[420 Girl]

Philadelphia district attorney Seth Williams has ordered a major change in the office's drug prosecution policy. The DA says the change will clear some 3,000 to 5,000 cases from municipal court each year.

DA Seth Williams (in file photo) says the charge for possessing very small amounts of marijuana -- less than 30 grams, one or two cigarettes worth of marijuana -- will be a summary offense handled in community court.

He says the penalty would be a fine, maybe community service, and there'd be help available for those charged. But Williams says they are not decriminalizing the crime:

"Not at all and I don't want people to misunderstand this. We are not decriminalizing marijuana. We don't want people to use marijuana. This is just a different way to handle these cases once they come into the system.

This is just a smarter way for us to recognize the cases that we need to give more of a priority to and those that we need to give less of a priority to."

Williams hopes to have the change in place by the end of this month.


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