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Misdemeanor Drug Court Opening Today
Program aims at first-time pot offenders
Joe Kollin | Sun-Sentinel.com | 09/09/2005

In an attempt to keep drug offenders out of trouble and save money for taxpayers, a Broward judge today is launching Misdemeanor Drug Court, a one-year test program aimed strictly at marijuana users.

It is the first such court in the nation, according to the National Drug Court Institute in Alexandria, Va.

Broward already has attracted national attention with its 14-year-old Drug Court, which deals with drug offenses that carry sentences of at least five years in prison and $5,000 fines. In Florida, possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

The program is the brainchild of Broward County Judge Gisele Pollack, who spent a decade as an assistant public defender in Drug Court. She holds the first session today in the South Regional County Courthouse in Hollywood but also will hear cases from other areas of Broward.

"Keeping the community safer is the primary purpose," Pollack said. "We found that 57 percent of crime in the United States is marijuana-related and this isn't the marijuana that people of the '60s used. It is a new marijuana loaded with harmful chemicals that are extremely addictive and account for an extremely high number of emergency room visits, tax dollars, crime and traffic fatalities."

Up to 200 offenders will be allowed to participate in the program, which is open to those 18 and older with no record of selling or distributing drugs and no history of violence.

Once accepted, they will be required to receive drug counseling and, if necessary, treatment. They also face random drug Tests.

But they won't be convicted of a crime, which means they won't lose their drivers' licenses for two years and won't have criminal records.

With a limit of 200, Pollack wants only offenders interested in helping themselves. She doesn't expect to have a problem finding them, even though many probably could negotiate a guilty plea and pay a small fine instead.

"Many people say, `Judge, I will do anything, just let me keep my license, driving is my livelihood," said Doug Hughes, executive director of the Broward-Dade Safety Council and the state's drug czar under former Gov. Bob Martinez.

"Many just don't want a conviction on a drug charge, even a misdemeanor, because it can affect their employability or ability to get financial aid," said Hughes, who helped Pollack create the new court.

Individuals in the program will pay the cost of their education, evaluation and, if necessary, their treatment.

Hughes said a recent study showed 900 emergency room admissions in Broward last year stemmed from marijuana overdoses.

"The court will address a myth permeating society that marijuana is not a drug and can't be addictive," said Karen Freeman-Wilson, a retired judge who is chief executive of the National Drug Court Institute, where Pollack is a faculty member.

Joe Kollin can be reached at jkollin@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7913

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Buzzby

This is real "Through the Looking Glass" stuff. You make a relatively benign herb that is the second most popular recreational drug in the country illegal. Possession of it becomes a crime. Then you say "57 percent of crime in the United States is marijuana-related". This is true only because 700,000 people get arrested every year for marijuana and 90% of them are arrested for possession. Circular reasoning.


Today's marijuana contains exactly the same "chemicals" marijuana has always contained. Their addictive potential is somewhat less than that of coffee. Tax dollars spent and "crime" are due only to prohibition. Emergency room visits attributed to marijuana are generally due to something else but the patient mentions marijuana in addition to the primary reason for the visit. As far as I know, there are no statistics available about traffic fatalities involved with marijuana alone. Most are drunks who have also smoked some weed or someone involved smoked some weed sometime in the last month and tests positive.


"Judge, I'll pretend to agree with your bullsh*t about marijuana if you'll just let me keep my license so I can go on earning a living."


The court will promote it's own ludicrous mythology, enforced by the power of the state to imprison and do away with a person's ability to make a living.

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CheebaMonkey

Opening a court just to handle misdemeanor drug cases? Has it dawned on them that if they really wanted to help people out and also save taxpayer money, they wouldn't have the WoD in the first place?

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WNB

Drug courts are designed to keep people locked into the criminal justice system for as long as possible, not to help them. Any fool can see that involvement in the system is a lot more damaging than pot use for the user.

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PotShot

Marijuana overdose? WTF does that mean? Who in their right mind would say such a thing? ....

Eww, drug czars are ickey.

Regardless of all the boondoggle that serves are reasoning to begin this "test court", I must view it as something good. No criminal record is a good thing, no person should have a criminal record for using cannabis. Criminal records since 1998 have had the nasty habit of getting in the way of going to college and improving your life.

They just need to extend this lack of criminal record idea to all cannabis users.

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Abomonog

There must be an awfully large amount of people going to hospitals complaining of headaches because they smoked too much in Florida.

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