OSHKOSH, WI — A forum in Oshkosh Wednesday night discussed legalizing marijuana in Wisconsin. The forum hosted by the Fox Valley ACLU, featured medical experts and law enforcement. In the November election, Colorado and Washington became the first two states to legalize recreational marijuana. Wednesday, the panel discussed why Wisconsin should be next. But opponents say pot is a gateway drug that could fall into the wrong hands, like teens and youth, and could lead to harder drugs.
WBAYWinnebago County -
A group in the Fox Valley is working to educate the public as it explores the legalization of marijuana in Wisconsin.
An open forum on legalizing marijuana in Wisconsin is taking place Wednesday night at the Oshkosh Public Library.
Jay Selthofner from NORML is one of the panelists.
He says in addition to jobs that could be created in the agricultural sector, medicinal marijuana would benefit the chronically ill and disabled, and the decriminalization of it would take stress off the judicial system.
“If we look at it to alcohol and nicotine, the model of Prohibition does not work in Wisconsin and does not work in the U.S.,” Selthofner says, “so a different model rather than prohibition would be some sort of legalization/regulation, would be much more advantageous for us as a state.”
Tracy Christensen is a clinical therapist with ThedaCare behavioral health. She sees firsthand the effects of addiction.
According to Christensen, “With any use of any substance it can, initially people may get positive effects but it can definitely cause medical problems.”
And local police say legalizing marijuana just adds another problem to the street.
“The majority of our crimes in the county are tied to drug use, and we battle a huge problem with OWI’s. Legalizing marijuana just throws a whole other issue into that OWI enforcement,” says Officer Jason Weber from the Town of Menasha Police Department.
But advocates for the legalization of marijuana say that isn’t the case at all. In fact, it’s their belief if marijuana were legalized there wouldn’t be as many issues.
Selthofner says, “If we gave people a safe choice than alcohol and nicotine — and we firmly believe that marijuana is the safer choice — it is going to reduce those other things across the state the we’re concerned about.”
There are no proposals currently in the Wisconsin Legislature to legalize marijuana.
I had the chance to be featured on the “Activist Agenda” section of the 420Radio.org and was able to discuss with Radical Russ Belville the phenomenon of medical marijuana patients fleeing Wisconsin to live in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula where medical marijuana is legal. Also highlighted was the upcoming forum on legalizing marijuana, planned events for Northern Wisconsin NORML, current public polling/referendums, a little shout out to the Madison and Southeastern NORML chapters, a brief update on potential legislation for Wisconsin and a call for action for Wisconsin constituents and supporters to contact their elected officials. For those of you who cannot sit still long enough you can scroll to about 30 minutes into the podcast to catch the Wisconsin specific section.
In an effort to cut costs, it appears Wisconsin may becoming soft on crime.
The State Public Defender’s Office is seeking alternatives to certain crimes. These changes would save the State over $7.7 million in the next biennial budget.
According to “Overview of State Agency Major Request Items”, a document put together by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the Public Defender’s Office is looking to amend several crimes to become mere ordinance violations. One of those crimes…drug possession.
This is the exact wording of the proposal…
“Amend s. 961.41 of the statutes to provide that all first and second offense drug possession violations, other than for methamphetamine, involving 25 grams or less be reduced to an ordinance violation provided there is reasonable doubt that the individual was not manufacturing, distributing or delivering the drug.”
But it doesn’t stop there. The Public Defender’s Office wants to make further corrections to drug laws by making third time drug possession a misdemeanor charge.
“With low risk offenders, evidence based decision making shows they don’t need much intervention and that was the overlying theme to these issues,” Randy Kraft, Communications Director for the State Public Defender’s Office said.
Lieutenant David Poteat, Director of the Brown County Drug Task Force, calls the changes absurd.
“To say that they’re low risk offenders I don’t think is realistic. If you look at heroin in particular, that is tied to so much of our property crime in the area, it’s unreal. So people using heroin are also ones stealing from stores, stealing from homes, breaking into cars. It’s connected to so much other crime than just that,” Poteat stated.
The changes will not only cut down on 7,000 cases annually, but will reduce costs by an estimated $713,000 in 2013-14 and $1,426,000 in 2014-15.
“The justice system we have in Wisconsin does come at a price tag to our taxpayers,” Randy Kraft commented. “For us to fix some areas that need an increase in funding, we also have to identify issues where it would save monies as well.”
Kraft says in order to advance other programs, “the only way the agency could submit the increases was to identify corresponding decreases.”
Poteat disagrees.
“The Sheriff’s Department has a budget as well. Each department has to do their part to maintain that budget and keep costs down. We try to operate as efficiently as possible, but you cannot do that at the risk of the public.”
While the Public Defender’s Office is looking at decreasing the cost of crime, they’re also looking at increasing pay for assistant public defenders and private bar attorneys. The increase in salaries comes at a cost of over $9million.
But first State lawmakers must agree to the changes. If adopted, the law changes would become effective July 1, 2013.
Source: GREEN BAY, Wisc. (WFRV) http://wearegreenbay.com/1fulltext-news?nxd_id=178682
