POT INITIATIVE WILL BE ON APRIL BALLOT

The Columbia City Council declined Tuesday to support a proposal to
liberalize marijuana laws in the city, instead slating the initiative for
public consideration on the April 8 ballot.

The proposed ordinance, written by MU law student Anthony Johnson and local
attorney Dan Viets, seeks to decriminalize medical marijuana and mandate
all misdemeanor marijuana possession cases be handled as municipal
infractions instead of state criminal offenses.

Since the enactment of 1998's Higher Education Act, students arrested on
suspicion of any criminal drug offense have been tried in state court. If
convicted, students lose their federal financial aid eligibility for at
least one year. Keeping MU's student marijuana users from suffering the
loss of eligibility is one of the primary goals of the initiative's backers.

By classifying marijuana possession as an infraction rather than a
misdemeanor, college students arrested for possession of less than 35 grams
of marijuana will be prosecuted in municipal court and not be in danger of
loosing their federal student aid.

"Over 90,000 students have lost their financial aid since the Drug Free
Student Aid Act of 1998 began being enforced," said Amy Fritz, president of
Students for Sensible Drug Policy, an MU-based organization. "At least 27
of them were MU students."

Missouri Students Association Senator Joshua Judy said the student aid
policies are fundamentally unfair because they penalize students convicted
of marijuana possession twice; first with criminal sanctions and then by
threatening to "ruin their lives" by denying them an education.

"If you commit murder you go to jail, but you don't lose your aid," Judy
said. "If you get caught with pot you suffer the penalty, but then you're
penalized again."

The council was legally required by the city's charter to either approve
the ordinance or put it to a vote on the April 8 ballot.

The only council member to support the proposal was outgoing Sixth Ward
councilman John Coffman.

Mayor Darwin Hindman said an issue as volatile as marijuana law reform
should be decided directly by the voters.

"Despite the faith they place in the council," Hindman said, "I'm inclined
to believe this is one case where the voters will want to participate."

Waldo Palmer, a 90-year-old Columbia resident, was unmoved by the
supporters' arguments.

"I must be from a different generation," Palmer said. "If we're going to
finance them they should follow the law."

Columbia Police Chief Randy Boehm said his officers already have the
discretion to send cases involving possession of small amounts of marijuana
to either state or municipal courts. Boehm said he doesn't see a need for
the ordinance.

While student activists were the original organizers of the proposal, they
are not its only backers. Columbia attorney David Evans took the time to
speak because he "didn't want the council to think it was just a bunch of
young people who were in favor of this ordinance."

Under current law, possession of 35 grams or less of marijuana is a
misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. The
ordinance would reclassify it as an infraction punishable by fines starting
at $25 for a first offense and ranging upward to $500 for a fourth or
subsequent offense.

Judy said he's optimistic about the ordinance's fate with the voters, but
"the question is what'll happen in the courts."