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Regardless of what you think of guns or the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, a new federal order barring users from possessing firearms is illogical and ridiculous, essentially treating law-abiding patients as though they were convicted drug dealers.

What are they smoking at the U.S. Department of Justice?

To be sure, the right to own guns is not absolute. Federal law, for example, already prohibits any one of the millions of Americans convicted of a felony from possessing any firearms or even ammunition.

But that restriction — while excessive — is at least comprehensible, assuming past behavior can indicate future actions.

By contrast, there is no rational argument linking gun ownership and licensed marijuana use. Such use means only that a patient is suffering and a doctor has deemed the use of the drug useful in relieving that suffering. It would make as much sense as banning people who take prescription painkillers, alcohol or, for that matter, cough syrup from possessing guns.

At least 16 states, including Michigan, have passed laws legalizing marijuana for certain medical conditions. Many users own guns for a variety of lawful purposes, including collecting, recreational target shooting, personal protection and hunting.

Arguments by federal officials that medical-marijuana users fall under nationwide rules against gun ownership by drug abusers are absurd.

Yes, marijuana can be abused — but so can any drug, including legal and prescription drugs. The mere fact that people use a medically prescribed drug does not mean they abuse it.

The new federal order appears to contradict previous signals from the Obama administration that it would not pursue individual medical marijuana users obeying state laws. It also puts an added burden on gun dealers to police their customers.

No one, of course, should handle guns or ammunition under the influence of marijuana. But that’s equally true of alcohol and many prescription drugs — none of which the federal government links to rights of gun ownership or possession.

The ban on gun possession by medical-marijuana patients nationwide came in a directive sent Sept. 21 to state and county prosecutors from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. It states that anyone using marijuana, even in a state that has passed legislation authorizing its use for medicinal purposes, cannot lawfully possess firearms or ammunition.

This is a clear but errant shot by federal officials, aimed at eroding state medical marijuana laws. Unfortunately, it follows a host of other state restrictions, in place or looming, for Michiganders carrying state-issued cards to use cannabis for health reasons.

Opponents of medical-marijuana laws ought to argue their case on the merits, not issue nonsensical orders that do little but undermine the public’s respect for the law.

By CAROL HOPKINS and KEVIN DOBY
Of The Oakland Press

Click to enlarge

News that an Oakland County Narcotics Enforcement Team raided a Commerce Township medical marijuana facility Wednesday has defense attorney Neil Rockind boiling mad.

“Law enforcement does the damndest things and they keep doing it,” said Rockind.

“I’m beyond outraged,” said Rockind, whose client owns the facility on Welch Road.

“I’m sick of the way police are treating caregivers and patients and I’m tired of how police are stepping on the law.”

Rockind did not name his client.

The raid, which started after 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, was at a co-op grow operation, according to Major Robert Smith of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.

“We are investigating whether they were in violation of the state’s medical marijuana statute,” Smith said. “At this time no arrests have been made and no charges have been filed.

Smith said that the officers took 500 marijuana plants from the building.

Rick Thompson, editor of Oak Park-based Michigan Medical Marijuana Magazine, said he spoke with eyewitnesses who said officers had been on the scene since midnight.

“They cleaned the place out,” he said.

Rockind compared the facility to an apartment building where each tenant has his own lock and entrance.

He said there were two buildings with 17 rooms each. The rooms were locked facilities where patients and caregivers grew plants.

“They weren’t drying, curing, sharing or using marijuana there,” he said. “This was not a collective grow. It was where they kept plants.”

Large signs were posted throughout saying, “Restricted Area, Do not enter under penalty of law.”

“Only the (tenant) had access using a code,” he said.

Colin Daniels, an attorney with Rockind’s firm, was present during the raid.

“People are calling here today asking, ‘How am I going to get my medicine,’” said Daniels. Michigan voters approved the Medical Marijuana Act in 2008.

