COLUMBIA VOTERS OK DECRIMINALIZING POSSESSION OF POT

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Possession of small amounts of marijuana would be
decriminalized and medical use of the drug would be legal under two
propositions Columbia voters approved by large margins. Voters there also
approved a measure that requires the city to generate or purchase
electricity from renewable resources in increasingly higher percentages for
the next 18 years.

Nearly 70 percent of voters approved Proposition 1, which allows medical
use of marijuana if authorized by a physician, in Tuesday's election. The
proposition says that if the prohibition on arrest, prosecution and
punishment is deemed invalid, the maximum penalty for such medical use of
the drug would be a $50 fine.

A similar proposition makes enforcement of laws against marijuana use the
lowest law enforcement priority. It passed with nearly 61 percent approval.
Under the second ordinance, adults cannot be arrested for possessing less
than 35 grams of marijuana, but could be charged in municipal court. The
measure creates a strong presumption that such marijuana cases would result
in deferred prosecution, suspended sentences and community service or drug
counseling.

The maximum fine for possessing small amounts of pot would be $250 under
the ordinance. "I am stunned," Columbia prosecutor Rose Wibbenmeyer said
Wednesday. "I'm really, really surprised and now I'm looking at it as a
matter of, 'Where am I going to put all these files I'm going to have
coming into my office?"' Wibbenmeyer estimated that the number of
misdemeanor marijuana charges her department handles will double. Last
year, her office prosecuted about 280 misdemeanor pot cases, she said, and
sent another 300 to the state for prosecution.

She also wondered how the proposals will impact the state's "Abuse and
Lose" laws, which revoke the driver's license of anybody over 21 caught in
possession of the drug while driving, and anyone under 21 who is caught in
possession of marijuana under any circumstances.

County Prosecutor Kevin Crane agreed that passage of the marijuana measures
leaves several unanswered questions -- especially on the medical marijuana
issue -- and poses a few problems for law enforcement in a town where most
minor marijuana charges already were being referred to municipal court.
"Now that this has passed, does a physician tell a patient to go to a
street corner and buy it from a drug dealer, but don't buy crack -- just
the marijuana?" Crane said. "Does the act of prescribing illegal medication
cause a patient to engage in illegal activity? I think that got lost in the
mix." He said similar proposals failed two years ago, likely because there
was an aggressive campaign against them. This time, he said, there was not
much vocal opposition.

"I don't think it was a fully informed decision," he said. "A lot of people
would have voted yes if they were informed, but a lot of people, if they
heard what I was just saying, would vote no."

Crane said supporters argued that college students stand to lose federal
aid if they're convicted of marijuana possession. But he said it's not as
clear-cut as that.

"The implication is that here's a kid in high school who has a joint and
he's going to jail," he said. "It's not happening. The reality of it is
they weren't going to jail because we were sending them to the city, anyway."

In the so-called green energy measure, the city must purchase renewable
electricity in gradually higher percentages every five years through 2022.
The proposition requires 2 percent of electric retail sales to be from
renewable energy sources such as wind, landfill gas and solar power by the
end of 2007. That number rises to 10 percent by the end of 2017, and 15
percent by the end of 2022.

That measure passed with slightly over 78 percent of the vote.