[420 Girl]

The Sauk County Board will consider a proposal to make possession of marijuana-related paraphernalia a violation of county ordinances.

The change would give prosecutors the discretion to simply issue a $100 forfeiture to people caught with pipes, bongs, and other pot-smoking material in Sauk County, rather than charge them as criminals.

But District Attorney Patricia Barrett, who has requested the amendment to the county’s Public Peace and Order Ordinance, says the change doesn’t make the system any easier on pot smokers, it just gives prosecutors another option.

The ordinance, last updated in 1996, already allows prosecutors to charge possession of marijuana as an ordinance violation. But it does not address the paraphernalia used to ingest the drug.

Barrett said currently, if prosecutors don’t want to charge someone found with pot paraphernalia criminally, they amend the paraphernalia possession charge to a possession of marijuana ordinance violation.

"Now that really doesn’t make a lot sense," Barrett said in a phone interview Monday. "This just gives us another option, rather than having to make up some kind of legal fiction."

Four of five members of the county board’s executive and legislative committee approved amending the ordinance during a meeting Monday morning, forwarding the rule changes to the full board for final approval two weeks from today.

Committee member Don Stevens of Loganville voted against amending the ordinance. He could not be reached for comment by phone before press time Monday.

Acting Sauk County Corporation Counsel Alene Kleczek told committee members that a review of court records found that there were 126 charges in Sauk County for misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia in 2008. And there were 35 felony possession charges in that year, she said.

The new rule would only deal with pot paraphernalia, "whereas if people are arrested for paraphernalia related to cocaine, (prosecutors) want that to be a crime," Kleczek said.

She said amending the ordinance will likely save the county a minimal amount of money because people charged with ordinance violations are not entitled to have an attorney appointed at the expense of the county. Also, the county would collect part of the forfeitures, whereas people convicted of misdemeanors and felonies pay fines to the state, she said.

Sauk County Sheriff Randy Stammen said he supports the amendment.

"I agree with District Attorney Barrett’s request for a change in the ordinance as it will offer another option for law enforcement, the prosecutor, and the public," Stammen wrote in an e-mail Monday.

About one-third of Americans now live in areas where marijuana is decriminalized, said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of NORML, a non-profit group that opposes marijuana prohibition.

The growing trend toward decriminalization shows that law enforcement agencies around the country are taking steps to focus more on issues that are most important to their community,

St. Pierre said, rather than targeting responsible marijuana users.

"Ripping the tag off your mattress is a crime, but law enforcement don’t spend a lot of time looking for those of us who rip the tag off our mattresses," he said.

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