Rockind said the people who used the facility thought they were doing it the “right way” instead of growing marijuana in homes or basements.

Rockind said he will take the matter to court but said because the case was so new, he did not have details.

“I’m putting police on notice that this has got to stop,” he said.

Contact staff writer Carol Hopkins at 248-745-4645 or carol.hopkins@oakpress.com. Follow her on Twitter @waterfordreport.

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BY JOE SWICKARD

DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Filed Under
Local News
Michigan
Medical Marijuana

Related Links
Pot grower supply businesses to get a boost from court decision
Editorial: Focus on fixing pot law, not shutting dispensaries
Michigan medical marijuana sellers close up shop after ruling
Michigan appeals court says medical marijuana can’t be sold at dispensaries
Appeals Court ruling

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In a second major medical marijuana decision this month, the Michigan Court of Appeals said that users must have their state-issued identification cards before they can legally grow their own drugs.

With their ruling in a Montmorency County case, appellate judges upheld a Circuit Court decision that Brian Bebout Reed could be tried for manufacture of marijuana even though he’d gotten his user’s card.

According to court records, Reed, who had chronic back problems from a degenerative disc disease, was trying to find a doctor to approve marijuana use in August 2009 when a narcotics team spotted six plants growing on his property.

Later that month, he got a doctor’s certification and received his user’s card in October. Ten days after he got his card, he was arrested for growing the marijuana.

He argued the charges should be dismissed because he’d become a registered user before his arrest.

The appellate court rejected that position: “It would qualify as absurd if it were possible to assert the …affirmative defense by obtaining a physician’s statement after the crime has been committed but before an arrest has been made.”

Without the card at the time of the alleged crime, there is no immunity “from arrest, prosecution, or penalty,” the court said.

Last week, the appellate court outlawed retail sales at marijuana dispensaries. In that case, the court ruled that a dispensary’s business model of charging clients a fee to store marijuana that could be sold to any registered patient was illegal.

BY MEGHA SATYANARAYANA AND CECIL ANGEL

DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
Filed Under
Local News
Michigan
Medical Marijuana
Ann Arbor
Taylor

Related Links
Brian Dickerson: Don’t hold your breath for a medical marijuana law that makes sense
Could court ruling be the end of medicinal pot shops in Michigan?

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The day after the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that medical marijuana dispensaries can be considered a public nuisance and could be shut down, two facilities in Ann Arbor have been raided and facilities all over the state have closed, including the Mt. Pleasant dispensary at the center of the turmoil.

Compassionate Apothecary co-owner Matthew Taylor said a cease-and-desist letter by the Isabella County Prosecutor’s Office has forced their doors shut, pushing them toward filing their case with the Michigan Supreme Court.

Under the Court of Appeals ruling, patient-to-patient sales, as happens at some dispensaries, has been deemed not part of the original legislation passed by voters in 2008. He said his facility cannot sell marijuana, which it does on behalf of caregivers who store their excess marijuana in lockers on their premises, and who pay the apothecary a service charge.

“Really, our doors are just open today for political purposes,” said Taylor, who added that “patients are scared, panicking and crying.”

Matt Newburg, a Lansing attorney who will be spearheading the Supreme Court effort, said Lansing dispensaries have also been closed. He is advising his clients to shutter “until the Supreme Court issues a different opinion or there is new legislation.”

In Oak Park, Big Daddy’s Management, which owns five dispensaries in metro Detroit, closed at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, when the appeals ruling was handed down. Rick Ferris, head of the Michigan Association of Compassion Centers, said patients in Big Daddy’s Chesterfield Township facility were crowding their lobby, wondering what to do.

“I have a building full of patients today,” he said.

At the A2 Go Green Corp, at 206 Main in downtown Ann Arbor, nearby business owners said the raid took place at about 10:20 a.m., shortly after the place opened.

Nearby merchants said they did not see any one being arrested but did see police carrying out boxes.

