Pubdate: Thu, 11 Apr 2013
Source: Philadelphia Daily News (PA)
Copyright: 2013 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.
Contact: http://www.philly.com/dailynews/about/feedback/
Website: http://www.philly.com/dailynews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/339
Author: William Bender
Page: 3

POT PREDICAMENT

Should Philly Issue More Summonses Instead of Making Weed Arrests?

ANTHONY GARNER knows that marijuana is illegal in Philadelphia. He 
just figured that the police focus on drug kingpins and corner 
dealers these days. They wouldn't waste their time on him.

He was wrong. There he was last summer, sitting in a holding cell for 
possessing what he estimates was $20 worth of weed, commiserating 
with others who'd been busted for simply smoking it.

"I didn't think it was going to be this big of a thing," said Garner, 
23, a gas-and-electricity salesman from Germantown. "I was in with 
guys that were locked up for smoking a joint. They didn't even have bags."

This is standard procedure in Philly, where Garner was one of about 
3,300 people charged in 2012 for personal possession of marijuana - 
each of them handcuffed, fingerprinted, photographed and thrown in a 
holding cell, often spending the night before they were arraigned.

But the vast majority of those arrested - 97 percent last year - are 
referred to the Small Amount of Marijuana (SAM) program, where 
defendants can have the charge "administratively withdrawn" and 
expunged from their record if they pay $200 and show up for a 
Saturday drug class.

Officials say the SAM program, essentially a quasi-decriminalization 
policy, has saved the city millions of dollars since its 
implementation in June 2010: Cops aren't paid to testify in these 
cases, and the "leafy green substance" doesn't have to be sent to a 
lab to confirm that it is marijuana.

That means assistant district attorneys can spend more time preparing 
for serious criminal cases, instead of being paid to prosecute potheads.

The SAM program, however, has created a gaping disconnect between how 
marijuana is treated on the street and in court: Thousands of smokers 
continue to be arrested every year, only to be told that prosecutors 
let the whole thing slide. For those who go through the SAM program, 
it's as if the arrest never happened - at least on paper.

"Thousands of dollars we were spending on defendants who possessed 
$10 or $15 worth of weed. It just makes no sense from a management 
standpoint and criminology standpoint," District Attorney Seth 
Williams said. "All that money is saved now."

So why not just issue court summonses instead of performing 
time-consuming custodial arrests? And why should taxpayers pay for 
the police manhours if most of the cases are expunged?

Reformers say issuing summonses would save the city millions, but 
it's tough to get a straight answer from city officials.

There's also the problem of racial disparity. Most of the people 
arrested for possession of small amounts of marijuana are black even 
though studies show that white people smoke it as much, if not more.

"When you think of all the things people are doing - the killings, 
robbing people, hurting kids - I wasn't hurting nobody, just having 
fun," Garner, who is black, said last week outside Room 404 in the 
Criminal Justice Center, where defendants enroll in the SAM program.

"The whole process is wasting time and money," he said. "You're 
wasting space having me in jail for weed."

'You're out the door'

There is a better way to do this. Not just in states with more 
progressive drug laws, but right here in Pennsylvania.

When Allegheny County state Rep. Paul Costa was busted a couple of 
years ago for allegedly smoking a joint with another man outside a 
Steelers game at Heinz Field, Pittsburgh cops handed him a summons 
and continued on their way. He showed up in court the next month, 
pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct and was fined 
$50 plus court costs. That's it. Pittsburgh police weren't giving 
Costa special treatment. In most cases, they don't physically arrest 
people for marijuana possession of 30 grams or less, (about an ounce).

Offenders usually receive a summons to appear in court on the 
misdemeanor charge, then the judge gives them the option to plead 
guilty to disorderly conduct, a summary offense, and pay a fine 
ranging from $100 to $350.

"We fine you and you're out the door," said Lt. Daniel Herrmann, 
acting commander of the Pittsburgh police narcotics and vice unit. 
"It helps our overcrowding problem. It eliminates a lot of steps, so 
we don't have a detective tied up for two hours with paperwork."

Defense attorney Phillip DiLucente, who represented Costa in the 
marijuana case, said Pittsburgh's policy makes sense - no matter 
where you stand in the national debate on decriminalizing or 
legalizing marijuana.

