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“I lost my younger brother to cancer and I do understand that there is some beneficial effect — at least in terms of mitigating the symptoms for the sufferer,” he said. “So I’m the last guy to be critical of legitimate medical needs.” Roberts laughed a little when he talked about his brother’s dedication to the marijuana-legalization cause. He said that his brother would have been a big supporter of the Joplin initiative. “He would donate to the effort to legalize marijuana long before he would have donated to cancer research,” Roberts said. “And then, he died of cancer.” Roberts said that he and his brother just agreed to disagree. “Our discussion after I became a police officer was quite simple: ‘You’re a grownup and it’s your choice, but if you choose to use it ... do so accepting the responsibility.’” “I figured out at about 19 or 20 that it was not the way I wanted to conduct myself,” he said. “It wasn’t about the substance, it was about whether or not I wanted to be an advocate of the rules or an opponent of the rules, and, I obviously chose to be an advocate of them.” Along with the medical uses of the outlawed plant, Roberts said he does see a possible benefit of a decriminalization measure for local courts. “I think the big benefit will be to the criminal courts,” he contends. He suggested that by moving marijuana possession and paraphernalia offenses to an administrative court docket, it could relieve some of the burden on the criminal court. “In terms of it as an administrative offense ... it’s still an offense and we are still charged with enforcing it,” he said. “We are still going to seize it as evidence and we are still going to have to field test it to make sure it’s marijuana. We will have to testify in court that it is marijuana. It would be like some driving offenses that are not criminal in nature. We still have to testify to them or the citation won’t stand.” ‘It’s an interesting issue’ When asked how his officers had reacted to the decriminalization of pot possession in Oregon and in Washington state where he previously headed up departments, Roberts reclined in his office chair and smiled. “When that law was first passed, most police officers thought that the end of the world as we know it was about to occur,” he said. “But, we thought the same thing when the Miranda decision came down.” Roberts said that he isn’t really excited to deal with the decriminalization issue that’s about to move center stage in Joplin, but suggests he will keep an open mind. 
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Chief says his job is to support public’s mandates w/ Joplin police Chief Lane Roberts interview 
11/21/07, 2:58 p.m. Marijuana decriminalization initiative petition announced
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