PHILADELPHIA TO EASE MARIJUANA PENALTY

The city's new district attorney and the state Supreme Court are
moving to all but decriminalize the possession of small amounts of
marijuana for personal use in an effort to unclog Philadelphia's
crowded court dockets.

Under a policy to take effect later this month, prosecutors will
charge such cases as summary offenses rather than as misdemeanors.
People arrested with up to 30 grams of the drug - slightly more than
an ounce - may have to pay a fine but face no risk of a criminal record.

"We have to be smart on crime," said District Attorney Seth Williams,
who took office in January. "We can't declare a war on drugs by going
after the kid who's smoking a joint on 55th Street. We have to go
after the large traffickers."

The shift is a major move in a reform agenda being hammered out in an
unusual partnership between Williams and two members of the state
Supreme Court, Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille and Justice Seamus P.
McCaffery, each of whom has a long background in criminal justice.

The goal is to sweep about 3,000 small-time marijuana cases annually
out of the main court system, freeing prosecutors and judges to
devote time to more serious crimes. The diverted cases amount to
about 5 percent of the caseload in criminal court.

Police have been briefed on the policy shift, but appear less than
enthusiastic about it.

"We're not going stop locking people up," Lt. Frank Vanore, a police
spokesman, said Friday. He said marijuana possession remained illegal.

"We're going to stop people for it. . . . Our officers are trained to
do that," Vanore said. "Whether or not they make it through the
charging process, that's up to the D.A. We can't control that. Until
they legalize it, we're not going to stop."

Some key aspects of the change remain unresolved.

Williams' top aides are still researching whether they can simply
convert all the small marijuana arrests into summary charges of
disorderly conduct. The shift might require a change in state law or
in a city ordinance, his advisers say.

The new approach could generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in
fines for the Philadelphia courts. While the amount has not been
formally set, fines for minor drug possession would be $200 for
first-time offenders and $300 for others.

"We are not looking at it as a moneymaker, but we could use those
funds to focus on other efficiencies," said Castille, who was
Philadelphia's district attorney from 1986 to 1991.

McCaffery, a homicide-detective-turned-lawyer, has talked of using
some of the new cash to pay consultants to study further ways to
reform the court system.

Castille called the new policy "appropriate" for a system loaded up
with a total of 60,000 fresh cases a year, including the arrests of
about 5,500 alleged heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine sellers.

Of marijuana possession, the chief justice said, "It's a minor crime
when you're faced with major drug crimes." Taking those cases out of
the city's main courtrooms, he said, "unclogs the system."

The new approach was endorsed by Chris Goldstein, a leader of the
Philadelphia chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws (NORML). His group has been quietly lobbying
prosecutors and top Philadelphia narcotics police for change.

"The marijuana consumers of Philadelphia welcome this," Goldstein said.

McCaffery, appointed by Castille to oversee the ongoing shake-up of
Philadelphia's criminal justice system, said the shift would help the
courts focus on more serious cases.

"This will free up a lot of time in the courtroom," he said. "The
fewer de minimis cases, the more time the judge and the prosecutor
are going to have on other cases."

The new policy on marijuana is part of a wave of changes under review
in response to The Inquirer's investigative report on the criminal
justice system, "Justice: Delayed, Dismissed, Denied," in December.

The newspaper's reporting portrayed the Philadelphia system as in
crisis, clogged with cases, bogged down by delay, and harsh on
victims and witnesses. The paper found that Philadelphia defendants
escaped conviction on all charges in nearly two-thirds of
violent-crime cases - one of the lowest conviction rates in the nation.

Williams, working with the two justices and others, is also moving
forward with plans to streamline preliminary hearings and overhaul
the charging unit, rejecting prosecution in some cases and kicking
others back to detectives for more investigation.

He and top aides - First Assistant District Attorney Joseph
McGettigan and Deputy District Attorney Ed McCann - have been giving
misdemeanor marijuana cases special attention. The maximum penalty
for possession for personal use is only 30 days in jail, and
defendants rarely serve time.

Under Williams' predecessor, Lynne M. Abraham, the district attorney
for 18 years, the office prosecuted about 3,000 such cases a year.

