Baltimore to no longer prosecute marijuana possession

Baltimore’s top prosecutor announced Tuesday that the city will no longer prosecute any cases related to marijuana possession, regardless of quantity or a person’s criminal record.

Marilyn Mosby, the state’s attorney in Baltimore, is also seeking to have the courts vacate roughly 5,000 prior marijuana convictions going back to 2011, The Associated Press reported.

“No one who is serious about public safety can honestly say that spending resources to jail people for marijuana use is a smart way to use our limited time and money,” Mosby said Tuesday in announcing the move.

She called sending people to jail for marijuana possession an “ongoing moral failure.”

“Communities are still sentenced under these unjust policies, still paying a price for behavior that is already legal for millions of Americans,” she said. “That’s why I’m moving to vacate these cases.”

Mosby said her office will instead focus on prosecuting dealers and traffickers in marijuana distribution cases. [Read more at The Hill]