A new marijuana ordinance passed by the city council Tuesday will take a load off the State’s Attorneys’ Office, a load state’s attorneys say was never there.

The ordinance now states being caught with 2.5 grams of marijuana or less is a city violation and can be prosecuted by the city, but no longer will go on a person’s record. Originally, the offense was a misdemeanor.

One of the main reasons the ordinance was created was to relieve the State’s Attorneys’ Office of the petty marijuana cases like those of 2.5 grams or less. The state’s attorneys were not prosecuting each case because of their heavy workload, said Mayor Dan Cougill.

However, Assistant State’s Attorney Duane Deters, who prosecuted those same cases up until 18 months ago, said there was never an abundance of the petty marijuana offenses.

“They’re not time-consuming,” he said Wednesday. “I don’t think we were ever overwhelmed.”

Cougill contended the new ordinance will allow the city attorney more time to prosecute each case instead of prosecuting cases according to how much time they have. In some cases, he said, people have never gone to court for their citation.

Another issue surrounding the new ordinance is that the citation will no longer be put on a person’s record. The citation will still be prosecuted by the city in court and carry a $250 fine; however, it will not go on the record, something Cougill does not think will decrease the number of marijuana citations.

Although he admitted there will be some people who think there is less consequence for their actions by carrying 2.5 grams of marijuana or less, Cougill said through the ordinance more people will be prosecuted and in effect more people will feel the sting of the law.

So the issue of the marijuana ordinance is two-sided, while people won’t see the citation on their record forever, they will definitely get prosecuted as opposed to letting the state’s attorney’s office handle it. The cases will be dealt with fairly, Cougill said, instead of people getting prosecuted and fined according to the State’s Attorney’s workload.

Furthermore, Cougill said the State’s Attorney’s office will still prosecute cases of multiple offenders so people will think twice about getting a second violation.

Although Cougill denies the ordinance was passed as a source of revenue, the city will receive the $250 fine that will go into the general revenue funds.

“We do not look at any kind of fine receipts as a source of revenue,” he said. “I think you’re crazy if you depend on that for revenue.”

In fact, Cougill said if the city passed the ordinance to produce revenue from fines, it would not continue to give warnings instead of citations.

“If it was (a source of revenue), we’d quit giving out warnings,” he said.