Johnson County election puts marijuana in spotlight

IOWA CITY — More lenient views on marijuana use have sparked a national debate in recent years, and an upcoming election has Johnson County joining the conversation.

A candidate for Johnson County Attorney, John Zimmerman, said if he is elected, his office will not prosecute people arrested for possessing marijuana if the drug is for their personal use.

He is challenging Janet Lyness, the county attorney since 2007. She said marijuana cases are not a priority for her, and she started a program that may be unique in Iowa that lets many offenders avoid jail time.

The two Democrats face off in the June 3 party primary. The winner moves on to the November general election, which at this time has no other declared candidates.

Zimmerman, who graduated from the University of Iowa College of Law in December, has made marijuana use a chief issue in the campaign. He lists the end of prosecutions for it, along with public intoxication, first on the campaign platform on his website.

The local debate comes at a time laws on marijuana, which the federal government classifies alongside what it considers the most dangerous drugs, are being reviewed in communities and states across America.

Most notably, Washington state and Colorado residents in 2012 voted to legalize small amounts of marijuana for people 21 and older.

Twenty states and Washington, D.C., allow medical marijuana to some degree — an issue Iowa state lawmakers have discussed this year.

And other states and local jurisdictions have decriminalized pot, often by ending jail time and even criminal records for people caught with small amounts.

'It's a political no-brainer, frankly, regardless of one's party affiliation,' said Allen F. St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML.

He pointed to polls showing a majority of Americans favor decriminalizing or even legalizing marijuana, including a Gallup poll last October finding 58 percent support legalization.

What's more, in the Midwest there is a tradition of the home cities of flagship public universities having looser regulations on marijuana than the states they are in, St. Pierre said. That includes Urbana, Ill., Madison, Wis., and Ann Arbor, Mich.

Most places still have criminal or civil citations for marijuana possession, St. Pierre said, and it is rare for a prosecutor not to enforce a law at all.

But that's exactly what Zimmerman is proposing for Johnson County. He gave two main reasons for supporting recreational marijuana. For one, he considers it a victimless crime that is a waste of law enforcement resources.

Also, he cites the racial disparity in marijuana arrests.

An American Civil Liberties Union report last year found that Iowa had the highest racial disparity in marijuana possession arrest rates in the nation, with black people eight times more likely than white people to be arrested.

Johnson County had the third worst rate among Iowa's 99 counties.

'Big segments of our community do not experience law enforcement as serving and protecting them but as looking for reasons to arrest them,' Zimmerman said, adding he has never smoked marijuana.

Lyness noted the stats in the report were from 2010 and before. In July 2010 she started a diversion program for first-time offenders caught with pot.

It is now open to people who have not been convicted of a felony or received two deferred judgments.

Participants who complete the treatment and educational program have their charges dismissed.

From 2010 through mid-April, 332 people had successfully completed the program, 136 failed, 71 chose not to participate and 46 were still in it.

Lyness said marijuana possession is a low priority for her office.

'Frankly, my diversion program is probably one of the most liberal things we have in the state of Iowa,' Lyness said.

The Iowa Attorney General's Office said it is not aware of another marijuana diversion program in Iowa. It also does not know of a county that does not prosecute for marijuana offenses.

On the racial disparity in the criminal justice system, Lyness said local officials for years have tried to improve the situation for minors, for all offenses, especially in trying to decrease calls to the police from schools.

A systematic approach will be needed for adults, too, she said.

Lyness said having a policy to never prosecute for a particular crime is inappropriate because county attorneys are sworn to uphold the law and it's up to state lawmakers to change the law.

Prosecutors have a lot of discretion on whether to bring charges in cases, however, said Paul Gowder, who teaches professional standards at the UI College of Law.

He cited the decisions by President Barack Obama's administration to not challenge the Colorado and Washington marijuana laws and to not defend in court the federal Defense of Marriage Act on same-sex marriage.

'So it's fairly normal for law enforcement at all levels to choose which laws and which offenders are going to be prosecuted with its limited resources,' said Gowder, who had Zimmerman in a class and is a supporter of his campaign but said his views on prosecutorial discretion are separate of that.

Zimmerman said if elected he'd look at policies in states with medical marijuana for guidance on setting an amount of marijuana someone could have without being prosecuted.

Bob Rigg, a criminal law professor at Drake University Law School, agreed that a prosecutor has a great amount of discretion, but he doesn't think it's realistic to have a blanket policy on not charging people for certain offenses.

Rigg said one potential problem with a no-prosecute policy is drug investigations. Law enforcement may not care much about the person who bought pot, but they leverage buyers, with the threat of jail, to catch dealers and suppliers, he said.

Also, what happens if an arrest occurs in Johnson County as part of a case that involves officers from other counties and the state, he wondered. Another consideration is that Interstate 80, which runs through Johnson County, is a major drug trafficking corridor, Rigg said.

'You're still stuck back in a case-by-case analysis,' he said.

Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek agreed it would be an issue.

'It would definitely inhibit investigations because, quite frankly, oftentimes marijuana users and dealers are the ones we end up using to go on up the food chain, if you will,' he said.

He added that he wishes Iowa would make possession of a small amount of marijuana a less serious offense without jail time.

Stan Garnett didn't find that to be a problem, however. He is the district attorney in Boulder County, Colo., which like Johnson County is a liberal community home to a large public university.

After he took office in 2009, he quickly learned juries would not convict people charged only with possession of marijuana. So he made it a low priority for his office.

Then, when Colorado voters in November 2012 legalized the personal use of marijuana, he stopped prosecuting cases altogether. The sale of recreational marijuana did not start until this year.

Garnett said the 'old model' of arresting someone for possession and threatening to prosecute if he doesn't give up his dealer works OK with harder drugs, but not marijuana because there are so many sources to obtain pot. In his experience, the best way to go after suppliers and large-scale dealers is with wiretaps and major undercover operations.

'The reality is possession of and use of small amounts of marijuana does not have much public safety impact,' he said. 'Frankly, possession and use of liquor is a much bigger public safety problem for us.'

That said, Garnett isn't sure he would have done what he did without clear guidance from the voters.

Zimmerman, though, said the national trend supports his view and he believes no matter who is elected Johnson County Attorney, people will still smoke marijuana. It's just a matter of whether they get in legal trouble for it, he said.

'That marijuana is even illegal is like a vestige of the past,' he said. 'It's like when there were still anti-sodomy laws throughout the country.'

Lyness said it's not the county attorney's place to lead the community in that direction.

She also said this election is about more than marijuana and touted her experience as an attorney and as a manager of a county department.

Comments: (319) 339-3175; gregg.hennigan@sourcemedia.net