CHICAGO MAYOR: FINES BETTER FOR POT CASES

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, a former prosecutor, runs the nation's
third-largest city with a pragmatic, law-and-order style. He wears his hair
short, and you'll never catch him in a Grateful Dead T-shirt.

So when he starts complaining about the colossal waste of time and money
involved in prosecuting small-time marijuana cases, people take notice.

What Daley did was to say late last month that a police sergeant was on to
something when he suggested that it might be better to impose fines between
$250 and $1,000 for possession of small amounts of marijuana rather than
prosecute the cases.

Sgt. Thomas Donegan determined that nearly 7,000 cases involving 2.5 grams
of pot or less were filed last year in Chicago. About 94 percent were
dismissed.

Daley wondered if ticketing offenders might be smarter. "If 99 percent of
the cases are thrown out and we have police officers going (to court to
testify in the cases), why?" the mayor said. "It costs a lot of money for
police officers to go to court."

The way Daley's thoughts became public was also unusual: There was no
public pressure for the mayor to speak out. He was asked by reporters who
had gotten wind of Donegan's findings and simply answered their questions.