On January 31, Bluestem posted Medical marijuana: Did Melin let law enforcement lobbyists' cash cow out of the dime bag?
Representative Carly Melin boldly confronted the yoke that ties funding of Minnesota's police and sheriffs' departments to seizures of property and money in drug busts, providing their lobbyists with an incentive to resist reforming laws that making all forms of cannabis illegal, including industrial hemp (a natural fiber and oil) and medical marijuana, which promises relief for a range of human maladies.
Left out in the discussion? That legislative relief that might reduce the resistance of law enforcement to the reform of marijuana laws might not be found in bills legalizing hemp farming or medical marijuana, but in reforms directed toward funding law enforcement.
Forfeiture reform bills in play
Susan Allen (DFL-St. Paul) is the author of HF1081, a bill introduced on March 4, 2013, which aims to shift the burden of proof to the prosecutor in an innocent owner case involving off-highway vehicles, DWI, designated offenses, controlled substance offenses, fleeing offenses, and prostitution offenses while codifying and expanding homestead exemption, and allowing innocent owners to reclaim their vehicles if they're equipped with ignition interlock device.
She's also the chief author of HF1082, a bill introduced the same day in 2013, which would require conviction for judicial forfeiture of property associated with controlled substance offenses and vehicles used in drive-by shootings, while eliminating the presumption for administrative forfeiture.
This bill might serve to begin to reduce the incentive to think of drug offenses as a cash cow.
Moreover, the bill--which supports the constitutional right to due process--enjoys broad bipartisan support in the House, from urban progressives like Allen, Michael Paymar, and Melissa Hortman, to tea party members and ALEC darlings like Steve Drazkowski, Michael Beard and Cindy Pugh.
The sponsor of the Senate companion bills, SF873 and SF 874? Dave Thompson, the Lakeville Republican who's seeking his party's endorsement for Governor this year. He's joined by a bipartisan crew: Ron Latz, Dan Hall, Patricia Torres-Ray and Warren Limmer.
While this measure wouldn't completely eliminate the financial incentive of drug busts for law enforcement agencies, it would help put the breaks on the practice.
MN NORML forfeiture education meeting Saturday at office
Minnesotans have chance to learn more about these bills this Saturday. The Minnesota chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws will be holding a meeting at its new office in downtown Minneapolis. According to the group's Facebook book event:
This will be our first meeting at MN Norml's new office, at 1313 Chestnut Ave Suite 115, Minneapolis, MN 55403 ! The Institute for Justice ( www.IJ.org ) will join us to talk about their efforts to end civil asset forfeiture in Minnesota. Law enforcement in MN keep 70% or more of the cash and assets they take from people they stop.
We are excited to have Lee McGrath, Legislative Counsel for the Institute for Justice (http://www.ij.org/mn), as our guest speaker for our upcoming February 22nd meeting. He will discuss Minnesota's civil asset forfeiture laws and the Institute for Justice's work to end them in Minnesota via HF1081 and HF1802. Under Minnesota's current civil asset forfeiture laws, Law Enforcement agencies are able to take property from innocent Minnesotans without any connection to a criminal conviction. In fact, all that law enforcement needs is the suspicion that your cash, cars, or other valuables are related to a cannabis “crime” in order to have them seized. If you seek to have your valuables returned, you do not have the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Rather, your property is owned by the State of Minnesota until you file a lawsuit, within 60 days of the indecent, against your property, to prove that it was not tied to cannabis. ...
Funding law enforcement
Reform of both forfeiture and hemp/marijuana laws leave a few questions on the table. How will Minnesotans fund law enforcement agencies? While the cost of enforcing tossed marijuana/hemp laws will be reduced, the need for police protection of lives and property will remain.
Counties and cities are under pressure to control spending and keep down spending, but a revenue stream will be reduced. Minnesota communities and counties will do well to have an honest conversation about funding public safety in a manner that isn't driven by incentive to seize citizens' property.
Photo: Susan Allen, DFL-St. Paul.
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