Alachua County commissioners and county attorney Michele Lieberman are in the process of investigating whether the county can legally begin issuing civil citations for marijuana possession — a move similar to Miami-Dade County, which voted June 30 to allow police to issue $100 civil citations or give the option of community service for the possession of up to 20 grams of marijuana.
According to County Commissioner Robert Hutchinson, there is a way to stop misdemeanor marijuana arrests with the cooperation of multiple parties.
“There is this new route,” he said. “And what it requires is basically a formal agreement between the judiciary, the prosecutors, chief law enforcement officers like the sheriff and the county commission.”
The inquiry into the legality of the proposal has been a longstanding issue between the Alachua County Commission and the sheriff’s office.
• • •
In a July 2013 County Commission meeting, Hutchinson stated his intention to erase arrests for small amounts of marijuana.
He announced he wanted the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office to stop arresting people for misdemeanor marijuana charges and planned to use the sheriff’s office’s budget as an incentive.
The budget would be cut unless Hutchinson and the commission saw improvements — or a decrease in the amount of misdemeanor marijuana arrests.
Hutchinson said this could lead to officers being at risk for losing promotions or raises if they continue to make arrests for a crime the commission felt was doing more harm than good.
Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell was against the suggestion.
At the meeting, she said marijuana is illegal, and she can’t ignore the law or the complaints of residents who report drug activity.
She said the commission was overstepping its authority, and the proposal appeared dead.
“I asked the sheriff if she would de-prioritize these types of things, and she said no,” Hutchinson said. “So I said, ‘Tell you what, I’ll give you a year to think about it, and we’ll have this conversation next year at budget time.’”
But the proposal to stop misdemeanor marijuana arrests was successful in contributing to the nationwide conversation concerning the cost-benefit of arresting people for misdemeanor marijuana possession.
The commission and Darnell left the meeting without resolution because the ACSO didn’t plan to alter its policies, and Hutchinson expected to see gradual change.
• • •
Two years later, Hutchinson appears unsatisfied with the lack of change — more so considering the aboutface marijuana has undergone in the U.S.
In August 2013, the U.S. Justice Department announced it would no longer challenge states with laws legalizing recreational marijuana. On Jan. 1, 2014, Colorado legalized recreational marijuana.
In total, 40 states and the District of Columbia have either decriminalized possession, legalized recreational marijuana or allowed for non-euphoric medicinal marijuana.
The concept of medicinal marijuana has existed in American society since 1996, with the passing of California Proposition 215 advocating the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes.
Yet it took until Dec. 16, 2014, for the U.S. to announce it would no longer prohibit medical marijuana on a federal level.
Despite the dissolution of a federal roadblock that would prohibit medical marijuana in Florida, the state only allows for a limited strain of non-euphoric marijuana typically called Charlotte’s Web.
The strain was signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott on June 16, 2014, and experts believe it will be accessible by the end of 2015.
• • •
With the evolution of marijuana laws in the U.S., Hutchinson expected Darnell to report fewer marijuana cases to the commission.
But in May, Darnell told the commission that misdemeanor marijuana cases in Alachua County rose by 23 percent over the one-year period from 2013 to 2014.
Of the 253 reported marijuana cases in 2014, 25 — or about 10 percent — resulted in arrest.
As for the others:
76 cases resulted in a notice to appear.
39 cases resulted in the issuing of a sworn complaint.
25 cases resulted in the issuing of juvenile civil citations.
88 cases resulted in warnings.
Within Gainesville city limits, Gainesville Police spokesman Officer Ben Tobias reports 1,261 minor marijuana arrests in 2013, and 1,004 in 2014.
In a special meeting in June, Hutchinson said he had amended the ACSO’s budget due to repeated arrests for misdemeanor marijuana possession.
“The second year we did a little budget adjustment based on the fact she was uncooperative,” Hutchinson said at the meeting. “I don’t know what we’re going to do the third year.”
Despite its legality, Darnell immediately questioned the move, calling it inappropriate.
“It no longer makes sense to put somebody in jail, potentially ruining their life and potentially cost all of us a lot of money,” Hutchinson said at the meeting. “I really want the deputies to hear ‘Sorry, you didn’t get your raise because you’re busting people.’”
• • •
This is not the first time issues have existed between the commission and Sheriff Darnell over the ACSO’s budget.
In a June 17, 2014, presentation titled “Agency Highlights and Challenges,” Darnell made it clear that her priority is to give employees raises.
On one of the slides Darnell presented, it stated, “My priority is for employees to receive raises. Much needed after so many years without, now with a slight economic up-turn this needs to be the focus. Needed to address pay equity, compression issues and turnover.”
In an editorial to The Gainesville Sun on March 27, Darnell said she was informed in Sept. 2014 that her budget was being reduced by $1.5 million.
