February 2, 2020

The Honorable Robert Broussard

District Attorney of Madison County, AL

The Honorable Kevin Turner

Sheriff of Madison County, AL

The Honorable Tommy Battle

Mayor of Huntsville, AL

The Honorable Paul Finley

Mayor of Madison, AL

Dear District Attorney Broussard, Sheriff Turner, Mayor Battle, and Mayor Finley:

We are writing to you, the elected law enforcement leaders of Madison County, with an
urgent request to improve the public safety, social equity, and overall well-being of our
community: We ask that you stop arresting people for cannabis possession and,
likewise, drop all criminal charges related to cannabis possession. These actions will
help ease racial disparities in community policing, allow greater enforcement emphasis
on crimes that have victims, especially violent crime, and improve the vital relationship
between the community and law enforcement officers.

We understand that your job is to enforce the laws and ordinances that are on the
books and that you did not create current cannabis laws. However, each of you has
tremendous power to set priorities and allocate resources for the enforcement or non-
enforcement of existing laws. In fact, it is your express duty to do this in a way that
serves and protects the community. We ask you to recognize that arresting and
prosecuting people for cannabis possession does not serve or protect Madison County.

Our community suffers from an alarming and unacceptable racial disparity in cannabis
possession arrests. In Huntsville in 2016, black people were 11.2 times more likely to be
arrested for cannabis possession than white people, the worst local racial disparity in
Alabama, according to data from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA). [1]
This dramatic disparity is despite strong evidence showing that black and white people
use cannabis at approximately the same rate. [2] Arrests, court appearances, and
convictions drain families of wealth and deflate prospects for educational and economic
advancement. Therefore, local cannabis enforcement falling hardest on Huntsville’s
black families means current policy only worsens broader historical racial inequalities
we should all want to overcome. It is hard to imagine a surer, swifter way to begin
addressing local racial inequities than by ceasing arrests and charges for cannabis
possession.

We believe everyone in the community would benefit from local law enforcement
allocating all of its limited resources toward fighting crimes that have victims. In 2016,
Madison County arrested more people for cannabis than all other Alabama counties but
one, while Huntsville PD had the second most cannabis arrests of any agency in the
state. [1] Meanwhile, violent crimes are going unsolved. At the state level, a backlog of
about 10,000 cannabis cases awaiting forensic testing contributes to a backlog of
forensic tests for crimes against people, including homicide, sexual assault, assault, and
robbery. [1, 3] There is no comparison between these classes of offenses. Our
community must stop contributing to a delay of justice for violent crimes through our
policing of cannabis possession.

Perhaps the best reason to stop arresting people for cannabis possession is simply that
most people in Madison County do not think possession should be a crime in the first
place. Recent public opinion surveys show that 66% of Americans say cannabis use
should be legal. [4] Over the last 10 years, public opinion has shifted rapidly on this
issue. In Alabama, a 2018 survey showed that 60% of respondents favored legalizing
cannabis for medical and/or recreational use. [5] Support for legalizing cannabis is
common across demographics, regions, and political ideologies. Every arrest for
cannabis possession is therefore contrary to the public will of this community.

Ceasing arrests and prosecutions for cannabis possession is also the fiscally
responsible thing to do. Alabama spends approximately $22 million per year enforcing
cannabis prohibition, according to a conservative estimate of 2016 data. [1] Investing
that $22 million per year back into the state could pay for 191 Pre-K classrooms, 571
schoolteachers, or 8,600 children covered by Medicaid. Good stewardship of public
resources requires that we stop the arrests and prosecutions for cannabis possession.

By publicly de-prioritizing enforcement of cannabis prohibition, “Rocket City” can also

help establish its image as an innovative, inclusive, and livable community. This will
help attract the workforce for the 25,000 new jobs in our area that we need to fill by
2023. [6] Many of the workers we need to attract are young people with skills tailored for
emerging industries. We must recognize that support for marijuana legalization, though
consistent across demographics, is strongest among young people under 30. [7] If our
community wants to position itself for sustained prosperity, we cannot allow misaligned
law-enforcement priorities to repel the very workers we need to attract.

Other jurisdictions around the country have already successfully done what we are
asking you to do. We should borrow from their playbooks. Some cities have fully
decriminalized cannabis possession, while others have made enforcement of cannabis
laws the lowest possible priority. [8] The City of Birmingham launched a new initiative,
Pardons for Progress, that enables individuals previously convicted of misdemeanor
marijuana possession in municipal court to apply for a pardon. [9] Such a program
removes barriers to employment for those previously convicted of marijuana
possession, making it the right thing to do both morally and economically.

You have the power and the responsibility to put our community on a better path. We
need your leadership to ease racial disparities in law enforcement, align public
resources with the public will, and unshackle our community’s economic opportunity.
We ask you to stop arresting and charging our people for cannabis possession.
Will you please respond to this letter by Friday, February 14th, with how you propose to
move forward?

Signed:
Alabama Appleseed
Alabama NORML
Alabama Solutions
Greater Huntsville Democrats
Green Party of Madison County
Homeless Construction Coalition
Industrial Workers of the World, Huntsville Branch
League of Women Voters of the Tennessee Valley
Libertarian Party of Madison County
Madison County Democratic Executive Committee
NAACP of Huntsville & Madison County
NAACP of UAH
North Alabama Peace Network
North Alabama School for Organizers
Showing Up For Racial Justice (SURJ) Huntsville
Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Huntsville, AL
Tennessee Valley Progressive Alliance
UAH College Democrats
UAH Young Democratic Socialists of America
United Women of Color
Young Patriots Organization

References

[1] Alabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice, Southern Poverty Law Center,
“Alabama’s War on Marijuana: Assessing the Fiscal and Human Toll of Criminalization,”
2018. https://www.alabamaappleseed.org/waronmarijuana/
[2] Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Behavior
Health Statistics and Quality, “Results From The 2016 National Survey on Drug Use
and Health: Detailed Tables,” September 7, 2017.
https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/NSDUH-DetTabs-2016/NSDUH-
DetTabs-2016.pdf
[3] Montgomery Advertiser, “Justice delayed: Forensic scientists face crushing backlog
that clogs judicial system,” June 8, 2018.
https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/local/solutions-
journalism/2018/06/08/justice-delayed-forensic-scientists-face-crushing-backlog-clogs-
judicial-system/657299002/
[4] Gallup, “U.S. Support for Legal Marijuana Steady in Past Year,” October 23, 2019.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/267698/support-legal-marijuana-steady-past-year.aspx
[5] CNBC, “Even Jeff Sessions’ home state of Alabama supports legal weed,” January
11, 2018. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/11/jeff-sessions-home-state-of-alabama-
supports-legal-weed-survey-commentary.html
[6] AL.com, “Huntsville area facing labor market crunch, analysis says,” 27 November,
2019. https://www.al.com/news/2019/11/huntsville-area-facing-labor-market-crunch-
analysis-says.html
[7] Pew Research Center, “Two thirds of Americans support marijuana legalization,”
November 14, 2019. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/11/14/americans-
support-marijuana-legalization/
[8] NORML, “NORML Releases Comprehensive Report Summarizing Local
Decriminalization Laws,” June 20, 2018. https://blog.norml.org/2018/06/20/norml-
releases-comprehensive-report-summarizing-local-decriminalization-laws/
[9] Pardons for Progress Initiative website, accessed January 31, 2020.
https://www.birminghamal.gov/pardons