If city commissioners decide to take a new approach to handling marijuana crimes, the impact – in terms of sheer numbers of cases – wouldn’t be huge.

Dist. Atty. Charles Branson had estimated his office would be spared two or three cases per week if marijuana-possession and drug-paraphernalia cases were directed to the more informal, streamlined municipal court rather than District Court.

But the actual number of cases might be more like one or two per week.

According to a review of court files Wednesday by the Journal-World, there were at least 139 marijuana-related cases – including simple possession, cultivation and drug dealing – filed in District Court during 2004.

Of those 139 cases, 60 could have been eligible to be tried in city court instead of District Court if the city had a marijuana-possession ordinance like the one currently proposed.

Those cases either involved marijuana-possession and drug paraphernalia charges alone, or were coupled with other minor offenses of the sort typically seen in city court, such as traffic violations or battery.

The remaining 79 likely would have remained in District Court, either because they happened outside city limits or because they involved felonies or more serious crimes that aren’t handled in city court – such as drug dealing, domestic battery or possession of cocaine.

The actual number of marijuana cases from 2004 could be slightly higher than the 139 reviewed because, on any given day, a small percentage of court files are absent from the shelves in the District Court Clerk’s office.

“That sounds about accurate,” Branson said. “My estimation was a little bit higher than that. We see probably two or three cases a week for marijuana. I don’t know that we would probably see any real noticeable impact in it from our perspective. … But I think it’s still going to be more efficient as far as the cases being processed faster.”

A newly formed group, Drug Policy Forum of Kansas, is asking the city commission to write a marijuana ordinance that would steer cases to city court. The group’s leader says the move would cut down on prosecution costs and keep Kansas University students from losing financial aid for a marijuana conviction.

“If there are five to 10 cases a month which are diverted to municipal court, then the city prosecutor’s office won’t be overloaded, and the DA’s office will have more time to prosecute persons charged with property and personal crimes,” said Laura A. Green, the group’s executive director.

It’s difficult to say exactly how much one criminal case costs in District Court. Typically, defendants are charged costs at the end of a case that can range anywhere from $400 to $1,000. A common scenario in cases where the only charge is marijuana possession is for the defendant to pay a $117 docket fee, a $100 diversion fee or a $25 probation fee, and a $400 lab-testing fee to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.

• City marijuana ordinance courted (08-24-05)

The KBI has tested drugs in virtually all marijuana cases in recent years in Douglas County before charges have been filed.

But city prosecutor Jerry Little said if cases come to municipal court, he likely would not require the suspect substance be tested unless there’s a dispute about whether it is, in fact, marijuana.

“If the person says, ‘I want to plead guilty,’ we’re not going to have it tested. There’s no point to have that $400 expense,” he said.

Little also said he likely would not require police officers to write affidavits if they seize marijuana. Instead, the person would be given a notice to appear in municipal court, much like a traffic ticket.

The estimated 139 marijuana-related cases in 2004 represented about 7 percent of the overall caseload for the District Attorney’s Office.