cannabisnews.com: Dopey Policy On Dope Cases!





Dopey Policy On Dope Cases!
Posted by FoM on August 04, 1999 at 11:32:56 PT
Editorial
Source: The Capital Times
More than 20 years ago, the people of Madison made clear their sentiments regarding prosecution of their friends and neighbors who get caught with small amounts of marijuana.
The signal -- sent in a pair of referendum votes endorsing decriminalization of marijuana and in support of a Madison City Council move to set a cursory $5 fine for possession of the substance -- was that these cases should be the lowest of prosecutorial priorities. And no development over the ensuing years has suggested that the citizens of this region want any change in that standard.Yet a shift has occurred -- a dramatic, dangerous and draconian shift that ought to be reversed.In recent years, the Dane County District Attorney's Office has adopted an aggressive stance toward marijuana possession. During the three-year period from 1996 through 1998, Dane County prosecutors filed criminal charges for marijuana possession against more than 1,900 adults. That compares with only 245 such charges filed during the three-year period from 1986 through 1988.These prosecutions cost individuals and their families thousands of dollars, attach criminal records to otherwise law-abiding citizens, and divert prosecutorial time and energy from more serious matters. In an interview with Isthmus, the weekly newspaper that is running a two-part series on the disturbing policies of the District Attorney's Office regarding marijuana possession cases, local defense attorney Charles Giesen explained, "They're prosecuting way too vigorously. Way too many resources are spent on these cases.''Giesen has a point.And Dane County District Attorney Diane Nicks knows it. Or at least she did when she was campaigning for DA last year.Nicks won a close race for her job in November at least in part by staking out common-sense turf on the issue of marijuana prosecutions, which had been brought into focus by Libertarian candidate Peter Steinberg. Though Nicks did not endorse Steinberg's proposal for a moratorium on marijuana prosecutions, she did clearly indicate that she wanted the office to focus on more serious crimes.The debate during last year's campaign came in the context of a pattern of increased prosecutions that dated back to the tenure of former District Attorney Bill Foust. Nicks seemed throughout the campaign to be indicating that it was her intent to restore Dane County's tradition of making prosecutions for marijuana possession an extremely low priority.Less than a year after her election, however, Nicks' common-sense promises seem to have gone up in smoke. At a time when the DA's office should be prosecuting corporations that injure workers and consumers, going after campaign finance law violators, and putting real criminals in jail, tax dollars and lives are being wasted on a fool's mission that sensible Madisonians thought they had ended more than two decades ago.Frank S. WorldAugust 4, 1999Drug Policy Forum Of Wisconsinhttp://www.drugsense.org/dpfwi/RX Cannabis Nowhttp://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/7417/index.html
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