From Our Point of View Pot Law Changes An Exponent With Risks

IF ANN ARBOR's new marijuana ordinance stands up to court tests, it seems likely that the day of the pot bust will have passed for the most part. Priorities have to be set somewhere, and the emphasis properly should be on curbing hard drugs. The penalty for use, possession or sale of marijuana has been reduced to a five dollar fine, or equivalent to a parking violation. The comparison may be favorable in another instance, e.g., one ignores the law (as some ignore parking tickets) at one's own risk. Some, if not most, of the public's worst fears about marijuana have been dispelled by studies and medical evidence. Mayor Harris rightly says that we should not "criminalize drugs like marijuana," as the criminal penalties "do more harm than the drugs themselves." AT FIRST blush it appears that Ann Arbor is going off the deep end and yielding to irresponsible urging from the "street people," but the city was already going in the direction of drug law reform with an earlier ordinance calling for marijuana penalties less than those set by state law. While Council Republicans are correct in pointing out that medical evidence to date does not rule out harm for at least some persons through use of marijuana, the nation-wide trend is a shifting of enforcement emphasis from pot to hard drugs. At the same time, school educational programs on drug abuse are becoming more sophisticated, and the hope is that young people will see pot smoking as something better left alone. Democratic Councilman Robert Faber's irritation over the new ordinance being taken as a victory for the Human Rights Party is a little surprising. Let's face it it was. The Democrats are in the position of playing follow-the-leader on this one. WE'LL HAVE to see whether putting pot penalties on a par with parking violations earns Ann Arbor the sobriquet of dope capital of the Midwest, as suggested at the Council meeting Monday, or whether the new law works effectively as a mature approach to marijuana use. Police harassment of pot users was already on the decline and a punitive law has been changed to one more lenient. Violators may pay their five dollar fine with as little enthusiasm and as much controlled hostility as many people pay their parking tickets. The small number of arrests made in Ann Arbor in recent weeks under the present marijuana ordinance makes it appear that the lessening of penalties won't really mean much. A possible danger is that the word getting around that Ann Arbor is easy on drug offenders will attract more of the undesirable element associated with the use and sale of hard drugs. "Being first" is not without its hazards.