Pubdate: Sat, 27 Jun 2015 Source: Oregonian, The (Portland, OR) Copyright: 2015 The Oregonian Contact: http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/324 Author: Jeff Mapes REMAINING MARIJUANA OFFENSES ARE BEING REDUCED BY OREGON LEGISLATURE Is it any worse to sell a teenager a joint than a six-pack of beer? That question is at the heart of the debate in the Oregon Legislature over how far to go in lowering marijuana penalties now that voters have approved recreational use of the drug for adults. Legislation is moving through Salem that would reduce penalties for a number of marijuana-related crimes so it is handled more like alcohol than an outlaw drug. "We ought to treat marijuana as we treat beer and wine," says Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, a key supporter of reducing marijuana crimes. "We're seeing a change in how this particular substance should be viewed and how it would be regulated." Supporters of lower penalties say they want to move away from a war-on-drugs mentality and help marijuana offenders erase previous convictions that have made it harder to get jobs, housing and education. Law enforcement officials and legislators - who are often wary of reducing crime sentences have largely accepted the reductions. But Prozanski wasn't able to persuade fellow legislators to drop the penalty for furnishing pot to a minor from a felony to a misdemeanor, as is the case for alcohol. "Anything involving a minor is where things get very sensitive," says Kevin Campbell, a lobbyist for the Oregon police chiefs, who predicts that "we'll still be looking at all of this" for the next several years. Rep. Andy Olson, R-Albany and a retired state cop, negotiated many of the changes with Prozanski and agreed to lower the charge for providing marijuana to a minor from a Class A felony the most serious category to a Class C felony, which carries lower penalties and is easier for judges to treat as a misdemeanor. "I couldn't get there right now" to treat giving pot to teenagers the same way you do as with booze, Olson says. "We're going to continue that discussion in the February session." The two legislators' handiwork was inserted into House Bill 3400, a sweeping marijuana regulatory bill that passed the House Wednesday on a 52-4 vote a sign of how relatively non-controversial the changes were. The bill still must clear the Senate. The legislation also would make it easier for people with marijuana convictions to have them cleared from their record. "We want to make sure it's no longer going to stigmatize them and shut a lot of doors that should be open," says Rep. Ann Lininger, D-Lake Oswego and co-chair of the marijuana committee. "If a young person makes a mistake, we want them to have a second chance." While Measure 91 contained some sentence reductions, marijuana advocates pressed Lininger and her colleagues for additional changes. So did the Bus Project, which mobilized young left-of-center activists to contact legislators in favor more lenient expungement policies. "I want people to work where they want to work, live where they want to, have a gun if they want to protect themselves," says Justin Myers, 27, who helped the Bus Project campaign. Myers pleaded guilty to a felony marijuana possession charge after he after caught with a handful of plants in his closet. He faced more serious charges because his younger sister had just moved into his Clackamas County mobile home with their father. Myers, who served four days in jail and was on probation, says he drifted from one temporary job to another for years because employers often would not consider him because of his felony conviction. Now he works at a medical marijuana dispensary, one business that didn't have an issue with his conviction. And he has adjusted to the point that he hasn't wanted to spend the money to hire a lawyer and get his conviction cleared. The impact of drug convictions has hit some communities hard, however. Rep. Lew Frederick, D-Portland, one of two African-Americans in the Legislature, says he can barely go grocery shopping without someone stopping him who want to talk about his work to change the approach to drug crimes. He managed to get some of his wording in HB 3400, which he promoted with an impassioned speech. "Every time marijuana use has been studied it has been found to be fairly evenly distributed across not just racial and ethnic communities but also across economic circumstances," he told colleagues. "Every time incarceration for marijuana offenses has been studied it has been shown to be drastically skewed toward communities of color and poor communities." "Whatever the explanations for this may be," Frederick added, "the fact is that these laws have turned large numbers of black or brown or poor citizens into criminals, while others have toked up in safety for decades." Clatsop County District Attorney Josh Marquis, who campaigned heavily against Measure 91, argues that Oregon had already gone a long way toward reducing and even eliminating prison sentences for marijuana use. "Most pot crimes could be set aside even before Measure 91 passed," he says, adding that he was skeptical of the need for another big round of reductions. However, Marquis says he and many other law enforcement officials critical of the marijuana initiative didn't think it would be productive to lobby the Legislature much on this issue. "I think there is an exhaustion factor," he says, adding that he felt like "we'd be banging our head against the wall." Still, Marquis says he is primarily concerned with preserving existing penalties for intoxicated driving and for dealing marijuana to minors. "Selling dope to high school kids certainly seems like a considerably more serious crime" than furnishing them with alcohol, he says, citing research showing the danger of marijuana to developing brains. Crime statistics show that law enforcement is already beginning a shift away from marijuana crimes, a move many officials say will accelerate as legal pot use becomes commonplace for adults. Figures from the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission showed that just 55 offenders entered a state prison in 2014 for crimes primarily related to marijuana, a small fraction of the more than 14,000 in the state corrections system. An additional 98 served local jail sentences for marijuana-related crimes. Arrests for marijuana crimes have also dropped to under 150 a month and are now at their lowest since the commission started keeping these statistics in 2006, according to research analyst Kelly Officer. "In my mind, this is a public health problem," says Doug Harcleroad, a former Lane County district attorney who now lobbies for the district attorneys' association. "My view is we don't need to be sucking the cops back in to enforcing marijuana law." [sidebar] RECLASSIFYING MARIJUANA CRIMES Here is a before and after look at changes in marijuana crimes, either through Measure 91 or in legislation moving toward approval in Salem. Possession of one ounce in public or eight ounces at home is legal as of July 1. Possession of more than 8 oz. Before: Class C felony After: Class A misdemeanor Unlawful delivery Before: B felony After: A misdemeanor Delivery to minor Before: A felony After: C felony Manufacture by minor Before: B felony After: C Felony Minor possessing over 8 oz. Before: C felony After: A misdemeanor - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom