Get Active Subscribe Support Us

WILKES-BARRE CONSIDERS DRUG CODE SIMILAR TO HAZLETON

WILKES-BARRE - It's not a soft spot in their heart that has city officials pushing to decriminalize a minor drug offense, but rather a soft spot in their wallet.

Mayor Tony George and his administration aim to reduce possession of drug paraphernalia from a misdemeanor criminal offense to a summary offense so the city could boost its coffers with the money collected through city-issued citations.

City council at its regular meeting Thursday unanimously approved the first of two readings of the motion to amend Wilkes-Barre's ordinance.  The maximum penalty for a summary conviction is a $300 fine.  Defaulting on the payment could land an offender in Luzerne County Correctional Facility for up to 90 days.

Wilkes-Barre officials say the ordinance stands to bring thousands of dollars into the city, which could ease recent financial concerns over a multimillion dollar shortfall in 2015 from the previous administration coupled with unbudgeted hires George made this year when he took the helm.

Police Chief Marcella Lendacky said research shows similar ordinances adopted in third-class cities have proven successful.  Hazleton's ordinance, in effect since 1998, served as the blueprint for Wilkes-Barre's version.

"That was my whole thing," Lendacky said.  "It was already tried and true."

She said the records sergeant at the police department sifted through in-house data on drug paraphernalia charges in preparation for Tuesday's work session when city officials first pitched the idea to city council.  Last year, she said, more than 300 paraphernalia charges had been filed.

That is a low-end estimate, she added, because the police department doesn't track any changes to criminal cases after the time of arraignment.  Most cases are resolved through plea bargains, so the city has no record of drug paraphernalia charges that might have been changed or dropped.

With criminal offenses, the bulk of money collected by magisterial districts courts and common pleas courts goes into Pennsylvania's general fund.  The state designates possession of drug paraphernalia as a misdemeanor carrying a fine up to $2,500 and a maximum one year in jail.

By reclassifying the paraphernalia charge to a summary, the city would receive the full amount of the fine, according to city officials.  Hypothetically, had each of last year's paraphernalia charges been issued as a citation with a $300 fine attached to it, the ordinance would have potentially generated $90,000 in revenue.  That's if 100 percent of the fines were collected, which is not the case in any municipality.

Council is scheduled to vote on the second and final reading of the paraphernalia ordinance at its next regular meeting March 10.

Lendacky said the city is going to review a similar law in Philadelphia that decriminalized possessing and smoking small amounts of marijuana.

A Wilkes-Barre resident at Thursday's meeting piqued Lendacky's interest when he had handed council members copies of the Philadelphia bill before giving a fiveminute overview to those in attendance.

Nonviolent drug and alcohol abuse, the bill said, is proven to cause long-term health risks and should be dealt with as a public health issue, not as a criminal issue.  Using criminal means for minor violations doesn't deter drug and alcohol abuse, but instead increase the number of people with life-changing criminal records, according to the document.

"This caught my ear right away," Lendacky said.  "That got my attention."

Before October 2014, when then Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter signed the council bill into law, about 4,000 people in the city were being arrested each year for possessing a small amount of non-medical marijuana.  These arrests, the document said, required substantial cost to taxpayers, a significant dedication of law enforcement, court and prison resources.

Under the ordinance, those caught with less than 30 grams of herb get a citation carrying a $25 fine while those who get caught smoking it get cited with a $100 fine.

Lendacky said decriminalization seems to work well in cities the size of Philadelphia.  Adopting that law in Wilkes-Barre, however, would depend largely on whether the state allows third-class cities to qualify, which is be the first thing Lendacky said city officials need to check.