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John Walsh, 2555 Roosevelt Boulevard, noted that Europe and Canada were in the process of rescinding marijuana laws. He said the United States should follow suit. He raised concern that only poor people would be harmed by the proposed raise in penalties. Chris Pender, 266 High Street, raised concern over additional bureaucracy that would be created by increasing penalties and having diversion classes. Aaron Fredrick, 2062 Hilyard Street, said raising the fine so more people would take diversion classes did not make sense. He urged the council to take a critical look at who they represented and vote accordingly. David Callen, 6025 Main Street, Springfield, said he had never seen marijuana do as much harm as legal alcohol. He said marijuana was medically beneficial and helped sick people with their pain. He expressed his difficulty in understanding how the state could make money from cigarettes and alcohol when they were proven killers and still be against marijuana. Cindy Noblitt, 5550 Franklin Boulevard, spoke against the ordinance. She said raising a penalty as an incentive to students to enter a diversion program was not a good enough reason. She said there were plenty of other incentives for people to enter a diversion program and added that the majority of medicinal and recreational users had no desire or need to go through a diversion program and would not change their behavior because of the ordinance. She said the young and the poor would be the only people who were impacted by the ordinance. Jeff Sears, 190 North Polk, noted that the federal government had released a figure showing that 80 million Americans had smoked marijuana. He stressed that those people were citizens of the United States. He said the ordinance was nothing but repression of poor people. He urged the council to vote against the ordinance. He raised concern that Eugene was beginning to resemble Mississippi in its efforts to become a "lily white" community. He urged the council to exercise a degree of humanity and vote against the increase. Mayor Torrey closed the public hearing and called for council comments/questions. Councilor Bettman said she had been prepared to support the proposal. She said she disagreed that recreational use of marijuana was harmless. Councilor Bettman said that she was aware of the benefits of medical marijuana and raised concern over court discretion when a person was not using the drug recreationally. Judge Allen responded that there would be court discretion in the case of someone using marijuana for medical reasons. He stressed that not everyone who came to court for a possession charge would get a $250 fine, adding that the fine would be based on considerations of individual cases. Councilor Taylor raised concern that the ordinance would only hurt the young and the poor. Judge Allen agreed that even a $100 penalty was a lot of money to many people. He said the court would be mindful of the financial status of those who came before him and would make decisions accordingly. He said the person who had the maximum $250 fine imposed would be, for example, someone returning to court for the third or fourth time for the same offense. Councilor Kelly thanked those who testified, noting that the discussion was not about the pros or cons of marijuana use. He said a discussion of legalization had to be at the State level. He MINUTES--Eugene City Council January 13, 2003 Page 8 Regular Meeting