“I saw cops carrying out big boxes of stuff,” said David Fritz, of David Fritz hair care next door to the dispensary, which is located over Café Felix.

John Shultz of John Shultz Photography is also on the second floor of the building.

Both men said the marijuana outlet did a brisk business and they would often see customers carrying out brown bags. Fritz said one of the owners told him that the average customer purchases about $150 worth of marijuana.

“It’s going to be a lot quieter.” Fritz said. He added that the owners of the business were nice tenants. He said they could often smell raw marijuana in the building.

The dispensary takes up at least three suites on the floor. One of the suites housed a doctor who was connected to the dispensary.

There’s a handmade sign on the door that read “We are temporarily closed!! Sorry for any inconvenience.”

Charles Ream, president of A2r Compassionate Health Care MedMar at 1818 Packard, said three of his employees were arrested in the raid that occurred about 10:30 a.m. He said he saw two Ann Arbor police cars by the time he got to the building. Ream said law enforcement agents wore masks during the raid.

He said agents from law enforcement agencies took nearly every thing out of his business except for a large jar of coins and six cannabis cupcakes.

He and an executive assistant were spared from being arrested because the raid took place before they got to work.

He said they have five attorneys working with his employees to try to gain their release.

Ream said he will now try to get the state law changed to allow for a local option, so if local communities want to have an ordinance allowing for dispensaries, then they can do so.

Aug 26, 2011 |
Comments

Ann Arbor residents Jaymz Edmonds, left, and TJ Rice protest outside the OM of Medicine marijuana dispensary Thursday in Ann Arbor after a police raid of the nearby A2 Go Green dispensary. / MELANIE MAXWELL/Associated Press

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BY CECIL ANGEL, MEGHA SATYANARAYANA, JOHN WISELY, DAWSON BELL AND BILL LAITNER

DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
Filed Under
Local News
Michigan
Medical Marijuana
Bill Schuette
Mackinac Island

What’s next

• The owners of a Mt. Pleasant dispensary say they will appeal a ruling effectively putting all marijuana retail dispensaries out of business.

• Attorney General Bill Schuette will appeal to county prosecutors this weekend to use nuisance laws to shut down dispensaries.

• The roughly 100,000 certified medical marijuana users apparently can still purchase marijuana from their regulated caregivers — if there’s any supply.

• Bills are expected to be introduced this fall in the Legislature to clarify the law.

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Thursday was a bad day to be among Michigan’s nearly 100,000 medical marijuana patients and down to a last joint.

Many marijuana dispensaries closed their shops to pot sales, on lawyers’ advice, following a court of appeals ruling.

“It would be dangerous to operate with the specter of a criminal case hanging over our head,” said John Lewis, lawyer for Compassionate Apothecary in Mt. Pleasant, the center of the marijuana maelstrom.

On Tuesday, a unanimous panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that the dispensary’s business model of charging clients a fee to store marijuana that could be sold to any registered patient was illegal. The ruling was a blow to the burgeoning medical marijuana business and its patients.

Richard Celmer, 46, of Chesterfield Township went without marijuana to ease pain from his stomach cancer Thursday because the Big Daddy’s dispensary in the township stopped selling medical marijuana Wednesday.

Celmer uses the dispensary when his regular caregiver can’t meet his needs. “When I do need medicine, this is where I come,” he said.

Raids, closings leave medical marijuana patients in a bind

Four pounds of dried marijuana, cookies, cupcakes and other pot-bearing confections were loaded into a black SUV while employees and an owner of the MedMar A2 Compassionate Health Care dispensary were led away in handcuffs Thursday.

“We didn’t get a letter — we got a bunch of agents. They came in here and stripped everything,” said Chuck Ream, president of the marijuana dispensary that was targeted in a police raid after a far-reaching court ruling late Tuesday against Michigan’s burgeoning medical marijuana business.

He said about 750 patients who come to his business for their marijuana are now without medicine.

