BILL WOULD REDUCE MARIJUANA COURT COSTS

Pot smokers who get caught by the law with less than an ounce of
marijuana would no longer be charged with a misdemeanor crime under a
bill that could come to a vote as early as Monday

Under the provisions of the measure sponsored by state Sen. Bruce
McPherson, possessing less than 28.5 grams of pot would be an
"infraction," rather than a misdemeanor. The maximum $100 fine would
remain the same.

However, far from attempting to scale down marijuana laws, the bill is
aimed at reducing court costs for counties, a McPherson staffer said
last week.

"It's absolutely not a move to liberalize marijuana," said McPherson
press aide Dan Edwards. "Some people might view it that way. It's
really just a clarification of the code."

Under current law, possessing less than an ounce of pot is a
misdemeanor and calls only for a fine, not jail time. So, a defendant
could go to a jury trial but be penalized with only a $100 fine for a
first offense. The bill would make the fine more like a parking ticket.

Santa Cruz County District Attorney Kate Canlis said she supported the
bill not because of trial costs, but because of consistency.

"It just seems to me this makes the actual crime consistent with the
penalty," Canlis said.

Consistency was also part of the reason San Mateo County Superior
Court Judge Quentin Kopp, a former state lawmaker, began urging his
colleagues in the capitol to change the law.

Kopp said people charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana have
the right to a public defender and a jury trial, both of which cost
much more than the maximum fine that could result.

And with last fall's passage of Proposition 36, which mandated
treatment and no jail for first-time drug offenders, the penalties
certainly weren't going to be stiffened.

"I'm trying to create sense out of a contradictory act," Kopp
said.

The bill was approved by a senate committee two weeks ago and is
headed to the floor of the senate for a vote.

As McPherson's bill is debated, a handful of other states are
grappling with marijuana policy. A bill in Nevada would reduce the
penalty for possessing less than an ounce from a felony to a
misdemeanor punishable by a $500 fine. In Arkansas, a bill would
reduce the penalty for possessing less than an ounce from a
misdemeanor to a non-criminal infraction.

Paul Armentano of the Washington, D.C.-based National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana Laws said there was much debate in the 1970s
about easing pot laws, such as those that now exists in California.

The anti-drug fervor of the 1980s silenced most of those
discussions.

"Now it appears we're actually going back to that debate," Armentano
said.

That is something that NORML applauds.

However, some anti-drug groups say the change, even though the
penalties stay the same, sends the wrong message.

"Certainly, it is conveying a message of acceptance," said Mike
Newell, a research specialist with Communities Against Substance Abuse
in San Diego.