The Cook County state's attorney's office says it is changing the way it prosecutes low-level drug offenses, including dismissal of misdemeanor marijuana cases.
"If someone is caught with a misdemeanor amount of marijuana, the state's attorney's office will no longer prosecute that case," office spokeswoman Sally Daly said Sunday. The program will cover people with fewer than three arrests or citations, she said.
The office will announce the changes at 10:15 a.m. Monday. Daly said they are part of an overhaul that will also address how the office prosecutes small amounts of such drugs as Ecstasy, cocaine and heroin.
The changes will include creation of an alternative prosecution program aimed at diverting nonviolent, repeat drug offenders out of the criminal justice system.
