Richard A. Daley, mayor of Chicago, the third largest city in the U.S., agreed with a city sergeant and came out today in favor of marijuana decriminalization. In fact, he said that the drug is already effectively decriminalized there:

Mayor Daley today embraced a Wentworth District police sergeant's idea to ticket people caught with small amounts of marijuana, rather than file criminal charges and take up the time of police officers only to end up seeing the charges thrown out in court, as often happens.

Daley said it makes little sense to keep piling up arrests for marijuana use when "99 percent" of the cases are dismissed. The mayor said judges appear to have so little regard for the cases that many defendants don't even bother showing up in court.

"If 99 percent of the cases are all thrown out, and you have a police officer going -- why?" Daley said. "Why do we arrest the individual, seize the marijuana, [go] to court and they're all thrown out? ... It costs you a lot of money for that. It costs you a lot of money for police officers to go to court.

"Why is that happening? They say, 'Well, we didn't like the search. We didn't like the arrest.' It's the same person we're arresting every week. He has marijuana on him. And if you want to test him, he has marijuana in his system . . . If 99 percent of the cases are thrown out, when is [there] a credible arrest for marijuana? What does the court want us to do with these individuals?"

Still, Daley denied that the idea is tantamount to decriminalizing marijuana use in Chicago.

"It's decriminalized now," the mayor said. "They throw all the cases out. It doesn't mean anything. You just show up to court. Another case goes out. That's all it is. There's nothing there. They don't even show up -- the offenders. It doesn't mean anything.

"Sometimes, a fine is worse than being thrown out of court. Thrown out of court means nothing. Maybe they don't even have to show up. Many times, the offenders don't even show up anyways. That's what we have to look at."

Fraternal Order of Police President Mark Donahue acknowledged that far too many cases involving "small amounts" of marijuana use are "pitched at the initial court hearing." Still, Donahue said that's no reason for the city to "throw in the towel" on making arrests altogether.

Daley's bold gambit follows Seattle's recent decision to treat marijuana offenses as the lowest police priority and an upcoming ballot measure in Oakland, California that would effectively decriminalize the drug.

Of course, no fine is better than any fine, but small fines that spare marijuana users the pain, cost, danger and stigma of court are better than the alternative.

Read Sun-Times coverage here.

[Thanks to reader Ethan for the tip.]

Update: The proposed fines are not small.