DELAWARE COUNTY, Pa. – Folcroft’s seven member council voted unanimously this week to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.

Two decades in Folcroft and Rey Cavallero says he isn’t afraid of a little change.

“I think it’s a great idea,” he told FOX 29.

It’s an idea that’s now an official ordinance in the small Delaware County town, which makes them the first in the county to do so.

A person caught carrying less than 30 grams of marijuana can face just a $100 fine instead of an arrest.

Council president Joseph Papaleo says it’s controversial but one item he wanted to tackle right away in his first term.

“The laws as they are in the books have the potential to doom a young person or a person of really any age to a life with a criminal record,” he said.

Folcroft Borough Police Chief Bill Bair added, “It may in the long run cost us less as far as court time. Officers going to fingerprint and photograph and all that stuff.”

While the measure has raised concerns about crime and the misbelief  people can “smoke pot freely,” Chief Bair says this is in no way a free pass it gives officers the ability to use their discretion about whether or not to arrest.

“It’s a tool for each officer, they don’t have to do it,” he said.

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