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approximately the same increase in arrests. Police also engage in activities unrelated to <br /> arrests, such as traffic control, but these sorts of activities are minor in terms of costs <br /> .,a <br /> relative to the overall law enforcement and arrests. <br /> <br /> ww <br /> Miron (2003) focused primarily on police enforcement of marijuana laws and did <br /> not quantify costs associated with prosecution within the court system. Because court <br /> statistics make it possible to do this in Hawaii, this report adds these costs to <br /> enforcement costs. Court and legal costs, related to prosecution and defense, aze reported <br /> in addition to enforcement costs. <br /> A second question is what exactly does decriminalization mean? Currently under <br /> R Hawaii law marijuana possession is a misdemeanor. Possession of less than one ounce is <br /> a petty misdemeanor punishable by 30 days in jail and or a fine up to $1,000. Possession <br /> of between one. ounce and one pound is a misdemeanor punished by up to one yeaz in jail <br /> and up to a $2,000 fine. One proposal, HB 1751 and SB 1056, introduced in the 2005 <br /> state legislative session, decriminalizes possession of less than one ounce. Generally, <br /> however, the data do not break down arrests by weight, but rather record arrests for <br /> possession that include all types of misdemeanors. So the results below are calculated for <br /> all misdemeanor mazijuana possession charges, although the vast majority of these appeaz <br /> to be for under one ounce. <br /> The statistics on arrest are Uniform Crime Statistics reported by law enforcement <br /> agencies to the United State Department of Justice. Other statistics used come from <br /> Reports of the Hawai' i State Judiciary and the U. S. Census of Governments. <br /> - A difficulty raised by Miron (2003, 2004) is that some arrests are the result of an <br /> investigation related to a different crime. Thus these arrests can be broken down into <br /> three categories. The first are "stand alone" arrests, where someone is arrested because an <br /> officer sees them smoking mazijuana. A second type is an arrest made in conjunction <br /> with a traffic stop, also referred to as "civil incidental". A third type is an arrest that <br /> occurs because police have detained a suspect for a crime and then find that the suspect <br /> possessed marijuana, known as a "criminal incidental" arrest. Generally the police <br /> 'r resources saved under decriminalization would correspond to the first two categories. <br /> Miron states, "it is useful to know what fraction of arrests are in these first two <br /> 4 <br /> rr <br /> <br />