Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood says the proposed 'Cite and Release' program for small marijuana offenders, first revealed on Tuesday on News Radio 1200 WOAI, is firmly rooted in legal precedent, News Radio 1200 WOAI's Michael Board reports
.LaHood and Sheriff Javier Salazar are working on a plan to simply ticket and release otherwise law abiding people who are found in possession of a small amount of marijuana for their personal use.
LaHood says the way the program is being put together, it maintains marijuana possession as a crime, it simply does not call for detaining or jailing the individual.
LaHood stressed that, unlike a speeding ticket, the person will not be allowed to simply mail in a fine, so the individual will know that what he or she did is against the law.
"When the citizen accused shows up for a court setting, they are given an opportunity to do a pre trial diversion, almost like a pre-pre trial diversion," he said.
He says this program would allow the citizen to immediately go back about his or her business without having to be bailed out of jail, and the officer who wrote the citation wouldn't have to spend hours processing the individual into jail, with all the attendant paperwork.
"We're staying within the confines of the law, but we are using some common sense," he said. "Letting the officer stay out on the street, and giving the citizens the opportunity to turn their lives around."
Salazar said an arrest can mean the person loses a job, turning them from a taxpayer to a user of tax money, all for no good end.
"Jail is not for people we don't like," he said. "Jail is for people we're afraid of."
The new 'Cite and Release' program could be in place in Bexar County by the end of this year.