From: NORML California <[canor m l] at [igc.apc.org]>
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs
Subject: Cal Court Panel Study Neglects Decr
Date: Mon, 05 Dec 1994 21:17:31 -0800 (PST)

      CALIFORNIA COURT PANEL IGNORES DRUG CRIMES IN 
PROPOSED LIST OF OFFENSES TO RECEIVE REDUCED PRIORITY
***PUBLIC COMMENT DUE BY DECEMBER 16th ***


      The Judicial Council of California, an official body of the 
state's court system, is excluding drug crimes from a proposal that 
certain crimes be reclassified to a lower level in order to relieve 
court and prison overcrowding.  The proposal, issued by the Criminal 
Standing Advisory Committee, is open for public comment until 
December 16, 1994.
      The proposal lists lists some 40 felonies in the Penal Code that 
it recommends be made optionally punishable as misdemeanors at 
the prosecution's discretion, including incest, pandering, misprision 
of treason, battery on a custodial officer, falsification of trial 
documents, and possession of counterfeiting equipment.   
      However, it does not include any felonies from the Health and 
Safety Code, where drug crimes are listed.  Incredibly, it states that 
the "omitted defenses [sic] do not constitute a significant part of 
the courts' docket."  Drug offenses actually account for about 25% of 
all felony arrests.  According to  Administrative Office of the Courts 
attorney John Toker, the reason that drug offenses were omitted is 
that they are too "controversial."
      The California Policy Reform Coalition is criticizing the 
proposal for giving short shrift to the drug issue.  "This is the one 
category of offenses whose criminalization is most widely 
criticized for actually increasing crime, and which many foreign 
countries are currently working to decriminalize," notes CDPRC co-
director Dale Gieringer.  
       Among the drug felonies that CDPRC argues should be included in 
the list eligible for misdemeanor prosecution are personal 
cultivation of marijuana, whose decriminalization was recommended 
by the state Research Advisory Panel in 1990,  and simple 
possession of cocaine and heroin, which account for some 40,000 
felony dispositions per year.   The CDPRC also argues that minor drug 
sales be treatable as misdemeanors like prostitution (and under the 
committee's proposal, pandering ).
      The Judicial Council report also proposes that most 
misdemeanors be made optionally punishable as infractions at the 
prosection's discretion.  It lists some 150 crimes as exceptions 
whose penalty should not be reduced. Among these are such drug 
misdemeanors as possession of paraphernalia and use or being under 
the influence of a controlled substance.  
       One drug misdemeanor not excluded for reduction to an 
infraction is adult possession of one ounce or less of marijuana or 
hashish (Health and Safety Code 11357 (a) and (b)).   Since the 
council is also proposing that infractions not be punished by any 
form of license suspensions, this would overturn California's newly 
adopted "Smoke a Joint, Lose Your License" law, which requires a 
six-month driver's license suspension for personal possession of 
marijuana.

WHERE TO GET THE REPORT
      Persons wishing to comment on the Judicial Council's proposal 
should ask for a copy of the report by the Criminal Standing Advisory 
Committee from John Toker, (415) 396-9129 / FAX (415) 396:9358 
at the Administrative Office of the Courts, 303 Second St, South 
Tower, San Francisco CA 94107.