Alabama asset forfeiture bill went from broad reforms to ‘best we can do’
Updated 10:51 AM;
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As he has for each of the past three years, Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur introduced a bill at the start of this legislative session aimed at reining in civil asset forfeiture.
Unlike his previous attempts, the legislation appears posed to finally be approved this year, but only after extensive negotiations with law enforcement and other lawmakers that stripped major reforms out of the bill, allowing police to continue seizing cash and property from many people who have not been convicted of crimes.
“The bill is certainly not all we wanted, but it’s the best we could get through in the current environment,” Orr, a longtime critic of asset forfeiture, said via phone Tuesday evening. “I wish I could say this was game, set, match, but I can’t say that. But it’s the best we can do given the circumstances.”
Alabama district attorneys make bad faith argument on medical marijuana
Updated May 03, 2021;
This is an opinion column.
The Compassion Act (SB 46) is one vote away from passage in the Alabama legislature. Introduced by Sen. Tim Melson (R-Florence), a physician and medical researcher by trade, the bill would legalize the heavily regulated use of medical cannabis for specific conditions.
Last week, a group of district attorneys (not the Alabama District Attorneys Association, to be clear) from around the state wrote a letter to members of the House urging them to vote no on the bill.
I was profoundly disappointed when I read the letter. Not because some are opposed to any legalization of a substance we’ve only known in the context of illegal, recreational use. People can disagree in good faith about the calculus of risk versus reward on issues like these. What shocked me was that a group of prosecutors people we depend on to operate with the utmost integrity would publicly mis
A group of district attorneys sent a letter to Alabama House members Wednesday, asking them to reject a medical marijuana bill ahead of an expected vote in the chamber.
The letter, signed by 23 of the state’s 42 district attorneys, calls marijuana a “gateway drug” and suggests that its use could increase the risk of developing schizophrenia, a link that most researchers have been hesitant to make.
“Marijuana is a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” the letter says. “Too many in the general public have been convinced that it is harmless. That is, perhaps, the biggest lie that is being perpetrated on the Alabama public today.”
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