- Scott Olson / Getty Images
- Cook County state’s attorney Anita Alvarez says her office will start dropping charges against people caught with less than an ounce of pot.
Cook County state’s attorney Anita Alvarez says she’s not encouraging anyone to toke up.
In 2014 her office prosecuted nearly than 15,000 misdemeanor cannabis possession cases, according to the court clerk’s office. About 2,000 cases ended in convictions, while the rest were dropped or dismissed. The cases cost taxpayers an average of $2,500 apiece, or more than $37 million altogether, with no visible impact on drug use or sales.
That’s a major change from the tough-on-crime politics of the last several decades, as Alvarez herself illustrates.
In 2012, pressured to respond to the city’s epidemic of gun violence, Chicago police began issuing tickets to some pot possessors rather than arresting them on criminal charges. County and state legislators called for even broader measures, including proposals to legalize it.
Fritchey says he’s mulling a challenge to Alvarez next year and renewed his call for legalizing marijuana. “I’ve been arguing for a dramatic change in our drug policies since people told me it was political suicide to do so.”