“Everyone who gets sick doesn’t have an old hippie to grow marijuana,” he said.

Around Michigan, county prosecutors and dispensaries responded to the ruling and the warnings from Attorney General Bill Schuette that law enforcement would be pursuing medical marijuana dispensaries. Many of the nascent businesses shut down marijuana sales as a precaution.

“I have a building full of patients today,” said Rick Ferris, president of the Michigan Association of Compassionate Centers, referring to Big Daddy’s in Chesterfield Township, where people can buy paraphernalia and growing materials, but not marijuana itself. “My business is open, except in that regard.”

The company has five dispensaries in southeast Michigan.

Others decided their business model would stand the legal test, including 3rd Coast Compassion Center in Ypsilanti. Owner Jamie Lowell runs his center as a nonprofit, fee-based membership club that relies on donations.

“We’re still trying to digest the implications of this ruling. We’re not convinced that it completely eliminates dispensaries,” he said.

Schuette will speak to prosecutors about the decision this weekend on Mackinac Island, said spokeswoman Joy Yearout. His focus will be how to prosecute offenders using a nuisance-abatement clause.

But in Isabella County, prosecutor Larry Burdick made his intentions clear, said Brandon McQueen, co-owner of Compassionate Apothecary.

“You must immediately cease such operations,” said McQueen, reading from a letter Burdick’s office sent Wednesday to at least six dispensaries.

The case that led to the appellate court ruling began at the Mt. Pleasant dispensary. The circuit court ruled that the operation didn’t violate the law voters overwhelmingly approved in 2008.

Co-owner Matthew Taylor said the store stopped selling marijuana. He and McQueen are preparing an appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court.

Matthew Newburg, who will represent them, said he counseled Lansing-area clients to close up “until the Supreme Court issues a different opinion or there is new legislation.” Along Michigan Avenue in Lansing on Wednesday, many dispensaries were closed, the Lansing State Journal said.

Clarifications to the 2008 medical marijuana law will be submitted in the fall legislative session.

Jessica Cooper, the Oakland County prosecutor, said she didn’t know of any dispensaries open in the county. Detroit police steered clear of raids, and Kym Worthy, the Wayne County prosecutor, issued no cease-and-desist letters, spokeswoman Maria Miller said. Eric Smith, Macomb County’s prosecutor, did not return calls seeking comment.

In other counties, prosecutors said they would wait to see which dispensaries stayed open and which ones police identified as troublesome.

Chris Becker, assistant prosecutor in Kent County, said he was hopeful dispensaries would close on their own. Alan Schneider, Grand Traverse County prosecutor, said he would wait to hear from police.

But where card-carrying patients who rely on dispensaries will get their medical marijuana is unclear.

“No dear, we have been completely raided today,” Donna Paridee told a caller seeking marijuana Thursday at MedMar A2 Compassionate Health Care.

New legislation to be introduced in the fall
08/11/2011 | Mark Huffman | ConsumerAffairs.com

State officials in Michigan who believe the state’s medical marijuana law is being abused have revealed their strategy for revising the statute.

Miichigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, members of state and local law enforcement, prosecutors, representatives of the medical community and some members of the legislature have proposed a legislative package, including new laws to ensure safety on the roads and hold accountable criminals who abuse the state medical marijuana certification process.

Michigan is one of several states that has a law allowing marijuana to be prescribed for some medical uses, but Schuette maintains the law is so poorly written that it is being abused.

“This law has been hijacked by pot profiteers who threaten public safety on the roads and in our communities,” said Schuette.

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At a media event this week to announce details for the proposed legislation, Schuette introduced two Republican and one Democrat lawmakers who support the measure, along with Dr. Steven E. Newman, President of the Michigan State Medical Society, and various police officers.

