Cook County Overhauls Drug Policy


Low-level drug offenders will no longer be prosecuted in Cook County. Instead of prison or fines, drug offenders will be diverted into treatment programs. Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez made the announcement today.

According to Alvarez, 25 percent of the 40,000 felony cases the county prosecutes each year are drug possession cases.

Thanks to our sponsors:

View all sponsors

Today’s move, she says, is about diverting resources from those cases to more serious violent offenders. Going forward, charges will be dropped against those without previous arrest records that are caught possessing 30 grams of marijuana or less. 

For more serious felony cases, like possession of larger amounts of marijuana or possession of harder drugs like heroin and cocaine, the offender is transferred into a drug treatment program instead of going to prison. If the offender completes the program, the charges are dropped.

Alvarez says the new policy will save the county money and is a smarter approach to going after drugs.

“There are people that are users that don’t get the help they need,” she said. “They’re coming through a revolving door in the criminal justice system. We have to ask ourselves, are we being smart here? This isn’t being soft on crime. This is about being smart. I’m not advocating for legalization, and I’m not encouraging people to be drug users.”

Reaction to the move has been mostly positive from local policymakers like County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who have supported decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana in order to ease the criminal justice system and jail population.

However, Cook County Commissioner John Fritchey said the policy did not go far enough.

“While it’s a welcome departure from past practices in her office, more needs to be done at the local and state level to address the inequities of our criminal justice system,” Fritchey said. “During her tenure in office, tens of thousands of Cook County residents, disproportionately minorities have been victim to our outdated drug laws, subjecting them to unnecessary arrest records while costing county taxpayers countless millions of dollars for charges that were ultimately dismissed.”

Fritchey has advocated for outright legalization of marijuana.

There is also a bill in Springfield to make it uniform state law to issue tickets for low-level pot possession instead of making arrests.

Interestingly, the move comes at a time when the chronically overcrowded Cook County Jail is at a low point. There are around 8,400 inmates today which is about three-fourths capacity.

The Cook County Sheriff’s Office attributes that to more arrestees being home on electronic ankle monitoring and cases moving quicker through the Cook County courts system.

Thanks to our sponsors:

View all sponsors

Thanks to our sponsors:

View all sponsors