Marijuana Blog

District Attorney Stan Garnett today announced that his office will dismiss all pending cases of marijuana possession under one ounce, saying the overwhelming support for Amendment 64 in Boulder County would make it highly unlikely a jury would ever reach a guilty verdict in any of those cases.

 

"You've seen an end to mere possession cases in Boulder County under my office," Garnett said.

 

Garnett said his office will also not prosecute any marijuana paraphernalia charges in light of Amendment 64 passing statewide earlier this month. Amendment 64 will legalize possession of up to one ounce of marijuana in Colorado for those over the age of 21.

 

"It was an ethical decision," Garnett said. "The standard for beginning or continuing criminal prosecution is whether a prosecutor has reasonable belief they can get a unanimous conviction by a jury. Given Amendment 64 passed by a more than 2-to-1 margin (in Boulder County), we concluded that it would be inappropriate for us to continue to prosecute simple possession of marijuana less than an ounce and paraphernalia for those over 21."

 

While Amendment 64 will not go into effect until 30 days after the vote is approved -- most likely sometime in January -- Garnett said the voting numbers for Boulder County convinced him to begin dropping the cases now.

 

Source: http://www.denverpost.com