She said she responded by submitting a request to the commission to reinstate nearly $1 million of the budget for capital items and deputy raises.
The commissioners, in a majority vote, agreed to fund the capital items but not deputy raises.
The commission allotted her $500,000 — about half of the money left over from the 2013 budget — believing it would be spent on capital items.
“At the end of budget, we said ‘Here’s the one-time, $500,000 capital money for vehicle purchases’ and she said ‘Thank you,’” Hutchinson said.
Instead, Darnell rewarded ACSO deputies with raises reportedly identical to the ones that every county and constitutional office employee was set to receive.
Darnell said that because it is the sheriff’s office’s budget, it is her decision where to allocate money.
“She looked at the situation, looked at her cops and looked at the cars and decided her cops needed it more,” Hutchinson said. “And legally she can do that.”
The commission and ACSO were in disagreement again — highlighting a transparency issue between Hutchinson and Darnell.
• • •
While Hutchinson and the rest of the commission focus on making changes through the budget and policies, Commissioner Ken Cornell is drawing attention to the effect that non-violent crimes, such as misdemeanor marijuana possession, have on the individual.
Cornell cites a problem that has stretched across the nation: a prevalence of minor drug arrests and a lack of resources within jails.
He hopes to implement policies that would shift minor marijuana crimes from arrests to civil citations or a notice to appear in court.
“There’s a real problem all across the country with people that are getting arrested for minor marijuana and arrested and booked into jail,” Cornell said. “Because they don’t have resources they then sit in the jail and wait a week, two weeks, three weeks before their first appearance. There’s a cost to society. In addition, there’s a huge cost to that individual.”
Time spent in jail can create a vicious cycle, Cornell said. The person could potentially lose his or her job or have to overcome obstacles when applying for other jobs.
“That question ‘Have you ever been arrested?’ is a different answer if they just got a ticket,” Cornell said. “And that’s what I’m focused on.”
Cornell said that for 2012 and 2013, the sheriff’s office computed the cost of jail per day per person as $85.
But that only applies to the jail expenses and does not include costs paid to the judicial system, court services, judges and the arresting officers.
“(The $85 is) one very small piece,” he said, “and that doesn’t even mention the cost to the person.”
Mental health is a major component as well, Cornell said. He added that Darnell reported a 25 percent rate of mental illness in the county.
About 1.6 percent of inmates in Alachua County self-report having a mental illness, according to a report. However, more than 30 percent of inmates receive medication for some sort of mental illness while in the jail.
In 2014, the county received a $1.2 million grant from the Criminal Justice, Mental Health and Substance Abuse Grant Planning Committee, part of which will focus on putting people with mental illnesses in treatment facilities rather than in jail.
Essentially, upon making contact with a mentally ill person committing a minor offense, an officer can offer him or her the option to seek treatment rather than jail time.
“As a society, we are storing our mental health patients in jail,” Cornell said. “That just makes no sense to me at all.”
• • •
Social issues aside, Hutchinson said if there’s any sheriff prepared to lead the ACSO into a future where marijuana is decriminalized, it’s Darnell.
“She is a great advocate for things I care about, like increased mental health funding,” he said. “I think she’s one of the leaders in the state, if not the nation, in teaching our cops de-escalation techniques.”
Common sense dictates that a situation would have a lesser chance of escalating if a person were cited for misdemeanor marijuana possession rather than facing arrest and possible jail time.
“Because it is the criminalization that causes the problems, the associated problems with crime, the underground economy and so-forth,” Hutchinson said.
• • •
Darnell and the County Commission are in agreeance: The policing of marijuana needs to be addressed at both federal and state levels.
The path to lessening or cutting marijuana-related arrests can be felt across the nation, in pieces of legislation, in presentations at county commission meetings and in ballots.
A poll conducted by the Pew Research Center earlier this year shows that 53 percent of all adults favor the legal use of marijuana. Millennials still stand at the forefront of this issue, with 68 percent of those born between 1981 and 1997 being in favor of the legal use of marijuana.
“Marijuana criminalization is clearly something that society is moving away from,” Hutchinson said.
As attitudes toward marijuana legalization continue to shift, pieces of legislation are frequently being presented in its favor.
The Compassionate Access, Research Expansion, and Respect States Act of 2015 (CARERS) aims to move marijuana out of the Schedule 1 list, which includes heroin, LSD, ecstasy and mescaline.
Sponsored by Sen. Cory Booker, the act also aims to take down the DEA-imposed National Institute for Drug Abuse monopoly that blocks research.
In addition, CARERS seeks to allow Veterans Administration physicians to write recommendations in states that have medical marijuana programs and allow states to operate without federal interference.
Other measures include allowing legal marijuana businesses to have access to banking services.
Editor’s note: The Alligator sent the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office multiple requests for comment that were denied or not returned.
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 8/5/15]