"I think Pittsburgh is being proactive and progressive in the way 
they're handling this particular offense," DiLucente said. "I'm not a 
big pro-drug activist saying, 'Legalize this' and 'legalize that.' 
[This is] coming from someone whose stance on drugs is pretty firm."

In August, Chicago began issuing citations for marijuana possession 
of up to 15 grams; in November, voters in Colorado and Washington 
approved ballot initiatives legalizing the recreational use of 
marijuana; and, last week, Rhode Island became the 14th state to 
eliminate criminal penalties for marijuana possession. Last week's 
Pew Research Center poll found that a majority of Americans support 
legalizing marijuana.

"The way the laws are changing lately," Herrmann said, "pretty soon 
we might not be writing anything."

Millions could be saved

The SAM program has reduced court costs by an estimated $2 million a 
year, but police are still sending in marijuana cases as if nothing 
has changed.

Chris Goldstein, a local marijuana activist who pushed for the 
creation of the SAM program when Williams took office in 2010, 
estimates that police could save an additional $2 million to $3 
million a year with a Pittsburgh-style approach. Every hour a cop 
spends locking someone up for weed is an hour that he can't patrol 
the streets or respond to a more serious crime.

"That's money on the table they could put right back into the 
public-safety budget," Goldstein said.

Lt. John Stanford, a Philadelphia police spokesman, said the 
department believes that state law requires its officers to perform a 
custodial arrest of people who possess marijuana.

"We have to proceed in that manner. It's state law," Stanford said. 
Asked about Pittsburgh's policy, he said: "That's not the way that 
it's supposed to be done."

"The most appropriate way to do it is the way that we are doing it," 
Stanford said. "A summons wouldn't be the appropriate way."

Attorney Daniel-Paul Alva, a former prosecutor in the D.A.'s 
narcotics unit and a speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, 
said police brass and other city officials could choose to 
deprioritize minor marijuana cases.

"Do they have to make all these arrests? Absolutely not," Alva said. 
"The police and district attorney can say, 'Enough is enough,' but 
they haven't. They' re choosing to do this."

Racial disparity

The vast majority of people arrested for marijuana possession in 
Philadelphia are black, according to two audits performed by the 
American Civil Liberties Union and the law firm Kairys, Rudovsky, 
Messing & Feinberg.

On a recent visit to Room 404, every defendant who walked out was 
black. Studies have shown that whites smoke marijuana more than blacks.

"Philadelphia still stands out, weirdly, with a set of expensive and 
overly harsh prohibition policies that tend to target people of 
color," Goldstein said.

Between September and November 2012, for example, African-Americans 
made up 84 percent of the city's marijuana-only arrests; 6 percent 
were white, according to the report. Even in some predominantly white 
districts, mostly young black men were getting arrested for marijuana.

"It raises concerns that the laws are being applied in a racially 
discriminatory manner," said attorney Paul Messing. "I think a lot of 
it relates back to the stop-and-frisk initiative. They're stopping 
hundreds of thousands of people and they're not coming up with much 
contraband or stolen property or weapons."

What they are finding, Messing said, is personal quantities of 
marijuana, like nickel bags and dime bags.

Williams declined to say whether he would prefer the drug to be 
legalized or decriminalized statewide, or whether he believes Philly 
police should adopt a summons-based approach for processing marijuana cases.

"Ultimately, it is up to the General Assembly in Harrisburg if they 
are going to change the law," Williams said. But, he added, "I'm not 
opposed to seeing the best practices - in Pittsburgh or Peoria."

Garner, the Germantown resident who was busted with a small bag of 
pot last year, said he'll pay the $200 and go to the Saturday drug 
class. But he's not going to stop smoking it.

"I'm stressed out. It's a crazy world out there," he said. "I could 
have been robbing people or stealing cars, but if I'm home smoking 
weed, I don't feel like doing that. It keeps me out of trouble."

Fred Stanley, who said he was arrested by undercover cops for half a 
bag of marijuana two doors from his Southwest Philly house, walked 
out of Room 404 with a defiant and disgusted look on his face. 
Stanley, 54, is one of the few people who didn't choose to enroll in 
the SAM program.

"I ain't giving them $200. I ain't giving them s---. They can kiss my 
ass," Stanley said. "They're getting ready to legalize it anyway. I'm 
going to wait these motherf---ers out."

He then hopped on his bike and rode down Filbert Street.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom