Due to the unfortunate detainment of Mr. Johnathan Kirk, aka DaBaby, for simple possession of marijuana following his concert on 12/23/19, it has become overly evident that the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department, CMPD, needs better guidance in the utilization of taxpayer funds and their crime enforcement policies.

Charlotte's leadership has allowed CMPD to abuse its power in regards to marijuana arrests. The "War-on-Drugs" and specifically marijuana possession enforcement has been used as a billy club to displace neighborhoods in the name of development and progress. Charlotte's leadership is well aware of this issue and has focused attention on criminal justice disparity within our own Mecklenburg County Equity Action Plan.

Charlotte needs to End Enforcement of marijuana possession. Cities like Atlanta and New York have already implemented policies and now treat marijuana possession like a traffic citation handled in Magistrate Court. A policy of End Enforcement will make huge strides with criminal justice reform, and allow CMPD to focus on real crime, like our City's skyrocketing homicide rate.

The expungement of marijuana convictions should also be included in an End Enforcement policy. We can lean on our City’s new partnership with Microsoft, our FinTech community, or organizations like Code for America to assist in the digital record expungement process. Cannabis will eventually become federally legal and record expungement a requirement. We need to take the lead now and show how progressive Charlotte can be by atoning for our past mistakes.

We formally ask Mayor Vi Lyles and all other city leaders to immediately enact a policy to end the enforcement of simple possession of marijuana and expunge all criminal records involving marijuana convictions for the City of Charlotte, NC.