COMPROMISE ADVANCES POT LAW REVISIONS

A long-awaited amendment to a Columbia marijuana possession ordinance
would prevent felons and repeat drug offenders from taking advantage
of the law's lenient sentencing guidelines.

Voters in 2004 approved a law that decriminalized small amounts of
pot - 35 grams, or 1 1/4 ounces - and reduced the penalty for
possession to a $250 fine. Violators of the law also do not get a
criminal record under the ordinance.

A compromise amendment negotiated last year among Boone County
Prosecuting Attorney Kevin Crane, civil rights attorney Dan Viets and
the Columbia Police Officers Association leaves those measures in
place but lists four exemptions to the ordinance:

● Anyone found guilty of a felony in the preceding 10 years.

● Anyone found guilty in a state court of a Class A
misdemeanor, other than misdemeanor marijuana possession or
possession of marijuana paraphernalia, within the preceding five years.

● Anyone found guilty in state or municipal court of
misdemeanor marijuana possession on two or more prior occasions
during the preceding five years.

● Anyone arrested on misdemeanor marijuana charges who also is
being held on suspicion of a felony or another misdemeanor offense
chargeable only in state court.

Voters overwhelmingly approved the original pot law, with nearly 62
percent of the vote.

After police officers began circulating a petition to bring the issue
before voters again, Viets, a chief supporter of the ordinance, began
to meet with Crane to iron out a compromise.

The four exemptions to the ordinance were first suggested in a
September letter from Viets to Columbia Mayor Darwin Hindman. The
mayor asked that the proposed changes be added to the city ordinance,
City Counselor Fred Boeckmann said in a memo to the Columbia City Council.

The amended ordinance will be presented to the council for a first
reading at its meeting tomorrow. A public hearing on the proposed
changes will be held Feb. 20.

Viets, who represents the group that helped push for the ordinance,
the Columbia Alliance for Patients and Education, said Friday that he
would have liked the law to remain intact but added that he supports
the amendment.

"It's certainly not what our organization would prefer to see," he
said. "It's probably not what the police officers association would
prefer to see. Both sides are supporting the amendment before the council."

Crane said the amendment would ensure that repeat offenders and those
charged with other crimes won't be able to take advantage of a law
designed to benefit first-time violators of the drug law.

"It would change the current one-size-fits-all approach to marijuana
enforcement," he said. "I think everyone's happy with it."