BILL WOULD HURT COLUMBIA FOR ITS POT PENALTIES

JEFFERSON CITY - Columbia got national attention in November after
voters approved two ordinances easing penalties for marijuana possession.

Now Missouri Sen. Chuck Gross wants to penalize the city. Gross, a St.
Charles Republican, filed a bill last week that would prevent Missouri
cities from hosting kindergarten through 12th-grade athletic events if
they have laws that decriminalize small amounts of marijuana or allow
the drug to be used medically.

Columbia is the only city in Missouri with both laws.

Lorah Steiner, president of the Columbia Convention and Visitors
Bureau, said the consequences to Columbia would be devastating.
Steiner said the city hosts several statewide high school tournaments,
including basketball and wrestling competitions, which bring at least
$5 million altogether to the city every year. " When you take $5
million out of the community, that's hard to replace," she said.

One of the ordinances Gross' bill targets permits chronically ill
adults to possess up to 35 grams of marijuana for medical use if they
have written permission from a doctor. The other reduces the penalty
for possession of the same amount of pot for someone not using it for
medicinal purposes to a fine of no more than $250. The ordinances
apply only to people 18 and older.

Gross said he filed the bill because Columbia has sent the wrong
message by relaxing its marijuana laws. He doesn't want children in
Missouri to think it's OK to smoke pot. " I really think what they
did is bad for the kids of our state, I really, really do," he said.
" I don't know if this is the best way to go at it. Maybe we pass
some state law that overrides what Columbia did."

He said he wants to send a message to Columbia and other Missouri
cities that might be considering reducing their marijuana penalties.
" We don't want drug use, and we don't want kids thinking, Wow,
maybe this isn't such a big deal to go out and get high," Gross
said.

Although Gross said his bill is intended to prevent students from
traveling to Columbia for sports tournaments, Sen. Chuck Graham, a
Columbia Democrat, said he worries it could prevent students in
Columbia schools from playing home games.

Graham said Columbia's reduced penalties were designed, in part, to
protect students from sanctions under the Higher Education Act amended
in 1998. The law takes federal funding away from college students
convicted of a drug charge. The new ordinance allows students to keep
the offense off their permanent record.

Graham called Gross' bill ludicrous. " I feel like it's a misguided
effort by Senator Gross about some ordinances I don't think he has a
full understanding of," Graham said. " I told him, If you're
worried about kids bringing pot into Columbia, tell them to keep it in
St. Charles and don't bring it into my district."

Gross acknowledged the language of the bill might need
clarification.

The bill has been referred to the Senate Education Committee, where
committee chairman Sen. Gary Nodler, a Joplin Republican, said it
would get a hearing. Nodler said he doesn't want the bill to be
automatically dismissed by the committee. " I'm personally not in
favor of attempts to encourage illegal activities," he said.
" Sanction (for Columbia) is probably appropriate, but I'm not sure
if this is the right vehicle for it. One would hope the local
authorities would do what's right."

Dan Viets, a Columbia lawyer and member of the National Organization
for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said there is nothing that radical
about what his city did. Viets was one of those who spearheaded the
Columbia ordinances. " The police have more time to spend on other
crimes," he said. " The whole idea of using state legislation to
punish any city in the state is a bad idea."

Violations on the University of Missouri-Columbia campus are not
necessarily handled under this ordinance. Campus police can send those
cases to state court.

The Missouri Highway Patrol and the Boone County Sheriff's Department
also still send pot cases to state court, where possession of 35 grams
is considered a misdemeanor punishable by up to a one-year prison
sentence and a $1,000 fine.