The Wichita Metropolis Council is poised to repeal the town’s marijuana legal guidelines, making the state’s largest metropolis the least restrictive on marijuana possession in Kansas.
On Tuesday, the Metropolis Council will vote on whether or not to decriminalize possession of lower than 32 grams of marijuana within the metropolis limits. If that passes, marijuana instances may not be filed in municipal court docket.
The change wouldn’t have an effect on state and federal prohibitions on marijuana. Wichita police may nonetheless arrest folks for marijuana possession or use it as a purpose to look their property.
However any prison fees must be filed by Sedgwick County District Legal professional Marc Bennett, who instructed The Eagle his workplace doesn’t have the capability to tackle the town’s minor marijuana instances, or Kansas Legal professional Normal Derek Schmidt, who sometimes doesn’t prosecute native drug instances.
Mayor Brandon Whipple mentioned the proposal goals to chop down on arrests and prosecutions of marijuana customers.
“Nobody deserves a prison document that follows them for his or her total lives as a result of they determined to make use of marijuana or THC merchandise which are authorized in each state that surrounds us,” Whipple mentioned.
In response to the town, a mean of 750 to 850 possession of marijuana instances are filed yearly in Wichita Municipal Court docket. Whipple mentioned these convictions make it tougher for these folks to seek out and hold jobs. Though the Metropolis Council can’t change state regulation, Whipple mentioned he hopes the police division will deal with fixing extra critical crimes than marijuana possession.
“The Wichita Police Division instructed (the Metropolis Council) that they’re actually not prioritizing single-use THC instances as a purpose to deliver folks to court docket,” Whipple mentioned. “However they’ve been bringing two or three folks a day to court docket, so we actually need the precise apply to match what the voters have requested for and what some us thought was occurring already.”
The proposed Wichita ordinance would additionally decriminalize possession of fentanyl check strips, used to detect the presence of the highly effective artificial opiate inflicting an alarming variety of deadly overdoses throughout the nation.
So far, no prison fees for illegal possession of fentanyl testing strips have been filed within the metropolis’s municipal court docket.
Authorized grey space
Nationwide, marijuana legal guidelines are murky.
The federal authorities considers it an unlawful, Schedule I drug — extra tightly regulated than cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl.
However most states have legalized or decriminalized marijuana possession for medical or leisure use, together with surrounding states Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri and Oklahoma.
Kansas is one in every of 11 states the place marijuana is totally prohibited. So even when the proposed Wichita ordinance change passes, possession of marijuana and related paraphernalia would stay unlawful in Kansas.
It will be as much as the district lawyer or state lawyer basic to prosecute these instances.
Bennett, the Sedgwick County prosecutor, mentioned it’s unlikely his workplace may deal with the variety of instances the town has been submitting in opposition to folks for small quantities of marijuana. It may be costly for his workplace to pursue these instances.
“My workplace doesn’t have the capability to easily take up 750+ instances yearly,” Bennett mentioned in a written assertion. “The county must additionally take up the prices related to paying for protection attorneys for indigent defendants because the county handles cost for misdemeanor appointments.”
However Bennett didn’t rule out submitting fees.
“So far as what we are going to do if instances are offered, we are going to have a look at the information, the context (prison historical past, nature or purpose for regulation enforcement contact, and so forth), and decide on a case by case foundation,” he wrote.
Legal professional Normal Derek Schmidt, the Republican candidate for governor, didn’t reply to a request for remark Monday afternoon. His workplace has moved to dam earlier efforts by Wichita to reduce penalties for marijuana possession.
In 2015, a poll initiative aiming to reduce penalties for the possession of small quantities of marijuana was authorised by 54% of Wichita voters. Schmidt bought the initiative struck down by the Kansas Supreme Court docket on a technicality.
Democratic candidate for Legal professional Normal Chris Mann, who’s operating in opposition to Republican Kris Kobach, indicated he’s not in favor of the Wichita change.
“Any efforts round marijuana legalization or decriminalization have to happen on the state stage in coordination with regulation enforcement,” Mann mentioned in a written assertion to The Eagle. “When now we have cities making a patchwork of various legal guidelines all around the state, that makes it tougher for regulation enforcement to do their jobs.
“I handled that personally as a police officer and prosecutor,” he wrote. “I do know legislators in Topeka labored over the summer season to deliver marijuana laws to the ground in 2023. We should always wait to see the outcomes of that effort earlier than making issues difficult for our officers on the streets.”
Kobach didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Because it stands, native regulation enforcement can use the odor of marijuana as the premise to cease, detain or search an individual.
“Although not charged in Municipal Court docket as a prison offense, the possession of those unlawful substances will nonetheless be mentioned and made identified to the court docket to determine possible trigger for the officer to cease and/or search the car,” a Wichita metropolis employees evaluation states.
Wichita Police Division spokesperson Juan Rebolledo mentioned the division wouldn’t touch upon the proposed ordinance earlier than the council vote. The Metropolis Council and police division clashed over the difficulty throughout a workshop in July, when interim Chief Lem Moore, who’s retiring this month, mentioned officers don’t have discretion to implement the state’s marijuana legal guidelines.
Esau Freeman, a Wichita service staff union chief and one of many organizers who spearheaded the 2015 poll initiative, mentioned taking steps to decriminalize marijuana will assist Wichita’s efforts to draw and retain expertise.
“It’s one thing that’s on its solution to being a nationwide development, and I feel the earlier that Wichita accepts it and quits placing their residents in jeopardy for easy possession or use of marijuana, the extra appetizing the town of Wichita shall be,” Freeman mentioned. “I feel the Metropolis Council’s doing an amazing factor with it.
“They’re sending a message to residents and younger those who we’re not caught again within the Nineteen Thirties.”
This story was initially printed September 12, 2022 6:33 PM.