What city in the United States has the most relaxed marijuana policies?

Question

Cities large and small are welcome.

Answer 1

Ann Arbor,Mi
Marijuana ordinance of 1972

Through the 1960s and early 1970s, as Ann Arbor played host to a number of radical organizations – including formative meetings of Students for a Democratic Society, the establishment of the White Panther Party, and the local Human Rights Party – public opinion in the city moved steadily to the left on the criminalization of marijuana possession. The Michigan Daily, the main student newspaper at the University of Michigan, gained national press coverage by urging the legalization of marijuana as early as 1967. However, two more specific factors pushed the city towards the eventual adoption of marijuana enforcement provisions that proved to be among the most liberal in the country.

The first factor was local reaction to the highly punitive state penalties, which provided for a year's imprisonment for possession of two ounces or less, four year's imprisonment for the sale of marijuana, and harsher penalties for repeat offenses. These unusually strict penalties received national attention when poet and activist John Sinclair was sentenced to ten years in prison for possession of two joints, a sentence that sparked the landmark "Free John Now Rally" at Ann Arbor's Crisler Arena in December 1971. The event brought together a who's-who of left-wing luminaries, including pop musicians John Lennon, Stevie Wonder, and Bob Seger, jazz artists Archie Shepp and Roswell Rudd, and speakers Allen Ginsburg, Rennie Davis, Jerry Rubin, and Bobby Seale. Three days after the rally, Sinclair was released from prison after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the state's marijuana statutes were unconstitutional.

The second factor was the April 1972 election to Ann Arbor city council of two candidates from the Human Rights Party, an organization that promoted local progressive and radical causes. In September 1972, several months after they took their seats on council, the Human Rights Party's two council members spearheaded a bill that would reduce city penalties for possession of less than two ounces of marijuana to a $5 civil-infraction ticket. (The city penalty had previously been identical to the state penalty.) City police would then charge violators under the city ordinance rather than the state statute. The Human Rights representatives, by garnering the support of Democratic council members, quickly managed to pass the ordinance over the objections of council Republicans.

Outside observers characterized the ordinance as the most lenient in the country. In press interviews, the city attorney described the penalty as "sort of like a parking ticket," explaining that violators could mail the ticket, with a guilty plea and the fine, back to city hall in order to dispose of the charge. City police and prosecutors agreed to use the $5 city ordinance, rather than the still-applicable state laws, as the tool for enforcement against violators. The city police chief, however, promised to continue to pursue large-scale drug dealers aggressively, using the harsher state laws against this class of violator.

Shortly after the measure's adoption, the New York Times reported: "Under the trees on the University of Michigan campus, in the back rows of movie theaters – even, it is said, in the public gallery of the City Council chamber itself – young people are increasingly lighting up marijuana in public these days." However, both police and independent academic observers asserted in national media articles that the amount of marijuana smoked in the city had not increased; the locations had merely switched to include more public spaces.

Charter amendment of 1974

Within weeks of its adoption, the new marijuana ordinance had sparked outrage in many parts of the state. The director of the Michigan State Police, for instance, immediately threatened to move his troopers into Ann Arbor in order to enforce the state codes against possession of marijuana. In the first test case, decided on September 29, 1972, a district court judge ruled the ordinance unconstitutional as an "intrusion of Ann Arbor in the judicial functions of the State of Michigan." City voters responded in November by electing Perry Bullard to the Michigan House of Representatives on a platform that called for full legalization of the possession, but not sale, of marijuana by adults throughout the state.

Despite the adverse court ruling, the city's marijuana ordinance remained in place until June 1973, when it was repealed by the city council. The local debate attracted attention from a number of national media outlets, including the CBS Evening News (10 July 1973) and the New York Times. During the council's vote to repeal, about 150 spectators packed council chambers to light up joints in protest, and one protestor hit Mayor James Stephenson in the face with a pie.

