete an educational course and have their record expunged.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce they complete that program, the charges are dismissed and their record is cleared, before the case even reaches a hearing,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
Still, advocates for decriminalization argue that current programs don\u2019t go far enough, and that the system is spending too much time and money on low-level offenses.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat this is doing is diverting resources away from real crime,\u201d Welsh said. \u201cThe time that law enforcement has to spend screwing around with a small possession charge \u2014 both the courts and prosecutors, it\u2019s a waste.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reading City Council is expected to vote on the ordinance or take further action later tonight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa.- A heated debate is unfolding in the City of Reading, as council members consider an ordinance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[214,4958,128,130,129,213],"class_list":["post-5450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-city_township_county_councils","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-reading-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}