The Monroe Board of County Commissioners Wednesday told the county attorney to move forward with an ordinance that would allow police officers to give a civil citation, instead of a misdemeanor criminal charge, to people caught with small amounts of marijuana.
Monroe is following the lead of Miami-Dade County, which approved a measure last month that allows officers to handle cases with less than 20 grams of marijuana with a $100 fine instead of an arrest and a court case.
But the Keys will proceed differently in some ways, seeking to collect the fines through the court system instead of code enforcement, as Miami-Dade does.
told commissioners she had no objection to the proposed ordinance. She said in the first six months of 2015, her office handled 53 cases of misdemeanor marijuana possession.
"This is not an endorsement of marijuana," said Commissioner George Neugent, who brought the issue to the commission. Instead, he said it was an effort to free up police and court resources to focus on more serious offenses.
Commissioner Sylvia Murphy said the county could always rescind the ordinance, if commissioners decide it isn't working after a year or two. But for now, she says "it's worth a try."
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