Two laws at odds

Schuette noted confusing inconsistencies between the Michigan Motor Vehicle Code and the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act must be eliminated to preserve safety on Michigan roadways. A longstanding safety provision in the Michigan Motor Vehicle Code prohibits driving with any amount of marijuana in your system.

In contrast, the medical marijuana law prohibits only driving “under the influence of marijuana,” a term which Schuette says is not defined in state law or by uniform scientific standards, and creates a different standard for medical marijuana users. This inconsistency, he says, has created confusion for law enforcement, and is currently under review by the Michigan Court of Appeals in the case, People v. Koon.

Schuette cited statistics recently released by the Michigan State Police which indicate that marijuana-related fatalities remain the most common drug-related automobile fatality, and that such fatalities are on the rise in Michigan.

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“Driving with marijuana in your system is unsafe and jeopardizes the safety of our roadways,” said Schuette. “If you take drugs, don’t take the wheel.”

More tools for prosecutors

Schuette also proposed legislative reforms to the Penal Code that will give prosecutors and law enforcement the tools they need to crack down on criminals who exploit the loopholes of the medical marijuana law.

Schuette has proposed the creation of new crimes to crack down on criminal abuse of the medical marijuana certification system:
•Make it a felony for physicians to knowingly falsely certify a debilitating medical condition for patients seeking to use medical marijuana;
•Make it a felony to knowingly submit false information on an application for a patient or caregiver card;
•Make it a felony to knowingly alter a patient or caregiver card;
•Make it a felony to knowingly possess another person’s card or to transfer or allow a person to use another person’s card;
•Prohibit felons from being caregivers (Currently only those convicted of drug-related felonies are prohibited); and
•Make it a misdemeanor for a patient or caregiver to fail to report a lost or stolen card within seven days.

Schuette says the proposed regulation would also strengthen the hand of law enforcement, limit criminal access to medical marijuana, empower local communities to regulate marijuana facilities, ensure high standards for patient care, and avoid confusion and excessive litigation regarding insurance claims and coverage for medical marijuana users.

Schuette said he expects the bills to be introduced and considered by the legislature in the fall.

The state on Tuesday appealed to the Montana Supreme Court a judge’s ruling that blocked tough new restrictions on medical marijuana in Montana, and will argue there’s no constitutional right to sell the drug for a profit.

The state Justice Department will ask the high court to overturn portions of Helena District Judge James Reynolds’ June 30 decision, which stopped enforcement of several provisions of a new law passed by the 2011 Legislature to crack down on Montana’s burgeoning medical marijuana industry.

The Legislature passed the law in reaction to an exploding number of medical marijuana patients and businesses in Montana during the past two years, as the number of patients grew from a few thousand to more than 30,000 earlier this year.

The law made it illegal for suppliers or “providers” of the drug to charge medical marijuana patients for the product, limited each provider to three patients apiece, and made it more difficult for patients to get a physician’s approval to use medical marijuana.

The Montana Cannabis Industry Association is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit filed this spring before the law took effect, challenging its constitutionality.

Judge Reynolds blocked the ban on charging for marijuana and the limit on patients per provider, saying the Legislature had made it as difficult as possible for people “to obtain this legally authorized product” and interfered with Montanans’ “fundamental right of seeking their health in a lawful manner.”

Jim Molloy, the assistant attorney general leading the defense of the law, said the state is concerned about the implications of Reynolds’ ruling that seemed to say the state constitution “protects the rights to sell marijuana for a profit.”

“We believe it’s necessary to have the Supreme Court determine the proper constitutional standards to be applied before the case moves forward to a full trial,” Molloy said Tuesday.

Reynolds ruling in June did not throw out the entire law, and only blocked certain provisions from taking effect until he could hold a trial on the law’s constitutionality.

Any trial now will be delayed until the state Supreme Court rules on the appeal — a ruling that probably won’t occur until next year.

Reynolds’ ruling that blocks portions of the law remains in effect while the Supreme Court considers the appeals — as do the parts of the law that Reynolds let stand.

