Given this dire set of facts, the city’s top prosecutor announced Tuesday she would no longer bother with marijuana cases, a move she argued would improve police-community relations and allow law enforcement to devote more time to serious violent crime.
“If you ask that mom whose son was killed where she would rather us spend our time and our attention — on solving that murder, or prosecuting marijuana laws — it’s a no-brainer,” said Marilyn Mosby, state’s attorney for Baltimore. She vowed at a news conference to no longer prosecute marijuana possession, regardless of quantity or prior criminal record, and said she would seek to vacate almost 5,000 convictions.
Mosby’s move places her in a vanguard of big-city prosecutors, including Kim Foxx in Chicago, Larry Krasner in Philadelphia, Cyrus R. Vance Jr. in Manhattan and Eric Gonzalez in Brooklyn, who are moving away from marijuana cases.
Much of their reasoning sounds familiar from the many statewide campaigns that have resulted in outright legalization: Marijuana, they say, is not linked to violent crime.
But increasingly, another argument is creeping in: Letting marijuana cases go actually makes communities safer, by shifting the focus to stopping violence and untangling a legacy of racial discrimination.
The Baltimore police do not share her view, however, and the response to her announcement cast doubt on how effective it would be. Mayor Catherine E. Pugh applauded Mosby’s attempt to address the “unnecessary criminalization” of marijuana users, but stopped short of endorsing the new policy.
The interim police commissioner, Gary Tuggle, said he would not tell officers to stop making marijuana arrests.
Under Mosby’s new rules, people will not be prosecuted for possessing marijuana at all, and will not be charged with distribution or intent to distribute based on quantity alone — there must also be other indicators of drug dealing, such as scales or plastic bags.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.