by NORML Posted on February 19, 2025<\/p>\n
Idaho marijuana laws<\/p>\n
Republican lawmakers have approved legislation, HB 7, imposing mandatory minimum fines for those convicted of low-level marijuana possession offenses.<\/p>\n
Senators approved the measure on Tuesday by a 27 to 8 vote. House members had previously approved the bill by a vote of 54 to 14. House Bill 7 now awaits action from Republican Gov. Brad Little, who is a longtime opponent of relaxing marijuana penalties.<\/p>\n
Under the bill, those age 18 or older who possess marijuana will be subject to a mandatory fine of not less than $300.<\/p>\n
NORML voiced opposition to HB 7 in an action alert, arguing that it is overly punitive, inconsistent with voter sentiment, and improperly strips power away from Idaho judges.<\/p>\n
NORML\u2019s Deputy Director Paul Armentano said: \u201cCurrently, judges may use their discretion when determining whether it is appropriate to impose fines upon violators. Passage of this bill removes this discretion and mandates judges to impose a fine of not less than $300, even in instances where they believe that such a punishment is inappropriate. House Bill 7 is mean-spirited and its one-size-fits-all approach is inconsistent with our longstanding principles of justice and fairness.\u201d<\/p>\n
A similar legislative effort failed last year.<\/p>\n
Those convicted of marijuana possession in Idaho also face up to one year in jail. Between 2018 and 2023, state and local police made over 31,000 marijuana-related arrests. Over 94 percent of those arrests were for marijuana possession, not sales. In total, approximately half of all drug-related arrests in Idaho are marijuana-related.<\/p>\n
NORML\u2019s Take Action Center has a prewritten letter opposing HB 7 that can be sent to the Governor\u2019s office. https:\/\/norml.org\/act\/idaho-oppose-mandatory-minimum-fines-for-minor-marijuana-offenders\/ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by NORML Posted on February 19, 2025 Idaho marijuana laws Republican lawmakers have approved legislation, HB 7, imposing mandatory minimum fines for those convicted of low-level marijuana possession offenses. Senators approved the measure on Tuesday by a 27 to 8 vote. House members had previously approved the bill by a vote of 54 to 14. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefreeworldremedy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/arestwed.jpg?fit=612%2C408&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefreeworldremedy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefreeworldremedy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefreeworldremedy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefreeworldremedy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefreeworldremedy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thefreeworldremedy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235,"href":"https:\/\/thefreeworldremedy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions\/235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefreeworldremedy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefreeworldremedy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefreeworldremedy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefreeworldremedy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}