Tuesday’s appeal notice by the state did not detail what parts of the Reynolds ruling the state will challenge, or on what grounds. The state’s first written arguments on the appeal likely won’t be filed until October.

Also Tuesday, Jim Goetz, a Bozeman attorney representing the Montana Cannabis Industry Association, said he’ll be asking the Supreme Court to overturn portions of Reynolds’ ruling that upheld portions of the law that the industry and users say are unconstitutional.

“In general, we (were) pretty pleased with (Reynolds’) ruling, but as long as the state is going to appeal, we might as well tee up these other issues,” he said.

The other issues include the law’s blanket prohibition of medical marijuana for anyone on criminal probation and tighter definitions of a physician’s “standard of care” when approving a patient for medical-marijuana use, Goetz said.

Goetz said he believes that Reynolds’ ruling on the “core issue” of access to medical marijuana will be upheld.

“We have a situation with the Legislature saying, on the one hand, you can have access to medical marijuana for qualifying patients, but on the other hand, they provide no reasonable access to it, with the severe restrictions on sale,” he said.

“That’s nonsense, and that’s what Judge Reynolds found unconstitutional, and I think the Supreme Court will, too.”

Since the law took effect July 1, the number of Montanans with medical-marijuana cards has dropped from about 30,000 on June 30 to 27,335 on July 31. About 300 providers have registered or have applied for registration, state health officials said Tuesday.

The medical marijuana industry and its supporters also have mounted a petition drive to suspend the new law and put it to a public vote in November 2012. They have until Sept. 30 to gather the more than 24,000 signatures needed to place the measure on the November 2012 ballot. More signatures are needed to suspend it.

Source: Billings Gazette, The (MT)
Author: Mike Dennison of Gazette State Bureau
Published: August 9, 2011
Copyright: 2011 The Billings Gazette
Contact: speakup@billingsgazette.com
Website: http://www.billingsgazette.com/

Michigan’s medical marijuana law has been abused, exploited and hijacked by pot profiteers, said state Attorney General Bill Schuette in pushing a package of bills that will close loopholes in the law that was intended to provide pot to people with terminal, debilitating and chronic diseases.

“The law has been hijacked by drug dealers who want to make money, line their pockets and make a huge profit,” Schuette said at a news conference this morning where he was flanked by lawmakers, police, prosecutors and doctors. “This law has as many holes as Swiss cheese. It’s out of control and we need to fix it.”

Legislators plan to introduce a package of eight bills in the fall that would: prohibit felons from becoming certified caregivers or people from getting medical marijuana certificates on line; strengthen the doctor-patient relationship in terms of giving out and receiving certificates; regulate the placement of medical marijuana dispensaries, prohibit driving under the influence of any amount of marijuana and clarify the definition of a debilitating medical condition that would allow a person to get a medical marijuana certificate.

“We have a goal of protecting public safety while preserving the legitimate right of people who need medical marijuana,” said state Rep. John Walsh, R-Livonia.

State Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, said he’d also like to see a simple saliva test developed, similar to a portable breathalyzer test, that would immediately show if a person is under the influence of pot.

Dr. Steven Newman, president of the Michigan State Medical Society, said the law passed in 2008 is poorly worded and has led to confusion for both patients and physicians.

“What we’re most interested in is getting a bona fide physician-patient relationship that we can define,” Newman said.

And while the package of bills doesn’t specifically address the legality of pot dispensaries, Schuette has argued to the court of appeals that the law doesn’t allow for dispensaries and that they should be outlawed.

Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)
Author: Kathleen Gray, Detroit Free Press Staff Writer
Published: August 10, 2011
Copyright: 2011 Detroit Free Press
Website: http://www.freep.com/
Contact: letters@freepress.com

Well, it’s coming on harvest time again for an agricultural commodity that’s definitely not promoted by the provincial agricultural department’s “Select Nova Scotia” campaign.

