WHITE RESPONDS TO MARIJUANA IDEAS

County Attorney: Reducing Penalties Would Send Wrong Message

Johnson County Attorney J. Patrick White said Thursday reducing
penalties for marijuana would send people the wrong message.

His comments were in response to two of county Sheriff Lonny
Pulkrabek's recommendations to a legislative sentencing reform panel
Wednesday. Pulkrabek suggested decreasing the penalty for small
amounts of marijuana from a serious to a simple misdemeanor and a
locked detoxification center for those charged with public
intoxication. The effect would be a cite-and-release policy and would
help alleviate jail crowding, Pulkrabek said.

"I don't agree with Lonny's apparent position on marijuana," White
said. "I think (changing marijuana laws) sends exactly the wrong
message. We've spent years telling people not to get into the drug culture."

White said he recommends that officers arrest and book for indictable
level offenses, and that while a detoxification center is a good
idea, it is not financially feasible.

"If officers choose to cite and release someone for possession, that
is at their discretion. It wouldn't take a legislative change to do
that," White said, adding that a change would not substantially
relieve the attorney's office workload.

"All of us said for years and years that if a detoxification center
was in place, it would be used. Not for all offenses, but it is a
tool law enforcement would like to have," he said.

The Johnson County Jail has 92 beds plus a 10-person holding cell. In
addition to his recommendations, Pulkrabek also said he still thinks
the county needs a new jail.

"I am always looking to bring debate and attention to the jail
overcrowding issue -- always. The whole purpose of my testimony was
to stir debate," he said Thursday in a telephone interview.

"A lot of resources are spent on processing ... and releasing them
the next day," he said. "Someone could end up spending quite a while
in jail because they can't post bond. I'd rather save the space for
someone who has committed a more serious crime."

While people have taken many sides on the issue, jail crowding rests
at the base.

Nick Philipp spent four days in the general population of Linn County
jail in 2004 stemming from what he said amounted to a partial joint.

Philipp, 25, of Coralville, said he had been arrested twice within
six months, once for being in a car with someone with marijuana, and
then again for having part of a marijuana joint.

"What I did was wrong. I accept that. But I was in jail with someone
moving 150 pounds of marijuana, someone with a meth lab and people in
for serious domestic abuse," Philipp said Thursday. "Because the jail
was so crowded, I got put in with those convicted of felonies."

Todd Versteegh, chairman of the Johnson County Republicans, said he
thought Pulkrabek was just pandering to his base. He said the county
needs a new jail, not a loosening of current laws. He also noted that
Johnson County spends a lot of money to send people to other jails.
Pulkrabek told legislators it was $2 million since 2001.

"I am surprised a law enforcement official would advocate for
relaxing laws," Versteegh said. "It is a very serious issue. Because
of type of town Iowa City is, alcohol enforcement is one of the
biggest issues."

Rep. Vicki Lensing, D-Iowa City, was part of the panel Pulkrabek
spoke to. She said she was unsure what changes would occur or how
quickly they would happen, but that it was important to get the
viewpoint from a law enforcement official.

"It raised a red flag that this is something we have to deal with. I
understand they have some things they really struggle with,
especially in Iowa City. If they don't bring it to our attention, how
are they ever going to get changes?" Lensing said.

Matt Georges, president of the University of Iowa chapter of Students
for a Sensible Drug Policy, said he was encouraged that a police
officer recognized that "in some cases the punishment no longer fits
the crime."

"I think think it speaks volumes that an officer of the law, who
deals with this issue on a daily basis, realizes that there is a need
to revisit the way we enforce our drug laws.

"I don't think a police department can do its job serving and
protecting the whole community if they are instead made to sit back
at the station and look after intoxicated people that pose little or
no threat to anyone else," Georges said in a statement.