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Drug charge policy to change

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by Courtney Johnson

Monday, March 5, 2007

Due to a lack of staff resources, people caught with less than 25 grams of marijuana will no longer be criminally charged by the Dane County district attorney.

Those caught can still receive a substantial fine — up to $1,000 — but will not be charged for possession.

"This is not an absolutely new policy," Assistant District Attorney Mike Verveer said. "We actually have been following this policy in an informal way for quite some time in our office."

But District Attorney Brian Blanchard made this announcement to police chiefs throughout Dane County for the first time this weekend.

"Minor possession of marijuana is not as much of a serious offense as so much of the other business the district has to deal with," said Keith Findley, law professor at the University of Wisconsin and co-director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project and the Criminal Appeals Project.

Because the District Attorney's office has seen an increase lately in the number of sexual assaults and violent crime in the downtown and campus area, Blanchard said the office is prioritizing what crimes they will prosecute, according to The Associated Press.

"For quite some time now we really have been charging very few marijuana cases," Verveer said.

Charges will still be filed for people possessing more than 25 grams of marijuana, and criminal charges could still be filed for people possessing less than 25 grams if they had committed other offenses.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Anonymous (March 5, 2007 @ 5:11pm):

So smoke up a few grams right away, if you actually get a whole ounce (fat chance of that!).

Anonymous (March 5, 2007 @ 6:15pm):

The United States has 5% of the Worlds' population yet 25% of the worlds' prisoners. 5x as many as China a communist dictatership with a billion people. Talk about human rights violations committed by the US, they take addicts and throw them in a 6x8 cell to go cold turkey. No medicine is provided. Is that humane? Doesn't that tell you that the US is doing something wrong. This is a problem even our presidental canditates refuse to address and that is sentencing laws. The sentencing laws for drugs is draconian. A person with more than 5 grams in his possession of Crystal is sentenced to 5 years in jail. 5 Grams last an addict about three days. So we are not jailing the dealers but the users whose crime has no victims involved. If there is no victim how can there be a crime? We need modern reform of the sentencing laws to stop putting the user behind bars. He could be a very pro-american, tax paying, loving father and husband, but he got caught with a few grams of contraband. The law will break up this family unit, the childen will have no father, and the wife has to sell the home because no money is coming in. The judicial system, next to welfare, has done the most to break up the black family. When are we going to stop this madness. What, worried your kids will do drugs? If your open with your child about the subject and he/she trusts you, it it unlikely they will use or will come to you if offered drugs. I say let the addicts have their drugs, but no driver's license if they get drugs from a doctor. That is who should be regulating this is the medical community, because it is a health issue not a law enforcement issue. We are targeting a lower class group in our society for persecution, just like the Germans did the Jews. Instead of Concentration camps the USA puts you and 5 other guys in on 8x10 cell due to overcrowding. Does the word compassion mean anything to the US Citizen. History is repeating itself, once again a group in a society is targeted by a government for persecutions. Here is a dirty little secret, when the cops bust the dealer, prices go up, addicts need fixes that now cost more, thus crime goes up to pay for these fixes. Would it not be better to take the crime element out of this by letting Doctors regualate schedule 1,2,3,4 drugs, not the DEA who still refuses to admit that ecstasy and marijuna have medical uses contrary to all the information. Troops with PTS coming back from Iraq are being treated with ecstacy but it remains a schedule 1 drug? That is why we need doctors regulating all drugs. The crime rate would drop by at least 70%. Now the police can focus on the real criminals and turn that image around. Police are not liked by the younger generation because these police harass them about drugs. Now, with the focus on other things, this will repair the relationship between the average young person and the police. Which is good because the police will get more tips about true lawbreakers. Hope some of you agree. These cops got it right, it is more important stopping holdups and rapes then it is going after someone with a few joints.

Anonymous (March 5, 2007 @ 7:53pm):

you said it

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