[IVY]

MO: New Marijuana Law Pushes Limits

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Mike Owens | KSDK | 05/06/2005

If you have a student at the University of Missouri in Columbia, did you know that community has one of the most liberal marijuana laws in the midwest?

In November, voters, lead by students, according to the experts, approved to marijuana laws that relaxed the penalties.

The first law allows the use of medical marijuana and the second, the one making headlines, makes it less illegal to possess less than one and one quarter ounces of the drug.

The law says that the possession of less than 35 grams of pot should be treated as the lowest law enforcement priority, even lower than a parking ticket.

Now, prosecutors in Columbia are getting more and more marijuana cases, with the numbers up 30 percent this year over last.

The new cases are held over for a year. If the one ticketed for possession doesn't get in trouble for a year, the case is dropped. November will be the month when the cases start getting dropped.

Members of the Columbia Police Officers Association, a quasi union, are now working to change the law back. They say it creates too much confusion, and that marijuana use is linked to other crimes.

Supporters of the law, among them attorney Dan Viets, say the law is simple and easy to enforce and police now have more time to do more important things, like arrest robbers and thieves.

The police say the law was passed in November, and made it on the ballot without much debate. Viets says that's not true, adding that both passed by more than 60 percent.

If there is a new vote, it could come in August. That's when most of the students, who backed the measure, would be on summer break, presumably out of town, and unable to vote.

Students we talked with on campus generally support the measure, echoing attorney Viets' comments, that a conviction for marijuana possession, under the old law, could mean the loss of federal education loans. Now, with marijuana a minor ordinance violation, the student loans are secure.