LAWYER'S PLEA ON POT PENALTY

Fines Would Cut Court Congestion

This year, the Texas Legislature will have the opportunity to consider
reducing the punishment for an individual who is caught with less than an
ounce of marijuana to a Class C misdemeanor, punishable by a fine only.

Under this proposal, jurisdiction of these cases will lie with justice of
the peace and municipal courts only. The current law provides that a person
caught in possession of less than 2 ounces of marijuana shall be punished
by up to six months in jail, and up to a $2,000 fine. Under the proposal by
state Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, a person found to be in possession of
less than an ounce could not be sentenced to jail, but fined up to $500.

This is an important bill, because if it becomes law it will reduce the
congestion in our courts, save taxpayers money and still provide an
adequate means of enforcing the law. But the most important factor that
must be considered is the fact that marijuana is not nearly as harmful as
once believed.

In the 1930s, both the media and legislators depicted marijuana as an
extremely dangerous drug, causing it to be banned in the United States in
1938. In 1972, after reviewing new evidence on marijuana and its effects,
the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse admitted that its
dangers had been overstated. Since then, many studies on humans, animals
and cell cultures have been conducted. None of them has contradicted the
findings by the commission.

In fact, the overwhelming evidence available today strongly indicates that
marijuana use is not nearly as harmful as once believed, and actually has
therapeutic and medicinal values. Unlike nicotine and alcohol, marijuana is
not physically addictive. There is no convincing scientific evidence that
marijuana kills brain cells, impairs long-term memory or causes mental or
physical illness.

The only "harmful" effects from the use of marijuana that have been proven
are that an individual under the influence of marijuana will realize a loss
of short-term memory, difficulty learning and recalling new information,
and a temporary impairment of psychomotor function.

Yes, marijuana temporarily dulls the senses. But, unlike alcohol, a person
who intends to operate a motor vehicle after smoking marijuana can
immediately eliminate the loss of perception, and its other temporary
effects on the brain, by eating a small meal.

As a criminal defense attorney, I can assure you that arrests for driving
under the influence of marijuana are extremely rare.

Every serious scholar and government commission that has examined the
relationship between marijuana use and crime have reached the same
conclusion: Marijuana use does not lead to crime. Almost all human and
animal studies indicate that marijuana decreases rather than increases
physical aggression.

In Harris County, our 15 county courts, which currently have jurisdiction
over marijuana cases, cannot keep pace with the large number of cases that
enter the system on a daily basis. It is not uncommon for a misdemeanor
case to take several months to be resolved because of the large volume of
cases filed daily. Most of these cases involve alcohol related incidents,
theft, and even incidents of violence. The removal of cases involving small
quantities of marijuana from the county's responsibility will enable
judges, prosecutors and probation officers to give their attention to these
other cases of much greater significance.

Eleven states have laws on the books allowing an individual to possess
marijuana for medicinal purposes. Ten other states have enacted symbolic
medical marijuana laws, which support the medicinal use of marijuana.
Although the overwhelming degree of evidence has convinced me that the
possession of small quantities of marijuana should be legal, reducing
possession of marijuana to a Class C misdemeanor is a compromise that is in
the best interest of the public.