A first offense is a misdemeanor now, but a second is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Current law sends nearly 500 people to prison each year.

St. Clair County Circuit Judge Jim Hill and former Lee County Circuit Judge Robert Harper, who retired in January after 18 years on the bench, say they don't advocate decriminalizing the drug. However, they say that, in a state with such limited prison space, community drug treatment makes more sense than making users take scarce prison beds.

"What I mentioned was some consideration ought to be given to making possession of marijuana a misdemeanor, it's so widespread," Harper said in an interview. He initially made the comment earlier this month in the Task Force's closing session, during which the 11 members appointed by the governor compiled their suggestions in a written report.

Hill was more cautious. "I don't know that I'm in favor of it, but I'm not necessarily opposed to it, either," he said. He said he would consider supporting the less serious charge for possession cases only. "Trafficking, no sirree," he said.

"When we're talking about possession, personal use, we've got a drug court up there and we use it," Hill said.

Drug court, an alternative to incarceration, requires defendants to submit to drug tests, report to a judge, perform community service and pay fees. Only after failure to follow program rules do offenders get prison time.

"According to the prison commissioner, 80 percent of our folks in jail or prison are illiterate or have a drug problem, and I think we need to start looking at who we want in prison," said Hill, who was a district court judge for 10 years before being elected last year to the 30th Circuit. "I'm personally in favor of us greatly expanding our community corrections programs and looking at these folks who are basically drug addicts and dealing with them in a community setting where we can stress education and sobriety and holding them accountable, but at the same time leaving our prisons for people who are genuinely a danger to society."

Gathering steam:

The judges' comments are in the spirit of discussions that have been occurring in criminal justice and drug treatment circles for a couple of years. The Alabama Sentencing Commission, a panel that's been working toward truth-in-sentencing and prison reform since 2000, notes in its reports that Alabama's marijuana sentencing laws are more stringent than most other states and that other states have even decriminalized possession of small amounts of the drug.

"Alabama ranks with only four other states ... that authorize up to 10 years of incarceration as punishment for possession of 2.2 pounds or less of marijuana," the commission pointed out in its 2005 report.

The Governor's Task Force on Prison Overcrowding, on which Hill and Harper sit, has not recommended dropping pot possession to a misdemeanor. But, its report stresses the need for prison alternatives and heavily pushes focused treatment and rehabilitation, and expanded community corrections to allow some offenders to work and to live at home.

Limited community programs do exist, such as drug courts, that spare drug offenders from prison. The problem is drug courts are not an option in much of the state. So marijuana users receive radically different treatment depending on where they live, officials say.

"Without a doubt, absolutely without drug courts, they end up going to prison," said UAB's Foster Cook, director of the TASC community corrections program.

Trailing other states:

Other southeastern states have done more to implement drug courts. Louisiana has 48 such courts. Mississippi just appropriated $4 million to expand its system. Georgia and Tennessee are way ahead of the others. Alabama's state spending is "not a dime," Cook said.

He said reducing marijuana possession to a misdemeanor "may have some merit." But for him, the key is prison alternatives, however that could be accomplished. "In the greater scheme of things, to use up valuable prison beds for marijuana possession just doesn't make sense when we've got pressures to release violent felons to make space," Cook said.

Jefferson County District Court Judge Pete Johnson, who began the county's drug court in 1996, agreed that establishing similar courts statewide could bring the same result as lowering marijuana possession to a misdemeanor. About 18 counties now have drug courts.

"If we had a drug court in every county, even with the laws like they are, judges would have an alternative way to deal with those kinds of cases," he said.

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