ATLANTA — When Jeff Breedlove purchased $20 worth of crack in 2016 in Georgia, it ultimately led to his arrest and a felony charge.

At the time, he was secretly battling addiction while working for an elected official in DeKalb County. He admits that his hypocritical lifestyle of being tough on drugs as a politician while struggling with drugs himself opened his eyes to the need for policy reform.

“It’s a disease, not a lifestyle choice. We’re treating them like a criminal instead of like a patient,” said Breedlove, who is now chief of communications and policy at Georgia Council on Substance Abuse.

GCSA and other groups support Pres. Joe Biden’s push to support decriminalization of marijuana, though it has lesser support among law enforcement.

In October, Biden issued an executive order pardoning prior federal convictions for simple possession of marijuana, beginning the process of potentially lowering the classification of marijuana from a Schedule 1 drug. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, Schedule 1 drugs are “defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”

Biden’s order also encourages governors to decriminalize possession of low amounts of marijuana in their respective states.

Breedlove said while most people who are in possession of drugs, particularly marijuana, aren’t generally a major threat to the community, arrests for drug possession often lead to setbacks in their lives.

“A person who’s sick with substance use disorder, which is what is commonly called addiction, they shouldn’t be treated like a criminal, they should get medical attention,” Breedlove said. “And there’s people who’ve also maybe not gone to jail and prison, but maybe they got arrested and they get out on parole or probation … but they’ve had thousands and thousands of dollars of legal fees that they never should have had and that impacts them financially. They get a record and they can’t get a job or they can’t get into a college or university because of their record.”

Leah Nelson, research director for Alabama Appleseed, a public policy group in Alabama, advocates for drug policy reform. An investigative report published by the group found that the amount of money Alabama spent in 2016 on the enforcement of its marijuana possession laws cost $22 million.

Entering the criminal system for minor infractions such as simple possession of marijuana, she said, is more dangerous than the drug itself.

“When I look at people who are in prison, they often have possession of marijuana convictions in their histories, and that’s not surprising because involvement with the criminal justice system begets further involvement in the criminal justice system,” Nelson said. “It’s very hard to get out from under even probation. We need a criminal punishment system because some people are harming other people. So I’m not arguing for abolition of all laws. But [we] have to look at which side of the scale is more dangerous, and I think when we look at marijuana possession, what we’re doing now is far more dangerous than decriminalization.

She continued: “We are not on the safe side right now because we have prisons where people are dying, literally dying of drug overdoses, regularly dying by homicide, regularly dying by suicide inside of Alabama’s prisons. We have a very dangerous situation inside of our prisons.”

Marijuana arrests largely impact Black people

According to the 2020 census, white people make up nearly 62% of the U.S. population and Black people make up 12.4% of the population.

FBI data suggests that Black people are arrested at a disproportionate rate for marijuana possession.

According to 2021 FBI data, though underreported due to lack of agency participation, white people were 53% of arrests for marijuana possession while Black people were 41% of arrests.

The disparity was much higher in Georgia.

Among the 13 of 432 agencies that reported to the FBI in 2020, nearly 66% of arrests for marijuana possession were Black people, and 33% were white. Reported data for 2021 shows 69% of arrests were Black people, and 29% were white among 301 of 657 that reported to the FBI.

In 2021, marijuana possession led to 40% of drug-related arrests among those agencies; other dangerous non-narcotics made up the largest percentage, 43%.

Race data was not available from Alabama where only 186 of 436 reported data, though marijuana possession constituted the highest amount of drug-related arrests, approximately 43%.

“In 2016, which was the year we were able to get data for, Black people in Alabama were four times as likely as white people to be arrested for possession of marijuana, and that is extremely concerning,” Nelson said, “because of longstanding research by the federal government showing that Black people and white people use marijuana at the same rates. So if you use it, you commit the crime of possessing so there’s no reasonable explanation for that disparity.”

She referenced the case of disabled Iraqi War veteran Sean Worsley, who served nine months in an Alabama prison in 2020 after an arrest for legally possessing medical marijuana. An Arizona resident at the time, Worsley was prescribed the drug to treat PTSD and other medical issues.

He was traveling through Alabama when he was stopped by police for a traffic violation.

“And nobody that I know thinks that that’s a reasonable outcome,” Nelson said. “He is a Black man and he ended up in prison for making this mistake. Sean, all by itself, is good reason to decriminalize marijuana. We have to take that tool away from law enforcement because clearly, they’re not using it in a way that anybody thinks is reasonable.”

Local efforts to decriminalize marijuana

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 27 states and the District of Columbia have decriminalized small amounts of marijuana, essentially making it a civil infraction or not a crime that constitutes an arrest or jail time.

In 2016, metro-Atlanta city Clarkston became the first city in Georgia to decriminalize possession of less than an ounce of weed. The fine is $75.

Atlanta, Forest Park, Kingsland, unincorporated Fulton County, Savannah, South Fulton, Tybee Island, and most recently Athens and Stonecrest have also decriminalized small amounts of marijuana.

Georgia and Alabama are among the 19 states that can impose jail time for possession of low amounts of marijuana.

This year, several marijuana-related reform bills did not advance.

SB 263 in Georgia would have legalized and regulated cannabis for adults. HR 281 and SR 165 would have referred a constitutional amendment on legalization to voters, and SB 77 would have reduced the penalty for possession of less than a half-ounce of marijuana to a fine of up to $300. HB 738 and SB 264 would have created comprehensive medical cannabis programs.