LAW / ‘DO DRUGS, DO TIME’ : A Midwest City Warns Users It Won’t Look the Other Way : Even first-time marijuana offenders face a jail sentence or a term in a rigid education and testing program.

One of the toughest drug laws in the country went into effect in this comfortable Kansas City suburb this week, requiring at least two days in jail or participation in a rigid education and testing program for anyone caught with even a small amount of marijuana.

“Do drugs, do time,” is the slogan this city has adopted to impress upon residents that it will not look the other way where drug use is concerned.

Under the ordinance, prosecutors may not reduce possession to a lesser charge in exchange for a guilty plea. A first-time offender must be sentenced to a minimum of 30 days in jail and a fine of $200. And before that sentence can be suspended or reduced through probation, “the person convicted must serve a minimum of 48 consecutive hours” in jail, according to the ordinance.

Second-time offenders must spend five days in jail and pay a $500 fine, and the penalty for third timers will be $1,000 and 90 days. The only way to avoid jail time is to participate successfully in a closely supervised program, requiring regular urine tests, counseling and re-education.

“Possession of marijuana is a misdemeanor,” said Police Chief Myron Scafe. “Selling is a felony. The law is about possession. If they have it with them in the automobile, we have a zero tolerance posture.” Possession of drugs such as cocaine or heroin counts as a felony.

Overland Park police make about 50 arrests a month on drug charges. Most of the arrests result from officers smelling marijuana after stopping motorists for moving violations such as speeding or erratic driving.

Under the new policy, police will apply the ordinance to anyone found with a quantity of marijuana sufficient to smoke, Scafe said.

The Overland Park ordinance is designed to bring penalties for marijuana use into line with those for driving under the influence of alcohol. In Kansas, a first conviction for DUI requires 48 hours in the county jail.

“If we’re going to enforce it for alcohol, we’re going to enforce it for drugs. We’re going to be consistent,” Scafe said.

Until now, the penalty for first-time possession of marijuana in Overland Park was a fine of $25 or $50.

In California, a first offense for possession of small amounts of marijuana is punishable by a fine of not more than $100. On the federal level, a first offense of misdemeanor marijuana possession carries a minimum fine of $1,000 and a prison term of up to one year under the new standardized sentencing guidelines of 1988, said Bill Ruzzamenti, spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration. However, there is no minimum mandatory prison time.

Overland Park, a city of 111,000, is not alone in its effort to tighten up on the casual use of drugs. Many other cities and counties in the nation are rewriting ordinances to reflect a new consensus that the market for drugs must be eliminated. But Overland Park’s is believed to be one of the strictest of the new laws, interviews with drug officials indicated.

The Overland Park law was proposed by Scafe in collaboration with city attorney Mike Santos. Santos said that in 1989, Scafe advocated a state law increasing penalties for possession of marijuana on the first arrest. “The chief was concerned about this so-called war on drugs,” Santos said. “How can you allow this most popular of drug substances to be used at will?”

For political reasons, including chronic crowding in Kansas state prisons, the concept did not get anywhere in the state Legislature. So Scafe decided to do what he could in his own town. The Overland Park City Council passed the ordinance unanimously in February of this year.