Fayette

residents convicted of misdemeanor charges of

possession of marijuana have helped the county

build up a $75,000 nest egg, and officials are

now looking for ways to spend it.

"Currently

there's no budget for expenditure of these

funds," said Fayette State Court solicitor

Steve Harris, adding that state law requires that

the fund be used exclusively for drug abuse

treatment and education.

The

money comes from surcharges on the usual $1,000

fine for possession of marijuana, authorized by

state law. Fayette Superior Court also could levy

such surcharges on more serious drug charges, but

Harris said the court just never has done so.

When

Fayette's State Court was set up in 1996 to deal

primarily with misdemeanor cases, the new court

did levy the surcharge, which is 50 percent of

the fine. At $500 a pop, the fund has accumulated

fairly rapidly, he said.

Finance

officials at the county have let the money

accumulate in a fund, waiting for someone to tell

them what to do with it, but that someone has

never been appointed. When finance director Emory

McHugh recently asked Harris whether a mechanism

exists to spend the money, Harris said he

discovered there is no such mechanism.

"I'd

like to see us use it in a very positive

fashion," said Commissioner Linda Wells when

Harris presented the problem to the County

Commission last week.

School

drug education programs would be a likely

beneficiary of the surcharges, but commissioners

said they didn't want all the money used that

way.

"Many

indigent individuals need financial assistance to

go through inpatient treatment," said

Harris.

He

wants to make sure he is not the one making those

decisions, though, Harris said. Because he

prosecutes people in court who might later be

recipients, he has a conflict of interests, he

added.

Commissioners

appointed county attorney Bill McNally and county

manager Billy Beckett to work with Harris and

come up with a procedure for spending the money.

<!--

-----------