Remove All Penalties for Marijuana Possession

Municipal Leaders in Milwaukee County

Milwaukee County is lowering its fine for possession of marijuana and marijuana paraphernalia to just $1, but that only affects people stopped by the Sheriff's Department. To truly reduce penalties for residents of Milwaukee County, we need to call on each of the 19 cities and villages within the county to also reduce their penalties.

After consulting with attorneys, we have determined that cities and villages can actually lower penalties beyond what the county is able to do - cities and villages can totally eliminate all penalties for possession of marijuana and paraphernalia within their borders. This is de facto legalization!

Madison did exactly that in November, passing an ordinance that explicitly allows people to possess up to an ounce of marijuana in their homes and in public.

Use the form to the right to sign our petition to your city/village elected officials. Southeastern Wisconsin NORML will deliver your signatures to the leadership of your municipality on a regular basis until these changes are made. Please also add your phone number (which will not be shared with your city/village) if you would like us to keep you updated on how you can help with this initiative.

To: Municipal Leaders in Milwaukee County
From: [Your Name]

In 2018, the people of Milwaukee County clearly stated their support for an end to marijuana prohibition: 70% of residents voted in support of legalizing marijuana for recreational use. In fact, a majority of the residents of every Milwaukee County municipality supported marijuana legalization:

Franklin - 52.46%
Greendale - 55.27%
Hales Corners - 57.98%
Greenfield - 58.43%
Oak Creek - 58.73%
River Hills - 61.08%
Brown Deer - 63.49%
South Milwaukee - 64.51%
Wauwatosa - 65.95%
Fox Point - 66.07%
Cudahy - 66.50%
West Allis - 66.96%
Whitefish Bay - 66.99%
St. Francis - 67.83%
Glendale - 68.14%
Bayside - 69.32%
West Milwaukee - 74.17%
Milwaukee - 75.13%
Shorewood - 79.18%

While outright legalization of marijuana can only be done at the state level, municipalities can - and should - do the next best thing: remove all penalties for possession of marijuana and marijuana paraphernalia, as Madison did in November 2020.

Removing penalties for marijuana possession is not only good politics, it is good policy.

As our county struggles with the opiate crisis, recent research has suggested that legalizing marijuana leads to significant reductions in opiate abuse. See a 2020 study that analyzes the decline in opiate use in Colorado after marijuana legalization: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7246665/

This policy change would also dramatically reduce racial disparities in policing. In 2020 the ACLU put out a report that showed that in Wisconsin, Black people are 4.2 times more likely to get arrested for marijuana than white people, despite both groups using marijuana at similar rates: https://www.aclu-wi.org/en/news/new-aclu-report-black-people-four-times-more-likely-get-arrested-marijuana-possession-wisconsin

Removing penalties for marijuana possession is an easy way to improve racial justice in your community and allow for the use of a much safer alternative to the addicting and deadly opiate medications.

I hope you will look at the facts as well as the popular support that marijuana legalization has when deciding whether you want to allow the harms of marijuana prohibition to continue. I hope that in light of all of this, you will choose to be on the right side of history by making 2021 the year you remove all penalties for marijuana possession.