Lake County, Ind., to consider pot possession ordinance
Possession under 30 grams would be ticketable offense
The Lake County Council will consider Tuesday an ordinance that would make possessing under 30 grams of marijuana a ticketable offense, said Council President Ted Bilski, D-6th.
The decision comes as the county is figuring out how to comply with the state’s Criminal Rule 26, which relates to pretrial release, but also as Michigan and Illinois begin to legalize recreational marijuana, Bilski said.
“(The county) is trying to keep up with the challenges with recreational marijuana use being approved in Michigan and Illinois and controlling the jail population,” Bilski said.
Recreational marijuana sale and use is illegal in Indiana, but as of Dec. 1 the sale and possession of recreational marijuana for people 21 years old or older is legal in Michigan. The sale and possession of marijuana for adults will be legal in Illinois on Jan. 1, making it the 11th state to legalize recreational marijuana, according to data through the
National Conference of State Legislatures.
In Lake County, the potential ordinance violation would only be apply to possession of marijuana 30 grams or less, said Lake County attorney Ray Szarmach. Police officers will have discretion and can still charge someone with a criminal possession charge, he said.
“The reason we’re doing this is to have an option for the cop to give a ticket instead of throwing them in jail,” Szarmach said.
An ordinance violation is “funneling” a person through the “civil penalty system” rather than the “criminal penalty system,” said Daniel Orenstein, a visiting assistant professor of law at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law and expert on marijuana law and policy.
Under an ordinance violation, the person is ticketed and fined rather than arrested, similar to a traffic ticket, Orenstein said.
“This potential ordinance doesn’t make it legal,” Orenstein said. “It doesn’t make it legal to possess marijuana in Lake County.”
Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter said that while “it’s not an alarming amount” of people, there are many arrests for marijuana possession in the county. People facing possession charges typically avoid jail time by participating in a drug program, he said.
Carter, who strongly opposes the legalization of marijuana, first expressed concern about the county decriminalizing recreational marijuana possession when it is illegal in Indiana. But, he said he would uphold the ordinance if the county is legally able to uphold it.
“I think we have to be very careful with marijuana,” Carter said.
State governments that haven’t legalized or decriminalized recreational marijuana use but are near states that have legalized or decriminalized it find themselves in the same situation as Lake County, Orenstein said.
“This is an issue that a growing number of states are having to grapple with as state level legalization has spread, and that’s all been within the last seven years, so this is still a very new problem for a lot of states,” Orenstein said.
Legalization means that there is no penalty for possessing marijuana, Orenstein said. Decriminalization means there is no criminal penalty for possession of marijuana, but there could be a civil penalty, he said.
Marijuana is illegal under federal law, Orenstein said. Even states that have legalized or decriminalized recreational marijuana have restrictions in place, such as minors not being allowed to possess marijuana or possession over a certain amount is still illegal, he said.
Researchers are still examining the impact of legalizing and decriminalizing recreational marijuana, but some initial benefits reported are increase in sales tax revenue and a decrease in jail population and racial disparities in criminal possession charges, Orenstein said. A negative to legalizing or decriminalizing recreational marijuana that is frequently discussed, Orenstein said, is that use will increase, particularly among minors. But, initial studies show that while recreational marijuana is on the rise in these areas, the increase is among adults not minors, he said.
Initial studies also show that frequency of recreational marijuana use is increasing in states that have legalized or decriminalized it “and that’s certainly a public health concern,” Orenstein said.
States that have legalized recreational marijuana are still dealing with enforcement challenges, Orenstein said. But, “it’s a particularly challenging situation” when states, like Indiana, that haven’t legalized or decriminalized recreational marijuana are within driving distance of a state that has, Orenstein said.
“(The enforcement challenges) are magnified then across the border in a state that, like Indiana, is having to deal with folks who maybe go across the border and legally purchase this product in Illinois or Michigan and bring it back, and it’s suddenly illegal when they cross the border,” Orenstein said.
While there is “no easy answer” for Indiana officials in addressing residents that legally purchase marijuana in Illinois or Michigan, an ordinance violation is a good approach, Orenstein said.