POT BILL COULD SAVE $11 MILLION

Change Drug Law. Fines For Small Amounts Of Marijuana Make
Sense

When legislators proposed decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana,
they pointed to a Harvard study that said police spend about $30
million a year arresting and investigating low-level marijuana users
in Massachusetts. There was not a similar study in Connecticut.

Now there is. According to the General Assembly's Office of Fiscal
Analysis, there were 9,928 marijuana arrests in Connecticut in 2007,
which represents 7 percent of total arrests statewide. Based on prior
research, the office estimates that about a third of those arrests, or
3,300, were for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.

Take those cases out of the system and replace them with a simple
fine, and the state could save up to $11 million and generate $320,000
in revenue, the report concludes.

That is more reason to support the decriminalization measure. It's a
shame it takes a recession to make the point, but the state's criminal
justice and correction systems are staggeringly expensive. As far as
possible, jails ought to be for serious violent offenders, not kids
caught with a joint. To make them pay a fine, do public service or
attend a treatment session makes so much more sense.

The proposal would change the crime of possessing less than an ounce
of marijuana from a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $1,000
and/or imprisonment for up to a year, to an infraction, punishable by
a fine of up to $121. Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney called the
change "compassionate and pragmatic," and he's right.

After a failed 35-year "war on drugs," we need to think differently,
to approach the use of illegal narcotics as a public health problem
and reduce demand through education and treatment. Massachusetts
voters passed a referendum last year that decriminalized the
possession of an ounce or less of marijuana. Connecticut should follow
suit.