ELKHORN LEGISLATOR SAYS COUNTIES SHOULD BE ABLE TO ENACT OWN DRUG LAWS

MADISON-All Wisconsin counties should be able to enact their own
ordinances on drugs, Sen. Neal Kedzie told a legislative committee
this week.

Kedzie, R-Elkhorn, told members of the Assembly Committee on Criminal
Justice and Homeland Security that his bill, Senate Bill 21, would
correct an "oversight in state statutes."

Current law allows only Milwaukee County to make arrests within
municipalities with law enforcement agencies. Also, only Milwaukee
County is authorized to enact ordinances prohibiting the possession,
manufacture or delivery of drug paraphernalia.

Kedzie's proposal would allow all 72 counties in Wisconsin to enact
their own ordinances and require all municipalities in the county to
adhere to county ordinances.

Joining Kedzie in supporting the legislation were Walworth County
Sheriff David Graves and Undersheriff Kurt Picknell.

Current law prevents the Walworth County Sheriff's Department from
writing a drug paraphernalia possession ordinance in municipalities
with drug ordinances, Picknell said.

Searches of people or property for drug paraphernalia also are more
difficult under current law, he said.

"If you are looking into a simple possession of marijuana and you are
in a municipality that has an ordinance already enacted, we cannot
write a simple possession of marijuana ticket at the scene at that
time," Picknell said.

The sheriff's department must contact the municipality's police force
to search for drug paraphernalia and potentially transfer evidence and
materials regarding the case to the municipal police force before the
process can be completed, Picknell said.

Kedzie said he authored the bill in response to incidents at the
Alpine Valley Music Theatre near East Troy in Walworth County.

Other problems arise in the case of sheriff's departments similar to
those in Walworth County, where small police departments are in the
jurisdiction of the sheriff's department, Graves said.

"Any time you have to ask a smaller police department to do something
like that, I would imagine it is a strain on their personnel," he said.

Graves said under Kedzie's bill, in the time it takes under current
law to get a local police officer off the road to write a ticket and
gather all the information in the case, the case could easily be
managed by staff in the sheriff's department.

This week's committee session was a public hearing only. No vote on
Kedzie's bill was taken. It has already cleared the Senate.

If the committee recommends the bill for passage, it will be sent to
the Assembly floor for consideration before going to Gov. Jim Doyle's
desk for a signature.