Good Kentucky drug sentencing reform bill on the brink of passage

Published: February 25, 2011

H.B. 463, a wide-ranging drug sentencing reform bill, was drafted by the Task Force on the Penal Code and Controlled Substances Act. It would reduce personal possession of less than eight ounces of marijuana from a Class A misdemeanor, with a penalty of up to a year in jail, to a Class B misdemeanor, with a maximum 45 day jail term, if the judge ordered incarceration at all.

After H.B. 463’s passage in the House, 97-2, a full Senate vote may be coming Monday. Please call your senator today and Monday morning to urge its passage. Also, you can ask your senator to amend the bill to reduce marijuana possession to a violation – like a traffic ticket – without threat of arrest. If Mississippi can do it, so can Kentucky!

The bill would reduce the penalties for several lower level drug offenses and establish presumptive probation for some offenses rather than prison. It is expected to save $147 million over 10 years. This reform is long overdue and will redirect corrections resources to dangerous criminals: 25% of Kentucky’s prison population is serving time for drug-related offenses.