CHICAGO MAYOR SAYS IT MAY BE TIME TO CHANGE MARIJUANA LAWS

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.

"This is absolutely a big deal," said Andy Ko, director of the Drug Policy
Reform Project for the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington
state. "You've got a mayor in a major American city ... coming out in
favor of a smart and fair and just drug policy."

What Daley did was to say in late September 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.

Police officers are used to spending hours making arrests, writing reports
and waiting around in court, only to see the charges dropped or a guilty
plea that leads to nothing more than probation or drug-education classes.

"While officers are doing everything to keep the streets safe, the offender
gets arrested and is walking the street in just a few hours," Donegan wrote
in his report. "To me, this is a slap in the face to the officers."

Both police and defendants know it's rare for anyone arrested for a small
amount of marijuana to get the maximum penalty in Illinois: 30 days in jail
and a $1,500 fine. Pat Camden, a Chicago police spokesman and a former
officer, said he couldn't remember a single case.

Leonardo Nevarez, 23, wasn't worried when an officer found what he said was
half a joint in his pocket in August. He pretty much knew he would be
ordered to attend a drug-education class.

About the only question he had last week when he went to court was whether
the arresting officer would show up. If he didn't, the case would be
dismissed.

"Yeah, I was hoping he wouldn't be there," Nevarez said. "He was there."

Nevarez said he could have sought a delay in the case, as some defendants
do, in the hopes that the next time the arresting officer would be
absent. But after talking briefly to a public defender, he entered a plea,
the judge ordered the class, and Nevarez went home.

The case had taken up the time of police officers, court clerks, a judge
and an attorney.

Chicago wouldn't be the first city to reduce the penalty for possessing a
small amount of marijuana.

In Seattle, voters passed an initiative requiring law-enforcement officials
to make personal-use marijuana cases their lowest priority. In California
and Oregon, possession of a small amount of marijuana is a misdemeanor
punishable by a $100 to $500 fine. In Colorado, it doesn't even rise to
the level of misdemeanor; it's a petty offense with a fine of no more than $100.