This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Thousands of cases were filed last month in Utah's district courts. In more than a quarter of them, drug possession was the only felony a defendant faced — a tally that shows proposals to reduce the degrees of drug crimes could have major ramifications for Utah's justice system.

Working the night police beat, I check the XChange database of Utah state court cases regularly. One night early in February, I was clicking through dockets (about 100 each weekday) and started tallying each charge.

The frequency of drug possession charges was notable. But a lot of those were combined with other felonies, such as theft or weapons charges.

My big question was: How many cases are only felony cases because of drugs, and, specifically, drug possession?

I didn't know lawmakers soon would be debating whether to reduce the seriousness of drug crimes, making fewer qualify as felonies; I just was curious.

Over the month of February, I looked at more than 2,000 felony cases filed in district court.

In nearly 600 cases, "possession or use of a controlled substance" was the only felony charged.

In more than 300 others, the only felonies were drug-related charges. Those included possession with intent to distribute, distribution, possession of drugs in a correctional facility and manufacturing.

They also include cases where the only non-drug felonies stem from the drug investigation: for example, conspiracy or obstruction of justice. They do not include weapons violations where the weapons restrictions stem only from a prior drug conviction. They don't include felony DUIs.

All told, about 43 percent of the cases filed involved drug-related felonies only, and about 28 percent of the cases involved no felonies other than drug possession.

These are, almost literally, back-of-the-napkin calculations: 28 days of scratched tallies. It's only a snapshot.

But day-to-day variations weren't dramatic. Most days fell within 5 percent of the month-long averages for each category.

So what's the upshot? If possession and other drug charges are reduced in levels, it could affect an enormous number of cases, in some places more than others.

In Uintah County, for example, four-fifths of the 80 felony cases filed in February were for drug-related felonies only, and in 45 percent of cases the only felony was drug possession. Shifting those possession charges from felonies to misdemeanors could affect the length of time that lots of people spend behind bars.

Uintah County Attorney Mark Thomas has argued it also could put pressure on county jails if they have to take on inmates who under current laws would go to the state prison. In a large county like Salt Lake, where about 400 cases in February involved drug felonies only, it could change how resources are deployed to prosecute crimes.

There's a lot of things to look at in this snapshot.

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The Utah Effect, a blog by Tribune reporters, looks at statistics that explain the Beehive state. Find past entries here.