Commentary: Waiting to inhale

CHICAGO, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, a former county prosecutor, may be ready to effectively decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana because of the way the legal system treats the crime.

The idea to ticket and fine individuals caught with a small amount of pot comes from a veteran police sergeant in the South Side Wentworth District who has seen too many marijuana-possession cases simply thrown out of court.

Sgt. Tom Donegan says the city could have raised $5 million last year by fining pot smokers $250 for possession of less than 10 grams of cannabis. The fine would escalate $1,000 for possession of 20 to 30 grams of marijuana.

Daley and Donegan are not marijuana proponents. Both are pragmatists. The chance of a person caught with a small amount of pot going to jail these days is virtually zero.

Court reports show 94 percent of the 6,954 marijuana cases that involved possession of less than 2.5 grams were dismissed, 61 percent of 6,945 cases involving possession of 2.5 grams to 10 grams were thrown out, and 52 percent of 1,261 cases involving 10 to 30 grams were not prosecuted.

Those amounts do not involve drug kingpins, but such dismissal rates at initial hearings make a mockery of the law.

"It's decriminalized now," Daley told the Chicago Sun-Times. "They throw all the cases out. It doesn't mean anything. You just show up to court. Another case goes out. That's all it is. There's nothing there. They don't even show up -- the offenders. It doesn't mean anything."

Chicago Police Supt. Phil Cline, who once headed the department's narcotics unit, calls the high dismissal rate troubling.

Cline is studying Donegan's seven-page report on marijuana-possession cases, which argues ticketing and fining violators actually would punish more people than the current system.

The Fraternal Order of Police, which represents Chicago's finest, opposes decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana. Police officers would lose overtime pay for making court appearances if violators were ticketed instead of arrested.

"It's an issue of moral or societal acceptance whether to do that," FOP President Mark Donahue told the newspaper. "Are we lessening the offense? It may appear to be so by ticketing instead of making physical arrests. It could be sending an improper message to society that we're not taking these offenses as seriously as we have in the past."

Marijuana is not going away, and the typical user has not been the stereotypical "happy hippie" counter-culture type for decades. Marijuana has been used by a wide cross section of society; even a former U.S. Supreme Court nominee and a former U.S. president have admitted experimenting but not inhaling.

Students from the local high school in the university town where I live routinely gather in a secluded area of a park to smoke pot. These are good kids, no long hair or beards.

It was a bit much to see a tall kid in a "Swim Team" jacket smoking pot. It's disappointing when athletes break training, but should the swimmer be hauled off to jail and his or her future possibly ruined?

Someone should tell these kids marijuana can make an exceptional student average, an average student mediocre, and a mediocre student, well, stupid.

There are risks to smoking marijuana, health as well as criminal. Pot smokers probably don't spend a lot of time worrying about the negative impact of the often predatory and violent criminal enterprises that supply their drug of choice.

Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington all have exempted qualified patients from prosecution for medical use of marijuana on a doctor's recommendation. Montana residents will vote on a measure in November that would allow qualified patients to grow marijuana for medicinal purposes. The initiative would also set up a state-run patient registry to issue identification cards to qualified patients.

Alaskans vote on a fall referendum that would decriminalize marijuana for individuals under 21 years of age. Efforts to put a similar initiative before voters that would decriminalize possession of one ounce or less of pot failed in Nevada.

Sixty percent of Detroit voters approved Proposition M last month. It amends the criminal code to permit medicinal use of marijuana under the guidance or supervision of a physician or other licensed health professional. A medical-marijuana act will be on the ballot in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Marijuana possession would be reduced to a $250 fine in Columbia, Mo., if voters approve the Missouri Smart Sentencing Initiative, and medical marijuana would be legal if the Missouri Medical Marijuana Initiative wins approval.

Marijuana initiatives failed to make the ballot in Tallahassee, Fla., and Minneapolis, Minn.

NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, says taxpayers spent $7.5 billion to $10 billion arresting and prosecuting people for marijuana in 1997. Nearly 90 percent of the arrests were for possession. Eighty-four percent of the more than 734,000 people arrested on marijuana charges in 2000 were charged with possession.

Pot smoking is stupid for users and society, but so is abuse of prescription drugs, alcohol and tobacco.

The Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition, which participated in the 15th Boston Freedom marijuana legalization rally on Boston Common Saturday, estimates $120 million is spent annually to enforce possession laws in Massachusetts.

"Marijuana should be legal and taxed and prohibited to children," coalition spokesman Steven Epstein told the Boston Herald. "We spend too much money criminalizing it."

Chicago's chief of police says his goal is keeping officers on the street, and he and the mayor are looking at how other communities handle pot smoking.

Officers in the Village of Darien, a south suburb, have written tickets for marijuana possession since the 1970s. Fines of $75 to $500 are collected in traffic court where violators are required to appear.

Darien officers wrote about 30 tickets for marijuana possession last year. Repeat offenders can be arrested and charged with a misdemeanor.

Chicago currently handles public drinking through the city's administrative hearing system. Would doing that send the wrong message when it comes to marijuana use? Or would it show laws are enforced fairly and proportionately, freeing police and courts to concentrate on hard drugs like heroin, cocaine and crack?

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