Prison Crowding Spurs Hawaii to Consider Cutting Pot Penalties

PRISONS January 1993

Hawaii should consider reducing penalties for marijuana-related crimes as a means of shrinking the state's burgeoning prison population, state Representative Joseph Souki said (No byline, "Souki Wants State to Look at Reducing Pot Penalties," Maui News, 11/22/92, A3).

Souki suggested various alternatives to imprisonment should be considered, including electronic monitoring and community service. The legislator said he could support legalizing marijuana if the public was behind it, but said he has seen no evidence of such support at present.