Marijuana
Marijuana Reuters

The Chicago City Council voted Wednesday to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana and will start issuing pot tickets to violators beginning Aug. 4, instead of taking them to jail.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that that the ordinance was approved after a final vote of 43 to 3.

This means that police officers can now hand out tickets to individuals caught in Chicago with up to 15 grams of marijuana.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel made the proposal, and under the plan pot fines can range from $250 to $500. The maximum fine depends on how many offenses an individual had within a 30-day period.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently put forward a bill to decriminalize public pot possession of small amounts of marijuana, but it was shot down by the Senate.

Reports are that more than 50,000 arrests are made yearly in New York for possessing small amounts of marijuana. More than 90 percent of those arrests are made in New York City.

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