The prosecutions often tied up judges, assistant district attorneys,
police, and defense lawyers - not to mention defendants - in
Municipal Court for multiple court listings.

Prosecutors would agree to withdraw the charge if a first-time
offender completed community service. Offenders with a criminal
history could end up with a formal misdemeanor conviction.

Under the new policy, people charged with possession for personal use
will still be arrested, handcuffed, searched, detained, and
fingerprinted. Then, regardless of their criminal history, their case
will be heard by a special late-afternoon summary court in Courtroom
408 at the Criminal Justice Center. This "quality of life" court
handles offenses such as public drinking and disorderly conduct.

Defendants determined to fight the charges could still demand a full
trial, but few are expected to do so.

Arrests for small amounts of marijuana aside, police still make
thousands of drug arrests yearly in Philadelphia - 18,000 last year
for drug-related crimes of all sorts, including charges involving
possession and dealing.

Of these, they arrested about 2,000 suspects as alleged marijuana
dealers and about 2,500 people for possession for larger amounts of
marijuana, over 30 grams.

The handling of those more serious cases will not change, prosecutors say.

Police and prosecutors in other cities and states have taken similar
steps toward decriminalization or something approaching it. Several
dozen cities have enacted "lowest law enforcement priority"
ordinances, stipulating that police pursue such cases as a last resort.

Voters in Seattle approved a ballot question mandating this change in
2003. Since then, arrests for possessing small amounts of marijuana
have fallen by three-quarters. In 2005, Denver voters approved an
ordinance legalizing possession of less than an ounce, or 28 grams.
San Francisco passed a similar law in 2006.

Several states, too, have taken a softer stance on marijuana
possession. For example, Massachusetts decriminalized marijuana in
2008, making it a civil offense and imposing a $100 fine for
possession of less than an ounce.

According to the Department of Justice's latest report on drug crime,
28 percent of adults ages 18 to 25 who were surveyed admitted using
marijuana at least once within the previous year. For the rest of the
adult population, 7 percent admitted using the drug during the same period.

McCaffery has considerable experience with the use of special courts
operating under the umbrella of Municipal Court. When he was the
court's administrative judge, he pioneered "Eagles Court" for unruly
football fans and spurred the collection of fines for "quality of
life" summary offenses.

During McCaffery's final 16 months on the Philadelphia bench, the
courts levied $2.3 million in fines. Since he left, the imposition of
those fines has diminished, costing the city millions, he said.

Under the new initiative, McCaffery said, the court will resume
imposing those charges even when defendants fail to show up for summary court.

According to McCaffery, the court will be able to go after as much as
$5.5 million in fees from 2008 and 2009 in this fashion. Any new
marijuana-related charges will be on top of that.

Goldstein, of NORML, said his group had been lobbying for relaxed
treatment of marijuana cases for more than a year, meeting with
members of the District Attorney's Office, Mayor Nutter's staff, and
police brass.

"This is a very progressive thing to do on the part of the city,"
Goldstein said of the new policy. "I couldn't be happier about this."

He said the change also would redress a racial pattern apparent in
Philadelphia drug-possession arrests. More than 80 percent typically
have been of African Americans, Philadelphia police data show.

"All the data from the federal government indicates that blacks and
whites consume marijuana at near-equal rates," Goldstein said, yet
"the pattern of arrests is that over 75 percent are black men."

According to him, the situation is the same in New York City, where
research indicated it was due to more intensive police patrol
activity in African American neighborhoods.

Goldstein said he was troubled that Philadelphia police would be
permitted to keep arresting people for marijuana possession.

"It is completely absurd," he said. "It's harsh. For minor marijuana
possession, it's very harsh treatment."

Police elsewhere merely issue people a ticket and send them on their
way, he said.

Leading members of the defense bar also endorsed the new
marijuana-prosecution policy.

Joseph C. Santaguida said that "it's a good idea" to steer these
minor drug cases to a diversionary program.

Brian Zeiger, another criminal-defense lawyer, said he saw the move
as positive both for taxpayers and defendants.

"The city gets money, and the city doesn't have to pay [court]
overtime to the cops. It's a guaranteed win for clients. It takes all
the risk out of it."