Smoke Break

Officials mull the value of minor marijuana busts.

by Doron Taussig

When an enterprising Chicago Police Department sergeant recently decided to crunch some arrest statistics, he found that nearly 94 percent of the 7,000 pinches involving less than 2.5 grams of marijuana there last year were tossed out. What’s more, police officers were being paid overtime to show up in court and watch their cases get dismissed.

That research made it clear that the city's procedures for minor narcotics possession were less than efficient, so Sgt. Thomas Donegan floated the idea that it might make more sense to issue suspects a ticket with a fine between $250 and $1,000 for their joints rather than prosecute them. No big deal, right? Donegan's just one cop. Well, it turns out he got some bigtime support: His boss, Mayor Richard Daley, a former prosecutor, agreed.

"If 99 percent of cases are thrown out and we have police officers going [to court to testify], why?" he said in a statement that's re-energized drug-policy debates across the country. While Daley's comments don't mean anything will change in Chicago -- drug laws are set forth by the state Legislature -- it got us to wondering whether Philadelphia officials might be as, um, enlightened.

Inspector Joe Sullivan, who heads the Philadelphia Police Narcotics Unit, says that the exact percentage of smalltime pot smokers who are prosecuted for their arrests is not available, but his "general sense" is that few are hit with the maximum penalty of up to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine.

"Unless they have a prior history, they are either discharged or put on [a] six-month probationary period," says Sullivan, after which "the entire charge is dropped off their record."

The Police Department and the district attorney try to minimize the number of cops who have to use overtime to appear in court for these cases, but "it happens," Sullivan says.

Sullivan says that changing small marijuana possession from a misdemeanor to a summary offense like disorderly conduct is "an idea that's worth exploring," but he emphasizes a couple of caveats. First, cops would have to retain the authority to arrest someone for minor drug possession, because "through arrests of minor narcotics, we discover people who are wanted for more serious crimes." And second, "we don't want to send the message that marijuana is OK or not damaging." He calls it a public nuisance because "people don't feel comfortable walking by a corner where people are smoking marijuana."

Philly has a similar prosecutorial pattern to Chicago and a top cop who isn't soft on drugs but thinks that a policy change is "worth exploring." If such an initiative got some legs in the state Legislature, would our mayor support it? John Street has two words for you:

"No way."

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