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Pepper Seeks Bigger Pot Penalty
Says misdemeanor treatment encourages drug markets in Cincinnati
Gregory Korte | Cincinnati Enquirer | 06/03/2005

Cincinnati City Council could vote next week on an ordinance that would criminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana - even a single joint - increasing the maximum penalty from a $100 ticket now to as much as 60 days in jail.

Possession of small amounts of marijuana - up to 100 grams, or about 3.5 ounces - is a minor misdemeanor under both state law and city ordinance. The penalty is equivalent to a civil citation: up to a $100 fine with no possibility of jail.

Cops call those citations "weed tickets," equivalent to jaywalking or spitting on the sidewalk.

"This is not about marijuana per se. It's about open-air drug markets," said Democrat David Pepper, who introduced the ordinance - without any other sponsors - at Thursday's meeting of City Council.

"Right now, you'd be better off holding the marijuana in your hand than throwing it on the ground - because if you throw it on the ground, that's littering," said Pepper, who chairs the Law & Public Safety Committee. Pepper, who said he has never smoked pot, plans to hold a committee hearing Tuesday.

Because Kentucky law allows 12 months in jail and a $500 fine for holding any amount of marijuana, street-level dealers come to Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine to peddle their wares, Pepper said.

Pepper "is looking at crime in Cincinnati and looking at ways to affect it," said Capt. Paul Humphries, commander of the police department's vice and drug units. "I love the fact that this is coming to people's attention."

Advocates for the decriminalization of marijuana said the ordinance would reverse a nationwide trend toward leniency.

"People think of liberal places like California, Oregon, or New York," said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in Washington, D.C. "But I always count Ohio - the state itself - as having the most pragmatic and tolerant marijuana laws in the contiguous United States."

Those convicted of marijuana possession could be barred from certain kinds of employment, federal student loans, or from having unrelated criminal convictions expunged, St. Pierre said.

Both Pepper's council office and his mayoral campaign distributed news releases announcing the proposal.

E-mail gkorte@enquirer.com.

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