Pubdate: Tue, 20 May 2014
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2014 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/IuiAC7IZ
Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: Andy Grimm and Lolly Bowean

CRITICS: COOK COUNTY COPS HOOKED ON POT ARRESTS

Two years after marijuana possession became a ticketable offense,
arresting people with a few grams of pot remains a bad habit for law
enforcement, drug policy researchers said Monday at a Roosevelt
University symposium.

Cook County has the highest rate of marijuana arrests anywhere in the
U.S., according to a study released Monday by Roosevelt's Illinois
Consortium on Drug Policy. In 2013, there were nearly 16,000 arrests
in Chicago for possession of marijuana and only 1,100 tickets issued.

The reasons need more study, but lead researcher Kathleen Kane-Willis
suggested that writing tickets, which requires officers to test or
identify drugs in the field and take them into evidence, is so
cumbersome that officers may opt for the more familiar arrest.

"We have become addicted to arresting people with small amounts of
marijuana," Kane-Willis said. "This is a serious issue that really
impacts people and is hard on them."

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy backed a 2012 marijuana ordinance
adopted with broad support by the Chicago City Council.

"We will continue looking for ways to improve our implementation of
the existing cannabis ordinance, and possibly even improving the
ordinance itself, so our officers can focus on illegal guns and
reducing violent crime," he said in a statement issued Monday.

The Roosevelt study said last year 93 percent of misdemeanor marijuana
offenses in the city were handled with arrests - a ratio of 14 arrests
to every ticket, with most arrests in overwhelmingly minority areas.
However, officials said, to date in 2014 about 86 percent of all
misdemeanor cases include an arrest.  
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