With only a fortnight in the House, a congress representative (who assumed the position of the late representative Lewis John) has submitted a proposal to eradicate all state records for folks with non-violent substance convictions. He has also urged the local and federal governments to follow suit.
Rep. Hall Kwanza filed the reform on Wednesday. He’s a former Councilman of Atlanta City who successfully championed a local cannabis initiative during 2017. Although the bill’s text isn’t available, the congressman shed some light on the proposal during a floor speech.
He stated that the legislation would eradicate all records of non-violent convictions affected by the fight on drugs and different crime reforms for any local or federal government that receives federal crime proceeds.
This bill is more notable since the exemption legislation that has been submitted to Congress generally only affects folks with state drug convictions. Hall’s proposal would move a notch higher; it’ll punish local or state governments that won’t scrape off previous drug convictions by holding state funds from such jurisdictions.
The session will come to an end in about 30 days together with Hall’s short term in the House, thus the bill is unlikely to proceed.
Fortunately, this isn’t Kwanza’s first venture into drug regulation. As mentioned, he championed an Atlanta council that absorbed the risk of jail time for one-ounce or less marijuana possession. The punishment of the MJ possession in Atlanta was changed to not more than a $75 fine.
At the time, Hall said that although this was a major leap forward for Atlanta, it was just a common-sense regulation.
During an interview prior to the vote, he said that he doesn’t use marijuana, however, it’s one thing he had stood up on. He added that the Atlanta ordinance doesn’t want to destroy people’s lives.
