Letter: Marijuana penalties

To the editor:

The Lawrence Police Department has received approval to set up a K-9 unit. The chief of police said the dogs will be used to, among other things, find large quantities of marijuana. This means that the dogs will ratchet up the war on drugs.

The laws in Kansas against selling marijuana were already severe when the Brownback administration introduced new legislation that made the penalties for some cases of selling marijuana harsher than the penalties for some cases of violent crime. The administration also enacted legislation that makes it harder for people convicted of selling marijuana to receive probation. Placing someone convicted of selling marijuana in prison, where they are thrown in with long-term criminals, can actually make them more prone to re-offend when they get out than they would be if they were placed on probation.

Until 2011, judges had the option of offering probation to people who sold marijuana, even people who sold lots of it, if the judge determined that they would be less likely to re-offend after probation than if they went to prison. But the new legislation sets the legal bar for probation a lot higher. The new laws require the judge to find a special reason, a “substantial and compelling” reason, in legalese, to grant probation for people selling anything over even 1 ounce of marijuana. It’s very difficult for a judge to find special circumstances for probation. This makes it likely that anyone caught selling over an ounce of marijuana in Lawrence will now spend significant time in prison.