On April 2, 1974, voters in Ann Arbor overruled the council's decision by amending the city charter with the famous Section 16.2, which, in somewhat altered form, remains in effect today. The charter section reinstated the $5 civil-infraction penalty and prohibited city police from enforcing the more stringent state laws. The same day, the neighboring town of Ypsilanti adopted a similar measure. In adopting the charter amendment, Ann Arbor voters asserted that the provisions were necessary to ensure the "just and equitable legal treatment of the citizens of this community, and in particular of the youth of this community present as university students or otherwise..."

Part of Section 16.2 declared that no city police officer "shall complain of the possession, control, use, giving away, or sale of marijuana or cannabis to any other authority except the Ann Arbor city attorney; and the city attorney shall not refer any said complaint to any other authority for prosecution." In doing so, the provision effectively denied state courts the opportunity to declare the measure unconstitutional, as had occurred in 1972, since a test-case opportunity would thus never come before a state judge.

Tightening the pot law in 1990

During the late 1980s, pressure grew from Ann Arbor Republicans to eliminate the city's lenient pot measure, with the moderate GOP mayor Jerry Jernigan calling it an "embarrassment" to the city. In 1989, the city council approved holding a referendum on increased penalties for possession of marijuana. In the April 1990 referendum, 53 percent of voters agreed to amend Section 16.2 of the city charter with a heightened penalty for marijuana possession, raising the fine from $5 to $25 for a first offense, with penalties of $50 for a second offense, and $100 or more for further offenses. The offense, however, remained a civil infraction rather than a misdemeanor or felony.

In the same election, using a tactic modeled on the city's original $5 marijuana law, voters approved a charter amendment intended to protect access to abortion in Ann Arbor if it ever became illegal in the state of Michigan. Voters mandated that, should abortion ever become illegal, a city ordinance would come into force under which abortion would be punishable in Ann Arbor solely by a $5 fine. Local judges would thus have the ability to assess the $5 fine rather than any more punitive state penalties. Crafted as the state legislature debated increased restrictions on abortion in Michigan, including the adoption of a parental-consent bill, the measure declared the city a "zone of reproductive freedom." The legality of the charter amendment remains unclear, since it has never been tested.

One local activist expressed disappointment with the voters' marijuana decision, telling USA Today: "The people were clearly pro-choice on abortion, and I expected them to be pro-choice on marijuana as well." However, even with the new fine, possession of small amounts of the drug remained largely decriminalized in Ann Arbor, since the penalty continued to consist only of a civil-infraction ticket similar to a traffic fine.

ANNUAL HASH BASH
Hash Bash is an annual event held in Ann Arbor, Michigan on the first Saturday of April. The event is a collection of speeches, live music, street vending and the occasional civil disobedience centered around the goal of reforming federal, state and local marijuana laws. The first Hash Bash was held in 1971 to protest the 10-year prison sentence given to cultural activist John Sinclair for possession of two marijuana joints.

Answer 2

San Francisco

Answer 3

Don't smoke on the campus of U of M though - those are the real cops in Ann Arbor lol. But off campus anything under 1/4 is just a ticket.

Answer 4

i'm no longer in choose of marijuana legalization, yet you have stated 2 issues that are in simple terms stupid. a million) You anticipate it is going to likely be undesirable as a results of fact the government says so. the government has made MANY blunders over the years. additionally, the government actual lies. no longer in simple terms the politicians the two. I paintings in environmental compliance and that i've got seen a daunting variety of outright lies and misrepresentations from the EPA and different regulatory communities attempting to make themselves look solid or gain countless objectives. bear in mind that i'm no longer asserting marijuana isn't undesirable. i'm in simple terms asserting your argument isn't valid. 2) If that's grown legally, that opposition will ultimately stress down the earnings margin that makes it appealing to smugglers and drug lords.

Answer 5

Anchorage, Alaska

Answer 6

Ann Arbor Mi, home of University of Michigan, used to be a $5 fine. I am not sure if it still is.

Answer 7

dream on , there no such things city marijuana pollicy. marijuana is control substance and falls under federal law

Answer 8

Washington DC, just look at all the dopes there.