Inquirer Editorial: Pot dragnet a dopey idea

The hypocrisy surrounding U.S. marijuana policy goes all the way to the top. President Obama long ago admitted using the drug as a youth - and recently acknowledged that its risks are comparable to those of drinking - but largely hesitated to advocate mercy toward anyone indulging in the same behavior. American states and cities now mirror these contradictions, spanning the spectrum from full-blown legalization to rearguard drug war. Philadelphia, meanwhile, is nonsensically doing some of both at the same time.

In 2010, District Attorney Seth Williams instituted a progressive, pragmatic policy of allowing those charged with possession of small amounts of marijuana to avoid criminal prosecution by paying a $200 fine and attending a class on drug abuse. However, as the Daily News reported last year, police have continued to arrest more than 3,000 Philadelphians a year on minor marijuana possession charges, booking and detaining them to await arraignment even though most would not face prosecution by Williams' office. City Councilman Jim Kenney has estimated that this occupies 17,000 hours of police effort annually.

Last week, Kenney introduced a bill to address this absurdity. His legislation would reduce possession of up to about an ounce of marijuana to a summary offense, allowing police to give offenders tickets instead of taking them into custody, much as they do in cases of traffic and other minor infractions. Offenders would then report to the district attorney's drug program without having to be booked or detained. Other large cities have passed similar decriminalization measures, including Chicago, Washington, and Pittsburgh.

As this violent January has reminded us, Philadelphia police have plenty to do without busting people for smoking dope. They have made impressive progress in reducing murders, which reached a nearly half-century low last year. But the new year has seen a rebound, with an average of about one killing a day.

Moreover, laws against marijuana possession are so widely flouted that enforcement has to be highly selective, usually with disturbing results. Although white and black Americans report using marijuana at similar rates, African Americans accounted for 82 percent of the Philadelphians arrested for pot possession in 2010, according to a study by the American Civil Liberties Union. And such disparities appear to be growing, the ACLU found: From 2001 to 2010, black Philadelphians went from being twice as likely to being nearly five times as likely as whites to be arrested for possessing marijuana.

As Obama has noted, marijuana can be an unhealthy habit. Recent research has suggested that regular use, especially at a young age, has detrimental effects on the brain. But locking people up has failed to make a dent in the prevalence of the drug, although it has proven to be a costly and distracting project for law enforcement.

Using all the faculties of their presumably sober minds, Philadelphia's policymakers should follow Kenney's lead toward a smarter approach to marijuana.