TIME TO DECRIMINALIZE MARIJUANA IN CHICAGO? PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE DrugSense FOCUS Alert #294 Friday, 08 Oct 2004 LATE LAST MONTH, the residents of Chicago were likely surprised to read the thoughts of Sergeant Tom Donegan, a veteran of the streets and someone who has intimate knowledge of how marijuana laws impact the community in the Windy City, America's 3rd largest metropolitan center. In an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Donegan announced his interest in a plan for eliminating criminal court cases against adults found in possession of small amounts of marijuana. Startling statistics about how such cases are routinely handled in Cook County Criminal Court are now public knowledge. Over 7000 people are arrested each year by authorities and charged with possession of marijuana, yet only one percent ever see an actual criminal proceeding. This means that the thousands of man hours used by various police agencies in the Chicagoland area are in fact wasted since not only are the cases not prosecuted, but the enormous cost to taxpayers is likewise cast away with no return benefit to the community. Donegan suggests changing the law so that adults with small amounts of marijuana are issued a municipal citation and have a stiff fine levied against them. The result would be an unclogging of the criminal court docket which must process the voluminous paperwork related to a marijuana criminal arrest regardless of whether a case is actually heard. But the best outcome of such a plan would be the literal millions of dollars in fines generated. When this fresh revenue is combined with the massive savings that will come from no longer having police having to appear in thousands of court hearings on overtime pay rates, the city stands to benefit in a tremendous way financially with no associated increase in risk to overall public safety. The most astonishing aspect of the story was still to come. Unlike the common response given by political leaders to such suggestions from police - which by the way have been increasing steadily over the past decade as cops recognize the failed policies of a criminal Prohibition against casual adult marijuana use - Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has embraced the idea and is encouraging city legislators to consider making such a change as quickly as possible. THIS GROUND BREAKING STORY was picked up on the AP wire and has been printed in newspapers across the United States and Canada in the past two weeks. Please consider writing a letter to as many of these newspapers as possible with your comments of support for the proposed change in Chicago. When such a major city moves away from criminal prohibition and more towards a system of decriminalization, more cities and states are likely to soon follow. To find more recent news items about this story, please click this link: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Chicago Finally, this story is significant enough so that a short letter to the editor of your local newspapers telling what Chicago is doing and recommending the same for your city or state, if appropriate, could possibly be published - without any tie to a specific news item in a targeted newspaper. By using the Area dropdown at this link you may find the contact information for many of your state newspapers: http://www.mapinc.org/media.htm Thanks for your effort and support. It's not what others do it's what YOU do PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID (Letter, email messages, etc.) Please post a copy of your letter or report your action to the sent letter list () if you are subscribed, or by E-mailing a copy directly to if you are not subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others can learn from your efforts and be motivated to follow suit. This is _Very_ Important as it is one very effective way of gauging our impact and effectiveness. Subscribing to the Sent LTE list () will help you to review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing efforts. To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm and/or http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form Here is the version of the story which ran in the Chicago Sun-Times: Newshawk: http://www.illinoisnorml.org Pubdate: Sat, 25 Sep 2004 Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL) Copyright: 2004 The Sun-Times Co. Contact: Website: http://www.suntimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/81 Author: Frank Main, Crime Reporter Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Chicago Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) OFFICIALS TO WEIGH MERITS OF POT FINES On the heels of Mayor Daley's endorsement of a plan to fine people caught with small amounts of marijuana, representatives of the Cook County state's attorney's office and the Chicago Police Department will meet next week about it. Police Sgt. Tom Donegan came up with the proposal out of frustration at seeing his misdemeanor marijuana cases get dismissed over and over. He gave the seven-page proposal to his bosses about two weeks ago. Mayor Daley embraced the idea Tuesday, saying "it's decriminalized now" because most misdemeanor pot cases get tossed out. Donegan estimated fines could raise millions of dollars for city coffers. Of the 7,430 cases prosecuted in city branch courts in 2003 involving less than 2.5 grams of pot, 94 percent were dismissed, Donegan wrote, citing court records. He estimated the department spends $400 on officers' salaries to process one pot arrest. And that does not take into account the costs of the clerk's office to process the paperwork, the sheriff's office to provide security in court, the state's attorney's costs for the prosecutor and the salary of the judge, Donegan said. "We plan to meet with the Chicago Police next week to discuss the pot issue. We are looking into the legality and constitutionality of this," said John Gorman, spokesman for the state's attorney's office. Police spokesman Robert Cargie said "something is wrong" if officers spend two to four hours to process such pot cases and they are regularly tossed out. "Certainly the issue of successful prosecutions will be examined," Cargie said. "There are some obvious problems that need some sort of solution." SAMPLE LETTER PLEASE NOTE: This is a sample letter only. Your own letter should be substantially different so that it will be considered adding to the discussion and not viewed as a SPAM letter writing campaign. Please limit your Word Count to 200 or less for best chance of being published. TO the editors of the (Newspaper Name): The news that Chicago Mayor Richard Daley is endorsing a proposal to end criminal charges against adults found in possession of small amounts of marijuana is ground breaking. Nationwide, police arrest more Americans for simple pot possession than for all violent crimes combined. The resulting pressure on criminal court dockets is enormous. Decriminalizing pot possession would save hundreds of thousands of otherwise law-abiding Americans from being given a lifetime criminal record. It would also save hundreds of thousands of police man-hours which could be more productively used investigating drunk driving, domestic violence, sexual crimes and corporate fraud to name a few other crimes which cause far more damage to our society than does the responsible use of marijuana by American adults. It would behoove the city of (community where this paper is printed) to give similar consideration to what is a more common sense and practical approach to dealing with the tens of millions of Americans who enjoy using marijuana responsibly and do not wish to be labeled as criminal threats to the community. Sincerely, Your name and contact info NOTE: You must include your address and phone number so the editors can verify you are the author of your letter. ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing efforts, Please See: Writer's Resources http://www.mapinc.org/resource/ TO SUBSCRIBE, UNSUBSCRIBE, OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS: Please utilize the following URLs http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm http://www.drugsense.org/unsub.htm We wish to thank all our contributors, editors, Newshawks and letter writing activists. NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. REMINDER: Please help MAP find published news items. Details at http://www.mapinc.org/hawk.htm = Prepared by: Stephen Heath - MAP Media Activism Facilitator = Please help us help reform. Send drug-related news to

Focus Alert Archive