Freshman wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham has already served his one-game suspension for marijuana possession, but some student groups are wondering why he was arrested in the first place.
“We address these issues on a weekly basis, and it takes something like a football player being arrested for somebody to actually really care about it,” said Devon Slavens, president of the MU chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy.
Columbia residents voted in 2004 to change city policy in handling marijuana-related crimes. Under the city ordinance, an adult found in possession of a misdemeanor amount of marijuana – 35 grams or less, according to norml.org – shall not be required to post bond, suffer arrest or be taken into custody for any reason other than to be issued a summons.
Green-Beckham, freshman linebacker Torey Boozer and freshman wide receiver Levi Copelin were taken to the MU Police Department for processing and released on signature summons [following their Oct. 3 arrests](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2012/10/4/three-football-players-arrested-drug-charges/).
Depending on a suspect’s record, the Columbia Police Department will typically issue a summons on the spot without bringing them into the station, CPD spokeswoman Latisha Stroer said.
MUPD is commissioned by both the city and the state, meaning the department can follow state code and ignore the city ordinance.
“What most people don’t realize is that, even with the (city) ordinance, once a person is issued a summons and found guilty, they must go back and do fingerprints,” MUPD Chief Jack Watring said. “We just do it before, (CPD) does it after.”
State officers must fingerprint suspects arrested for marijuana possession, according to the Missouri Charge Code Manual.
MUPD’s approach has upset members of the MU chapters of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and the Students for Sensible Drug Policy.
“I feel that police officers arresting students despite it being decriminalized is very unfair,” NORML President Alexis Lyle said in an email. “The voters made a decision on a city level, and I think that it is unfortunate that MUPD has failed to honor that.”
Lyle and Slavens used a news release to urge the prosecutor handling the case not to press charges against Green-Beckham and the other players arrested.
“It’s really hard to get people to see how the laws actually affect people on a personal level until a football player gets arrested, they’re out of the game and they potentially face all sorts of other consequences from the school,” Slavens said. “It kind of puts it in perspective for people to really understand that these are the actual effects something like this can have on your life as a student here.”
Despite their agreement about what changes need to be made, SSDP and NORML will be taking different approaches going forward. SSDP would try and talk to MUPD to discuss changes, and NORML will be less vocal, Slavens said.
“We are hoping that we don’t have to do anything, actually,” Lyle said. “Because this has been such a hot topic, the general opinion from what I understand is that people are in support of MUPD following the city ordinance.”
Despite recent complaints about the department’s procedures, MUPD has found support for its methods from Columbia Municipal Judge Robert Aulgur, Watring said.
“We might talk about it, but I don’t see us changing how we do things, especially after talking to the city judge,” Watring said.
NORML supported an unsuccessful initiative earlier in 2012 that would have put full marijuana legalization in Missouri on November’s ballot.
Missouri marijuana laws are the sixth toughest in the nation, according to a 2009 study by drugscience.org.