Drug sentencing change clears Assembly, but Brown’s view still unknown
A bill allowing prosecutors to charge drug possession as a misdemeanor rather than a felony cleared its biggest legislative hurdle Wednesday on a close vote in the state Assembly. Its fate will soon be up to Gov. Jerry Brown, whose views remain a mystery.
SB649 by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, won passage on a bare-majority 41-30 vote, with crucial support from two Republicans, Tim Donnelly of Hesperia in San Bernardino County and Rocky Chavez of Carlsbad in San Diego County. Nine Democrats voted no, siding with police groups and district attorneys.
After what figures to be a routine vote in the state Senate to accept Assembly amendments, the measure heads to Brown’s desk.
SB649 would represent the Legislature’s first substantial change to drug sentencing laws in many years. It would change the current law, which makes possession of cocaine, heroin and several other illegal drugs a felony punishable by up to three years in prison, by allowing prosecutors to charge the crime as a misdemeanor carrying a maximum one-year jail sentence.
http://blog.sfgate.com/crime/2013/09/04/drug-sentencing-change-clears-assembly-but-browns-view-still-unknown/