Students, officials react to lowest priority marijuana initiative
Jack Willems
Issue date: 11/14/08 Section: News
"The initiative makes marijuana a low priority," said Greg Tabor, chief of the Fayetteville Police Department. "It has always been a low priority."
Tabor contrasted how marijuana violations are pursued by police with how driving while intoxicated is dealt with. To combat driving while intoxicated, the police go out and look for violations, but they make arrests for marijuana violations whenever they come across it, Tabor said.
Though proponents of the initiative claimed that the fact that more than 400 arrests were made for marijuana possession last year proves that it was not a low priority, this has to be compared to the more than 1,100 arrests made for driving while intoxicated, Tabor said.
The most important part of the initiative is that the city clerk is now required to annually notify the state legislature, the governor, Arkansas senators, this district's congressional representative and the president of the United States that the city has passed this initiative and requests the change of state and federal marijuana laws, Holloway said.
Members of Sensible Fayetteville hope that this is the start of a movement to decriminalize marijuana in the state as it was done in Texas and Mississippi, he said. Two members of the Arkansas House of Representatives have already started talking about a decriminalization bill, he said.
"Sensible Fayetteville is really a stepping stone towards this," Holloway said.
Lindsley Smith, representative from Fayetteville, has talked with another legislator about such a bill, but they have yet to draft anything, Smith said in an e-mail interview.
Total decriminalization would be difficult because of federal laws, but laws limiting the number of long-term lock-ups have been passed in other states, she said. Furthermore, some states have considered decriminalizing marijuana in certain areas, such as medical marijuana.
"I think the legislature would be open to ideas," Smith said, "but whether the votes are there for any legislation - it is hard to tell until a bill is drafted and it is reviewed by legislators to get a perspective on where the votes would be."
Holloway thinks a decriminalization bill will likely have to be passed through a ballot initiative, he said. Polls have shown that 62 percent of Arkansans believe that punishments for marijuana use should be reduced, Holloway said.
A recent Zogby poll found that 52 percent of Arkansans favored decriminalization, though there was a margin of error of 4 percent, he said.
"The war on drugs in this country is lost," Holloway said.
Tabor contrasted how marijuana violations are pursued by police with how driving while intoxicated is dealt with. To combat driving while intoxicated, the police go out and look for violations, but they make arrests for marijuana violations whenever they come across it, Tabor said.
Though proponents of the initiative claimed that the fact that more than 400 arrests were made for marijuana possession last year proves that it was not a low priority, this has to be compared to the more than 1,100 arrests made for driving while intoxicated, Tabor said.
The most important part of the initiative is that the city clerk is now required to annually notify the state legislature, the governor, Arkansas senators, this district's congressional representative and the president of the United States that the city has passed this initiative and requests the change of state and federal marijuana laws, Holloway said.
Members of Sensible Fayetteville hope that this is the start of a movement to decriminalize marijuana in the state as it was done in Texas and Mississippi, he said. Two members of the Arkansas House of Representatives have already started talking about a decriminalization bill, he said.
"Sensible Fayetteville is really a stepping stone towards this," Holloway said.
Lindsley Smith, representative from Fayetteville, has talked with another legislator about such a bill, but they have yet to draft anything, Smith said in an e-mail interview.
Total decriminalization would be difficult because of federal laws, but laws limiting the number of long-term lock-ups have been passed in other states, she said. Furthermore, some states have considered decriminalizing marijuana in certain areas, such as medical marijuana.
"I think the legislature would be open to ideas," Smith said, "but whether the votes are there for any legislation - it is hard to tell until a bill is drafted and it is reviewed by legislators to get a perspective on where the votes would be."
Holloway thinks a decriminalization bill will likely have to be passed through a ballot initiative, he said. Polls have shown that 62 percent of Arkansans believe that punishments for marijuana use should be reduced, Holloway said.
A recent Zogby poll found that 52 percent of Arkansans favored decriminalization, though there was a margin of error of 4 percent, he said.
"The war on drugs in this country is lost," Holloway said.
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