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Springfield City Councilman Doug Burlison believes that marijuana can be a helpful medicine and that it's time to stop treating it like such a harmful, dangerous drug. Compared to other local elected officials, however, he is very much in the minority -- so much so that his colleagues continue to reject efforts to pass a minor reform that would reduce the punishments for low-level possession cases.

The council once again voted down the initiative this week.

"That's the really frustrating part -- we're talking about a very miniscule lessening of the harshness of penalties," Burlison tells Daily RFT. "I'm extremely disappointed."

This time, however, his colleagues and the mayor may have to deal with more than just criticism. Marijuana advocates are now strongly considering a lawsuit.

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One step closer to decriminalization.

A proposal to decriminalize marijuana across the state will have a hearing this morning at the Missouri House of Representatives -- which appears to be the farthest this effort has ever gone in the legislature.

It will not, however, make it much farther this time around given that today is the last day of the legislative session.

Still, supportive lawmakers and marijuana reform advocates from Show-Me Cannabis are celebrating the opportunity to have the issue finally debated in this setting.

"It's a big step forward for Missouri," State Rep. Rory Ellinger, a University City Democrat, tells Daily RFT.

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Show-Me Cannabis, Missouri's marijuana reform advocacy group, has been spreading the word across the state about the need for more sensible pot policies -- and eventually hopes to push for legalization. Next week, the group was supposed to run a booth at Pointfest, 105.7 the Point's annual festival, but yesterday announced that Verizon Wireless Amphitheater had rejected its application.

Why? The managers reportedly were worried about having marijuana advocacy take place at their venue.

"People are just afraid of this issue a lot of the time," John Payne, Show-Me Cannabis executive director, tells Daily RFT. "It perpetuates this fear that people have.... And then no one talks about it and it gets worse."

And Payne says this is not the first time the group has been shut down by a company afraid of even giving marijuana activists a platform.

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Last month, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen overwhelmingly approved a measure to reform local marijuana laws so that minor possession cases will be handled as fines in city court and not misdemeanor charges in state court.

Mayor Francis Slay officially signed the bill into law last week, his spokeswoman tells Daily RFT, which means that starting June 1, the new ordinance will go into effect.

We recently got a chance to ask St. Louis Metropolitan Police Chief Sam Dotson for his perspective on the new law, which supporters say will encourage law-enforcement officials to use resources more efficiently.

Dotson says he is hopeful it will have a positive impact -- but emphasizes that it won't make it easier to get away with illegal drug possession.

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This guy knows the dangers of weed.

"It's a high that won't result in higher achievement."

So says KTVI (Channel 2) which has an earnest, in-depth, punny report on the dangers of marijuana -- after two Parkway West High School students allegedly brought pot brownies to school where they intended to hand them out.

From a marijuana advocate in sunglasses to the insight of stoner-looking teens skateboarding in the Loop, the news report has everything you'd want from a local television dispatch on pot. Video below.

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A successful marijuana reform effort in St. Louis could pave the way for policy changes across Missouri -- and key cannabis advocates say they are now looking toward Kansas City.

Statewide advocacy group Show-Me Cannabis says it is in the very preliminary stages of pushing for so-called "decriminalization" in Kansas City just like the bill that the St. Louis Board of Aldermen passed last week. Once Mayor Francis Slay signs the proposal into law, which he is expected to do, cops here will be directed to treat the most minor pot possession offenses as low-level crimes equivalent to traffic violations. The effort -- which in no way legalizes marijuana -- is aimed at saving police resources by avoiding the lengthy processing of individuals caught with small amounts.

"We hope that St. Louis will be a catalyst for other cities," John Payne, Show-Me Cannabis executive director, tells Daily RFT. "We'd certainly like the same thing to happen in Kansas City."

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Last week, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen passed a marijuana reform proposal that would reduce the punishment for minor pot offenses. The policy change is supposed to save police resources and the mayor is expected to sign it into law.

While officials with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department have generally supported that effort, they reportedly have not been so supportive of cannabis-reform lobbying -- from within their department, that is. As we've reported, Sergeant Gary Wiegert has alleged in a lawsuit that the department refused to let him moonlight as a lobbyist for marijuana reforms -- and yesterday, he filed a response to SLMPD's motion to dismiss the suit.

"If the goal and objective was to quiet him because they didn't like what he was advocating, then they did more for his cause than quite frankly...even the best lobbyist could do," Albert Watkins, Wiegert's attorney, tells Daily RFT.

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The St. Louis Board of Aldermen has officially passed a local marijuana reform bill that aims to save police resources and reduce punishments for the most minor possession offenses.

"This is a good, practical move for the city of St. Louis to alleviate police and prosecutorial resources on minor drug offenses," Alderman Shane Cohn, the bill's sponsor, tells Daily RFT. "Hopefully, we'll be able to continue this dialogue into the future."

The bill now heads to the desk of Mayor Francis Slay, who was recently reelected for a fourth term and has his formal inauguration today.

Will Slay sign the legislation into law?

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Retired police lieutenant Tony Ryan.

Tony Ryan, who served as a police officer for more than three decades, says he's never smoked marijuana in his life -- but now, post-retirement, he's devoting much of his energy to the cause of legalization.

"Marijuana is one of the most enforced of the illegal drugs, even though it's the absolutely least offensive," Ryan, 67, says, adding, "The public is waking up."

Ryan, who was a police officer for 36 years in Denver, Colorado, was in St. Louis this weekend as the keynote speaker for a statewide conference on cannabis law reform organized by Show-Me Cannabis and Daily RFT got a chance to catch up with him before his speech.

Ryan, who has become a vocal law enforcement advocate for the legalization and regulation of marijuana, comes to St. Louis at a time when police support of pot reform has become increasingly controversial.

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As we've reported, St. Louis Police Sergeant Gary Wiegert is suing the department, alleging that officials have tried to suppress his free-speech by blocking his pro-marijuana reform lobbying. He is in favor of reducing the punishment in cases of low-level possession offenses as a way to save law enforcement resources -- which is why he signed up to work as a paid lobbyist for advocacy group Show-Me Cannabis in the first place.

Wiegert, however, does not have the support of St. Louis Alderman Shane Cohn -- who has been pushing for the very kind of local marijuana reform that Wiegert is advocating.

"I don't believe that any police officer should be able to lobby," Cohn tells Daily RFT. "It's completely unethical."

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