Kane state's attorney: New pot law not affecting prosecutor workloads
A little over a month after the Illinois General Assembly decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana, Kane County State's Attorney Joe McMahon said Tuesday that the new law has had little effect so far on his prosecutors' workload.
McMahon said his office is handling about 1,000 misdemeanor possession cases, but most offenders before the law was changed ended up entering a pretrial diversion program for first-time drug offenses.
The new law, which took effect July 29, makes it a civil offense punishable by a fine up to $200 for possession of less than 10 grams of marijuana. Possession of 10 to 30 grams, which was a felony before, is now a misdemeanor.
"A lot of the cases are already in the diversion program," McMahon said. "For the majority of cases, I don't think there will be much impact at all. Those cases were not labor-intensive to begin with."
McMahon said possession of smaller amounts of marijuana is now akin to a parking citation. A person can just pay the fine or go to court to challenge it. Either way, the offender will not wind up in jail or with a mark on his or her criminal record.
McMahon said his office will not use a one-size-fits-all approach to future cases.
"We'll try to find a way that's acceptable to the spirit of the new legislation but also takes in to account the particular circumstances of the offense," he said. "The General Assembly has made this public policy decision to move in that direction (of decriminalization of small amounts) and that is entirely their prerogative."