Local Police Work Out Kinks In New Marijuana Law

[User]

In the two and a half months since it became a civil offense instead of a crime to possess small amounts of marijuana in Massachusetts, towns and cities have been developing a patchwork of local procedures and proposals for implementing the new law.

Voters approved Question 2 in a landslide last November, making it a civil offense instead of a crime to possess less than an ounce of marijuana. The change, which calls for a $100 fine and a ticket instead of a criminal charge, went into effect in January.

Since then, municipal officials say they are working out the mechanics of the new rules at the local level, from figuring out what kinds of citations to use, to developing a new system to track who pays fines on time, to following up with those who don't.

"I think a lot of the stumbling blocks or growing pains, if you will, are just in the administration," Ashland Police Lt. Richard Briggs said last week.

In many towns, police have issued a handful of citations while making plans to implement the new law. In Framingham, police issued four tickets since January. In some cases, police are choosing not to issue tickets. Milford Police have issued only one, sometimes choosing not to cite violators, Police Chief Thomas O'Loughlin said.

"I think a lot of the officers, from a discretion standpoint, small amounts of marijuana they're confiscating, putting it into a report," O'Loughlin said.

Towns from Hopkinton to Medway to Framingham also have weighed whether new local bylaws are needed to reaffirm that it is a crime to smoke marijuana in public.

O'Loughlin said he seeks a measure in his town, allowing criminal penalties for smoking pot in public places. He said he is concerned that an underage drinker faces stiffer penalties for consuming a can of beer in public than possessing an ounce of marijuana. The bylaw also would be a tool for dispersing groups who sometimes loiter and cause disturbances, he said.

"Is the intent to cause every individual city and town to adopt a new bylaw, some that are workable, some that aren't?" Framingham Police Lt. Paul Shastany said. "It's difficult."

Possession tickets themselves vary from town to town. In Ashland, Briggs said his department had new citations printed and issued no tickets until then.

"It was kind of a gray area for a little while," he said.

Framingham is using the same citations it does for other civil and bylaw violations. In Milford, O'Loughlin said instead of using ticket books, his department added its letterhead to forms available from the Executive Office of Public Safety.

Once tickets are issued, they are generally processed by town and city clerks, each of whom are developing plans to track fine payments. Some clerks say the new fines fit seamlessly into existing systems they have for dealing with civil violations and fines.

In Framingham, police give copies of tickets to violators and the town clerk's office. Violators have 21 days to pay by cash, money order or check, by mail or in person. Assistant Town Clerk Lisa Ferguson said the office checks to see if people pay and sends a notice to Framingham's court officer, Sgt. Paul Thompson, when they do.

"It doesn't matter getting down into the nitty gritty of why the violation was given," Ferguson said. "It's the same procedure."

Sudbury Assistant Town Clerk Judy Newton described a similar system. "It's not a hassle here," she said.

But some small towns that generally deal with fewer fines have no such system in place, and are still making sense of where their responsibilities end and the police's begin, particularly if someone contests a ticket.

"I have something in my mind, but I have not put it into action yet," said Holliston Town Clerk Jacqueline Dellicker, whose office has yet to see any marijuana citations. "I was flabbergasted when I read the details and saw it was going to come through the town clerk's office."

Ashland Town Clerk Tara Ward said she too has to figure out the details of the new rules and hopes towns can share systems that work.

"I certainly don't think we should reinvent the wheel," Ward said.

It's generally up to police to follow up with people who don't pay. For juveniles, fines can increase to $1,000 if they do not complete a state-approved drug awareness program. O'Loughlin said Milford Police issued a ticket to a juvenile, and that type of program is just the kind of help the boy's parents want him to get.

Unlike many other police chiefs, O'Loughlin said he did not strongly oppose Question 2, but he still has some concerns about its fairness, particularly on smoking pot in public versus drinking.

In Framingham, Shastany said there are still other hurdles to overcome, and Question 2 left it up to police to work them out.

For example, he said, with arrest off the table, police cannot compel people to give their names if caught with less than an ounce of marijuana. That makes it difficult to identify offenders, he said.

"A law was signed on that was basically kind of a difficult law to make work for a multitude of reasons," Shastany said.


News Hawk: User: http://www.420magazine.com/
Source: The Milford Daily News
Author: David Riley
Copyright: 2009 GateHouse Media, Inc
Contact: Contact Us - Milford, MA - The Milford Daily News
Website: Local police work out kinks in new marijuana law - Milford, MA - The Milford Daily News

[CharlieMopps]

The biggest hurdle to medical applications is the smoking. They might start advising people to use portable vaporizers. I don't think that would be harming others around you because there are no carcinogens.

[zlessley]

You can smoke in public in Montana! WOO, High under the Big Sky! sorry.. just thought I'd rub it in a little... we like our freedom here

Well.. I guess technically you can't SMOKE in public parks, on non-existent public transportation, and on or near school grounds... but that doesn't exactly knock off many places.. Main Street's still good!