Pubdate: Sun, 05 Feb 2006
Source: Columbia Daily Tribune (MO)
Copyright: 2006 Columbia Daily Tribune
Contact:  http://www.columbiatribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/91
Note: Prints the street address of LTE writers.
Author: Matthew LeBlanc
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

COMPROMISE ADVANCES POT LAW REVISIONS

A long-awaited amendment to a Columbia marijuana possession ordinance 
would prevent felons and repeat drug offenders from taking advantage 
of the law's lenient sentencing guidelines.

Voters in 2004 approved a law that decriminalized small amounts of 
pot - 35 grams, or 1 1/4 ounces - and reduced the penalty for 
possession to a $250 fine. Violators of the law also do not get a 
criminal record under the ordinance.

A compromise amendment negotiated last year among Boone County 
Prosecuting Attorney Kevin Crane, civil rights attorney Dan Viets and 
the Columbia Police Officers Association leaves those measures in 
place but lists four exemptions to the ordinance:

● Anyone found guilty of a felony in the preceding 10 years.

● Anyone found guilty in a state court of a Class A 
misdemeanor, other than misdemeanor marijuana possession or 
possession of marijuana paraphernalia, within the preceding five years.

● Anyone found guilty in state or municipal court of 
misdemeanor marijuana possession on two or more prior occasions 
during the preceding five years.

● Anyone arrested on misdemeanor marijuana charges who also is 
being held on suspicion of a felony or another misdemeanor offense 
chargeable only in state court.

Voters overwhelmingly approved the original pot law, with nearly 62 
percent of the vote.

After police officers began circulating a petition to bring the issue 
before voters again, Viets, a chief supporter of the ordinance, began 
to meet with Crane to iron out a compromise.

The four exemptions to the ordinance were first suggested in a 
September letter from Viets to Columbia Mayor Darwin Hindman. The 
mayor asked that the proposed changes be added to the city ordinance, 
City Counselor Fred Boeckmann said in a memo to the Columbia City Council.

The amended ordinance will be presented to the council for a first 
reading at its meeting tomorrow. A public hearing on the proposed 
changes will be held Feb. 20.

Viets, who represents the group that helped push for the ordinance, 
the Columbia Alliance for Patients and Education, said Friday that he 
would have liked the law to remain intact but added that he supports 
the amendment.

"It's certainly not what our organization would prefer to see," he 
said. "It's probably not what the police officers association would 
prefer to see. Both sides are supporting the amendment before the council."

Crane said the amendment would ensure that repeat offenders and those 
charged with other crimes won't be able to take advantage of a law 
designed to benefit first-time violators of the drug law.

"It would change the current one-size-fits-all approach to marijuana 
enforcement," he said. "I think everyone's happy with it."
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman