Marijuana Policy Project

As dope cases go, the arrest of Keevin Deshawn Brim on Aug. 27, 2003, doesn't rank with anything you might see on Law and Order.

Brim was nabbed at the Ferrell Court Apartments along with Lorenzo Williams during a drug sting that day.

According to court documents, Williams approached two undercover officers and asked them what they were looking for.

One officer replied, "Some weed," and handed over $20. Police say that Williams walked over to Brim, got a small plastic bag in a hand-to-hand transaction and handed it over.

The haul was 4.2 grams of marijuana—perhaps enough to fill four sugar packets similar to the ones you use to sweeten your coffee.

The arrest seemed straightforward. Suspect A solicits the business then collects the goods from Suspect B. Police officers trained in that sort of thing witness it and make arrests.

Open and shut, right? Not exactly.

This tiny little dope case made its way to the N.C. Court of Appeals, where a three-judge panel ruled Tuesday that the arrest was good and that Brim's conviction stands.

A low-level drug case

A jury found Brim guilty in May 2004, and he got a prison sentence of eight to 10 months. The sentence was suspended, though, and he got 36 months on probation.

Perhaps not happy with walking on a drug charge, Brim (through his attorney, Marlet Edwards) made a motion to dismiss the verdict.

When that didn't happen, an appeal was filed. Edwards argued that there was insufficient evidence to support the police conclusion that Brim was selling dope.

Other than the eyewitness testimony of two sworn officers and the arresting officers who found Brim hiding in a nearby apartment, that is.

Low-level drug cases such as Brim's—especially those that result in active prison time—are just the kind that drove Burley Mitchell Jr., a former chief justice of the N.C. Supreme Court, to start talking about decriminalizing some drug offenses.

Mitchell is not exactly the long-haired, hippie type who agitates for drug reform.

But he has a point when he says that the taxpayers have a decision to make (soon) about how much they are willing to spend on prisons.

Prisons are already stretched to capacity, even with six new 1,000-bed buildings planned for the next six years.

"Certainly—and I'm saying this sarcastically—we've had a wild success in stopping the drug trade in its tracks," Mitchell said. "I'm just trying to get the conversation started."

Going to court costs

Mitchell was not surprised to hear that the Brim case made it to the appeals court.

That court doesn't get to screen its cases. If an appeal is filed, Mitchell said, the appellate panel has to hear it.

That's not cheap.

No definitive cost studies for appeals-court cases are available. But according to the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts, the first day of a jury trial in Superior Court costs the taxpayer $1,714. Days two through five cost $1,522. Anything beyond that costs $1,774 a day.

That's just the cost of paying a prosecutor, a judge, jurors and other court personnel. It doesn't take into account the cost of a private lawyer, nor does it calculate the cost of the appeal.

Now multiply that by the thousands of drug cases heard in North Carolina every year. And remember, that doesn't include the cost of incarceration.

The police can't change anything, nor can prosecutors. Neither group makes laws. They just enforce them. If anything is going to change, it has to come from elected officials.

For now, Mitchell is talking only about decriminalization and drug users. But maybe the time has come to talk about nickel-and-dime marijuana dealers, too.

"You just kind of wonder in a world of limited resources what we're trying to do," Mitchell said. "One of the things we have to look at is decriminalizing drug use and treating it as a medical issue."