Officers In Dallas County Continue With Marijuana Arrest, Ignoring DA Policy

District Attorney John Creuzot vowed not to charge people for first-time marijuana possession. However, police in Dallas County are still arresting people for low-level marijuana possession.

This is important because Black people are more often than white people to be apprehended for having marijuana in Dallas County.

Each year, most of the misdemeanor marijuana possession charges with the Dallas County DA’s office are thrown out. This includes 321class B cases since January.

In order to lessen the the racial disparities that are observed in these apprehensions, Creuzot said that he wasn’t going to prosecute those cases when he took office in 2019.

This month, the House passed a bill to decriminalization cannabis at the federal level. This means that some marijuana convictions could be expunged.

In Apri 2021, Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia created new marijuana enforcement guidelines. This stated that officers shouldn’t charge people if they have less than 2 ounces of marijuana for recreational use.

However, since then, 680 class B misdemeanor cases for marijuana possession have been filed. John Creuzot’s office only accepted three of those cases.

In 2021, all agencies in Dallas County filed 2,442 misdemeanor marijuana cases. 2,005 of them were thrown out.

After a Gallup poll was done in November of last year, it showed 68% percent of  Americans are proponents of legalizing marijuana.