E-mail
PrintWASHINGTON — A bill that would decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana is garnering support from Missouri Rep. William Lacy Clay.
Clay, a Democrat from St. Louis, has signed on as a co-sponsor of the measure to eliminate federal penalties for possessing up to 100 grams — or about 3.5 ounces — of marijuana for personal use.
The measure also would remove penalties for the not-for-profit transfer of up to 1 ounce of marijuana between adults.
“I certainly don’t approve of drug use, but we need to stop wasting tax dollars on prosecuting small personal marijuana users in federal court,” Clay said Monday. “We have wasted billions of dollars on a phony war on drugs that is filling up our prisons and failing to stop the flow of illegal narcotics into this country.”
In November 2004, Columbia voters passed a city ordinance to make marijuana the “lowest law enforcement priority” in the city. The ordinance, which limits the fine to $250 and defers prosecution for possession of less than 35 grams of marijuana, decriminalizes the drug.
The Columbia ordinance has since come under scrutiny from the Columbia Police Officers Association. In 2005, the association petitioned to change the law so that marijuana would be “among the lower priorities of law enforcement,” instead of the “lowest” priority.
The Columbia City Council voted in 2006 to tighten the 2004 city ordinance by ruling that decriminalization does not apply to repeat offenders and eliminating the reference to deferment of prosecution.
Clay is one of only three lawmakers currently supporting the federal bill, introduced last month by Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat. Clay called the bill “a reality check” that would allow law enforcement “to fight real threats to public health and national security.”
The other co-sponsor is Texas Rep. Ron Paul, a former Republican presidential candidate.
One hundred grams of marijuana would make about 120 to 130 individual cigarettes, according to Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a legalization advocacy group. He compared that amount to one person buying a few cases or a keg of beer for personal use.
St. Pierre said the measure is the first time in more than 20 years that a federal measure supporting decriminalization has been introduced in Congress.
“A very large group of people around the country that want to see marijuana laws reformed now have something that you can talk about with your representative at the local level,” St. Pierre said.
When he introduced the bill, Frank called the prosecution of marijuana smokers a waste of law enforcement resources, particularly the targeting of those who use marijuana as a legal medical treatment under California law.
“If the law I am proposing passes, states will still be free to treat marijuana as they wish,” Frank said. “But I do not believe that the federal government should treat adults who choose to smoke marijuana as criminals.”
Frank also has offered a separate measure that would grant protection to states that allow medicinal use of marijuana. About a dozen states have legalized medical marijuana use, but federal law considers all forms of marijuana illegal.
Tom Riley, a spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said the decriminalization bill shows “an embarrassing understanding of the way law enforcement works on this issue” and predicted it would gain very little support.
“This idea that we’re spending scarce law enforcement dollars chasing after college kids with a couple of joints in their pocket is ludicrous,” Riley said.
He said the average inmate convicted under federal marijuana possession laws had more than 100 pounds of the drug, not just an amount for personal use.
Riley also called marijuana “a serious drug of abuse for teens” that is not just a gateway to more potent drugs, but a serious problem on its own.
Missourian reporter Jessica Becher contributed to this report.
Comments