Increased marijuana penalty made permanent; Council ignores will of the people

Despite over 300 emails protesting the increased penalty for possession of marijuana, despite the fact that not one person who was present at either the Law and Public Safety Committee hearing, nor the full Council session, spoke in favor of the ordinance, and, most alarmingly, despite clear evidence that Cincinnati is less safe under the new law, Cincinnati City Council voted 7-2 to make the increased penalty for marijuana possession permanent.

How they voted:

Jeff Berding - Yes
Chris Bortz - Yes
Laketa Cole - Yes
John Cranley - Yes
David Crowley - No
Leslie Ghiz - Yes
Chris Monzel - Yes
Jim Tarbell - No
Cecil Thomas - Yes

Only Vice Mayor Jim Tarbell and Council member David Crowley had the courage to say no this counter-productive law.

Not one Council member challenged Police Chief Thomas Streicher when he said, with total disregard for the facts, that crime had gone down in the past year. In fact, serious crime rose 4.4% in 2006.

Council member after Council member justified their vote by pointing to one statistic - that 62 guns had been seized when people were arrested for marijuana possession – and holding this up as evidence that the law was effective.

Every Council member received a copy of my report on the increased crime in Cincinnati (the same information that was in my previous post). They had the facts - murder rate up, robbery rate up, crimes committed with guns up, but they ignored those facts and kept repeating “62 guns off the streets, 62 guns off the street.”

Assuming that there are actually 62 fewer guns on the street (a big assumption, as no one can know how many illegal guns are on the street), it pales in comparison with 11 more murders, 317 more robberies and, the kicker, 429 more crimes committed with guns. Apparently, to the 7 council members who voted to make this ordinance permanent, 62 minus 429 is a positive number.

Please remember who voted in favor of this ordinance when Council members start their campaigns this year. Ask those who voted in favor of it how they justify their vote in light of the increases in murders, robberies, and crimes committed with a gun. And be sure to ask Mr. Thomas and Ms. Ghiz why they broke their promise to not renew this law if it wasn’t effective.

This law has been and will continue to be a disaster for the safety of the citizens of Cincinnati. But the battle is not yet over. I, for one, will continue to fight to overturn this law.