And that means police in Nova Scotia will be again using a helicopter to scour the province’s forests and fields in search of the one-to two-metre tall deep-green plants with the distinctive leaves composed of seven jagged fingers.

The province’s cops are also encouraging the public to call in if they stumble across a marijuana grow-op during their late-summer ramblings.

“Community safety is everyone’s responsibility and outdoor marijuana grow operations pose a danger to public health and safety,” said RCMP Sgt. Keith MacKinnon in a recent release.

Grow-ops can be dangerous, say the RCMP, because they can be booby-trapped and they’re often associated with organized crime. The catch-22 is that they’re booby-trapped and tied up with organized crime because growing marijuana is a criminal act unless one runs a sanctioned medical marijuana growing operation.

Marijuana possession of a couple of grams, on the other hand, is much murkier from a police officer’s perspective. For instance, in July, the Chronicle Herald ran a story about a Yarmouth driver who admitted to RCMP that he had smoked a joint while waiting to get through a traffic checkpoint. He could have been charged, but the Mounties decided to let him go after seizing the small amount of pot he had in his possession.

Police tend not to charge people found to be in possession of small amounts of marijuana because the onslaught of charges would gum up the court system. But they can’t turn a blind eye to grow-ops because, as they say, they’re potentially dangerous.

The only trouble is, not charging someone for possessing something that is illegal to produce is not only hypocritical, it’s illogical. The government’s position on marijuana is untenable. One option is to charge anyone caught growing, selling or possessing any amount of pot. Another option is to decriminalize and regulate the stuff as recommended by a Senate report back in 2002.

The latter option makes just as much sense today as it did nine years ago. Marijuana is not innocuous and its recreational use shouldn’t be encouraged by government. But, it is generally less harmful than alcohol and about 14 per cent of Canadians use it.

And, whether we like it or not, marijuana has become an ingrained component of Canadian culture. That’s been made clear by no less than Rita MacNeil.

Pubdate: Tue, 09 Aug 2011
Source: Cape Breton Post (CN NS)
Copyright: 2011 Cape Breton Post
Contact: letters@cbpost.com
Website: http://www.capebretonpost.com/

In a potential shift in attitude, Chicago police may begin issuing citations to people caught with small amounts of marijuana instead of booking them and locking them up, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said Saturday.

The superintendent’s remarks came after Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle highlighted last week how people arrested for possessing small quantities of drugs often clog up the system, only to have their cases later dismissed by judges.

McCarthy said he talked about the issue with Mayor Rahm Emanuel as far back as May. He insisted police will continue to arrest people for marijuana offenses, but said the arrestees might get a citation or a court summons, rather than being booked.

“We will continue to make arrests for illegal behavior, whether it’s public urination or whether it’s carrying a firearm. It’s really that simple,” McCarthy said after joining Emanuel and Ald. Deborah Graham, 29th, at an anti-violence march in the Austin neighborhood. “We’re looking at different arrest processing, not not making the arrests.”

Police officials are at this point considering changing only the marijuana policy, according to McCarthy. “It’s not cooked yet,” he said. “I think that people are going to see some changes down the road.”

In any case, people caught with marijuana whom police suspect of more serious crimes or who have outstanding arrest warrants will continue to be processed, McCarthy said.

“If somebody’s not properly identified, they can’t receive a summons, and if they have a warrant, they can’t receive a summons,” the superintendent said. “So we want to make sure we’re getting the right people. You don’t want to get the wrong people and put them in the system.”

McCarthy said he can’t concern himself with whether judges tend to dismiss petty drug cases. But he wants officers to be able to handle such infractions expeditiously.

“My problem is figuring out the best way to get those things prosecuted in an efficient manner so that I can turn my cops back around and get them back on the street quickly,” he said.

Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Author: John Byrne, Tribune Reporter
Published: July 31, 2011
Copyright: 2011 Chicago Tribune Company
Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/