Pubdate: Tue, 10 Mar 2009
Source: Courier News (Elgin, IL)
Column: Town Talk
Copyright: 2009 The Courier News
Contact:  http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/couriernews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1200
Author: David Gialanella
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?420 (Cannabis - Popular)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)

BACKING OFF ON CRIMINALIZATION

Maybe the story got a little too much play in the newspaper.

Kane County State's Attorney John Barsanti -- along with Sheriff Pat 
Perez and many, many others -- constantly have been trying to make 
room in the county jail.

That Barsanti would push to hire a full-time attorney devoted to 
identifying low-risk inmates for bond reductions shouldn't have come 
as such a big surprise. The move makes good sense, and I applaud him 
for making it. Don't worry folks -- he's still the law-and-order guy 
you elected.

Officials have become very creative in trying to find ways to 
depopulate the Kane County Adult Corrections Center, adjacent to the 
Kane County Judicial Center on Route 38 in St. Charles Township. As 
we all know, excess inmates spill over to lockups in other counties, 
costing Kane a fortune for housing and transportation costs.

It would be a move that happened above the heads of Barsanti and 
County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay, but what if lawmakers got 
really creative?

Many of these almost-no-risk inmates are those who get arrested for 
minor drug offenses. I won't be the billionth person this week alone 
to make the argument for the general legalization of illicit drugs. 
There are plenty of folks doing that already -- including many 
libertarians -- and I'm not sure if I agree with them.

But what of marijuana? Is it virtually harmless, as pro-legalization 
groups argue?

I don't know, but I will make this argument for (probably) the 
billionth time: Read the police reports in St. Charles, Elgin or 
another burg, and you'll notice drunks do a heck of a job starting 
fights and otherwise causing trouble in area taverns. Folks who get 
caught with a little pot? They usually get pinched while doing 
something else illegal, it seems.

Point is, one way to empty out that jail right quick is for some 
legislative body, somewhere, to take a big roll of the dice and 
decriminalize only marijuana.

Calm down, now. I'm not saying that doing so is a good or a bad idea. 
I'm not so sure I want folks walking around the town where I live 
completely stoned. But bopping around St. Charles or Geneva on a 
Friday or Saturday evening, I see plenty of folks who obviously have 
hit the bottle with a little too much determination. The way I figure 
it, they pose a greater risk to my little slice of the Fox Valley.

Again, before you start sending me e-mails, I won't argue for 
legalization. But I think we owe it to ourselves to consider whether 
we have criminalized marijuana because it poses a real, tangible 
danger to our communities, or because culturally it offends us. We 
might decide the money we'd save in the criminal justice system makes 
the option worth exploring.

As I said, we sure could empty out the jail that way.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom