MARIJUANA TICKETING INCREASES

Police Are Enforcing The Ordinance Many Want To See Repealed.

Although Columbia police officers have made plain their disapproval of the
city's new marijuana ordinance, they are enforcing the law with zeal, and
the numbers show it.

Columbia police have ticketed more people per month for misdemeanor
possession of marijuana since voters approved Proposition 2 in November,
but most are not being prosecuted. First-time offenders are given a second
chance as part of the municipal court's marijuana deferral program.

The way the court is handling the cases prompted the Columbia Police
Officers Association to start a petition drive to ask the City Council to
repeal the ordinance. The ordinance passed with 61 percent support on Nov. 2.

During a news conference held Friday to announce the drive, CPOA President
Sterling Infield said the organization was caught sleeping before the
election. It did not organize any opposition, because it did not think the
proposition would pass, Infield said.

Police Chief Randy Boehm said officers will distribute the petitions during
off-duty hours and when they are not wearing their police uniforms. Police
officers must enforce the law, he said, even though most do not approve of it.

"My job, whether I like the ordinances or not, is to make sure that our
officers are following the law, and we are," Boehm said.

But recent talk of the marijuana ordinance has dominated discussion on
CPOA's online message board. The conversation stems from a letter Infield
wrote to Assistant City Manager Paula Hertwig Hopkins last month to voice
the concerns of the police organization. In that letter, he connected the
marijuana ordinance with the murder of Officer Molly Bowden.

"To stop this ordinance would bring a small degree of justice back to
Officer Molly Bowden and Officer Curtis Brown, who risked all to protect
their community," Infield wrote.

On Friday, Infield backed away from that assertion, saying that the
association is not trying to relate the two incidents, but that police
continue to deal with drugs every day.

From November to February, Columbia police wrote 141 tickets for
misdemeanor marijuana possession and possession of drug paraphernalia. That
number increased from the 100 arrests police made in the same time period a
year ago. The number of arrests in the period was 69 two years ago.

In February, police issued 44 tickets, the biggest monthly total in the
last 10 years.

Boehm said police are not going out of their way to enforce the ordinance.
In nearly every case, a ticket is issued when an officer discovers the
marijuana during other law enforcement activities, such as traffic stops.

Proposition 2 made marijuana possession a municipal charge handled by the
municipal court instead of a state charge handled by state court. Before
the new ordinance was adopted, the municipal court handled only cases
involving first-time offenders. All other cases were sent to state court.

Under the marijuana deferral program, the municipal prosecutor's office
defers prosecution of first-offense marijuana cases. If the person who is
ticketed stays out of legal trouble for a year after he or she is ticketed,
the charge will never be filed.

"It's like a freebie," City Prosecutor Rose Wibbenmeyer said. "It's like it
doesn't exist, but I reserve the right to file within the statute of
limitations, which is a year."

More than 200 defendants have been put on the deferral list and been kept
out of the courtroom since November.

Columbia lawyer Dan Viets, who campaigned for the ordinance, said he is
happy with the way the city is handling the cases. He said the deferral
program is consistent with the language of the ordinance.

It could be considered the equivalent of unsupervised probation, Viets said.

"It leaves the defendant on notice," Viets said. "It's not a freebie. It's
not as if there are no consequences. It's exactly what is appropriate and
reasonable."

Wibbenmeyer said that when her office receives a ticket for marijuana
possession, the person's name is added to a spreadsheet that has been kept
since Election Day. The ticket is filed.

The ticket stays in the file for a year unless the person is caught
violating any laws other than minor traffic offenses. If the person
violates another law during the deferral period, city prosecutors may
decide to file the original charge.

One reason Viets pushed for the law was so someone would not lose
educational or employment opportunities because of a misdemeanor marijuana
conviction, he said.

But Wibbenmeyer said deferring prosecution for first-time violators makes
her a little uneasy.

"The whole idea is kind of strange to me," she said. "Under the new
ordinance, marijuana is the lowest law enforcement priority - lower than
parking tickets. We have trials for parking tickets. We make people pay for
parking tickets."

The seconds time a person is ticketed for marijuana possession, whether
during or after the one-year deferral period, the person will be charged,
Wibbenmeyer said.

If someone is convicted, the court has many sentencing options outlined by
the ordinance, including assigning community service, drug treatment
programs and a fine of up to $250.

The only glitch created by the new program so far is that it has
complicated a storage problem for the police department. The evidence for
deferred cases has to be kept for the entire year in case the person
ticketed violates the terms of the deferral and the charge is filed.

Police Capt. Tom Dresner said the evidence from misdemeanor marijuana cases
is being stored at an off-site storage unit to make room for evidence from
other cases. Room in the Evidence Storage Unit has always been limited, he
said.

In November, when city prosecutors purge the first tickets for deferred
cases, they will also have to get court orders to destroy the evidence for
those cases.

"We're going to have a huge amount to deal with in November," Wibbenmeyer
said. "I'm sure it's going to hit in a big way."

- - Missourian reporter Ben Welsh contributed to this report.