Man's jail death adds new face to debate on marijuana laws
The contempo afterlife of a man who was abaft confined on a pot control allegation has put a new face on the agitation over decriminalizing marijuana in New Hampshire, the alone New England accompaniment afterwards some anatomy of marijuana decriminalization law.Jeffrey Pendleton, 26, died endure ages in a Manchester bastille area he was getting captivated because he couldn't pay the $100 bond on accuse of marijuana possession. The medical examiner's appointment said he died from a fentanyl balance and has disqualified his afterlife an accident.
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| Man's jail death adds new face to debate on marijuana laws |
Twenty states accept some anatomy of pot decriminalization, according to NORML, a non-profit advocating for looser marijuana laws.
Advocates for such a change say absolute law disproportionately affects poor humans and can assuredly mar someone's record, authoritative it harder for them to get a job or into college.
"I would like to anticipate that somebody who is arrested for a baby bulk of marijuana in his abridged and can't accomplish $100 bond and again would die in bastille would accord humans abeyance to check our marijuana policies," said Democratic Rep. Renny Cushing, a co-sponsor of the decriminalization bill.
Pendleton, a atramentous man, was abandoned at the time he was arrested. A 2013 address from the American Civil Liberties Union showed atramentous humans in New Hampshire are 2.6 times added acceptable to be arrested on marijuana control accuse than whites. It aswell showed that in 2010, New Hampshire spent added than $6.5 actor administration marijuana control laws.
"There's a lot of law administration assets that are traveling adjoin administration marijuana control laws that acclamation authenticate New Hampshire citizens don't support," said Devon Chaffee, controlling administrator of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire.
But opponents of decriminalizing pot say accomplishing so would forward alloyed letters while New Hampshire battles an opioid and heroin addiction crisis.
"It seems crazy to me and counterproductive," said Republican Sen. Jeanie Forrester, who is active for governor.
Forrester sponsored a bill that removes accent calling control a "class A" misdemeanor, which in approach gives prosecutors the advantage to abate it to a abuse and accumulate accuse off someone's record. Edwin Kelly, authoritative adjudicator for the ambit cloister system, said abounding prosecutors already do this. Forrester's bill aswell ups the accomplished for a aboriginal time breach from $350 to $500, something advocates for all-encompassing decriminalization say will aggravate the struggles of poor defendants. The differing angle are arch to a aldermanic kerfuffle that may beggarly neither bill gets passed.
Both Kelly and attorneys said a lot of humans don't face a banknote bond if they're best up for a accessory marijuana offense. Between 7,000 and 9,000 biologic control accuse are filed annually and the majority accord with marijuana, Kelly said. The accompaniment was clumsy to accommodate added abundant data.
Pendleton died in his corpuscle at the Valley Street bastille in Manchester on March 13, four canicule afterwards he was incarcerated. As a Burger King employee, he was allotment of the "Fight for $15" movement advocating for a college minimum wage. The accumulation organized a assemblage alfresco the Valley Street bastille to draw absorption to his death.
In 2015, the ACLU represented him in two cases — one adjoin the boondocks of Hudson apropos a aimless arrest and the added adjoin the city-limits of Nashua afterwards Pendleton was arrested and served bastille time for actionable a exact no breach order. Both were acclimatized and Pendleton won budgetary awards.
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