Ticket times
Valley police, courts adjust to non-criminal citations for marijuana possession
Saturday, June 13, 20091
When Massachusetts residents voted last November to decriminalize marijuana, many wondered what a change would mean for law enforcement.
Ballot Question 2 made possessing up to an ounce of pot a civil infraction - comparable to a speeding ticket - punishable by $100 fine.
Would the new weight requirement prompt police officers to pull out a scale every time they found a bag of weed, or would they be more inclined to grind it into the pavement and call it a day?
Halfway into the year, the new law has provoked little change in how area police handle marijuana offenses, according to a Gazette review of police statistics and interviews.
"I think our approach is the same," said Northampton Police Capt. Kenneth Patenaude. "Our enforcement tactics haven't been affected by the law change."
Some of Hampshire County's larger police departments have issued roughly as many civil citations so far this year as they did during the same period last year. Countywide statistics, however, show a 30 percent drop from 2008 to 2009 in reported marijuana possession.
Meanwhile, several communities around the state are instituting extra fines for public marijuana use, reinvigorating the debate over decriminalization of the drug.
Related stories:
--Views split on added fines for public use of marijuana
--From charges to complaints: A comparative chart of arrests to citations
Officers on the beat almost always encounter marijuana as a "secondary offense," several ranking police officials said. For instance, officers arrest someone for drunken driving and later, while taking an inventory of the suspect's car, find a bag of marijuana in the glove compartment.
In the past, such a discovery would have led to another criminal charge. Now it leads to a civil citation; but officers still must write reports and fill out forms, Young said.
The law, Young said, "was supposed to relieve officers from paperwork, but it's virtually unchanged."
Anecdotally, the Amherst police response to this year's Extravaganja suggests officers are being somewhat less aggressive under the new law. While they arrested two people for marijuana possession at the 2008 pot-legalization rally, they didn't write a single citation at this year's event.
More often than not, the bags of marijuana police officers find in people's pockets or backpacks weigh well under an ounce. The drug is typically purchased by the quarter- or eighth-ounce, for $50 to $100 at the low end.
A full ounce of marijuana would cost about $300 to $500 on the street. And as Young noted, "physically, it's a lot of marijuana to carry around."
Possessing more than an ounce of marijuana remains a criminal offense, and is punishable by a fine of up to $500 or up to six months in jail.
When police see larger quantities of marijuana, it tends to be broken up into smaller packages for sale.
When that's the case, police have at their disposal another arrestable, criminal offense: possession with intent to distribute.
Officers use their discretion when they find someone with a very small amount of marijuana, like the end of a joint in an ashtray, said Northampton Police Chief Russell Sienkiewicz. As much today as in the years before Question 2 was passed, he said, officers will probably destroy the marijuana at the scene and give its possessor a verbal warning.
At the University of Massachusetts, police this year have cited 73 people for marijuana possession, and arrested one person for possessing more than an ounce. For the same period last year, the department arrested 50 people for marijuana possession and issued court summonses to 40.
While the numbers show a relatively consistent level of enforcement from last year to this year, the new law has sparked one change in how UMass treats marijuana possession administratively.
Deputy Police Chief Patrick Archbald said his department no longer reports students caught with pot to the dean of students. In the past, students charged with possessing the drug could also face disciplinary action from the school.
The new law states explicitly that civil marijuana infractions are not to be reported to the state Criminal Offender Records Information (CORI) system. It is designed to prevent offenders from losing student financial aid, public housing, unemployment benefits and driver's licenses and from being disqualified as foster or adoptive parents.
In practice
Under the law, people 18 or older caught with an ounce or less of marijuana may be fined $100, though the law spells out no consequence for those who don't pay up.
It appears it's up to individual towns to decide how - or whether - to go after scofflaws.
People 17 and younger caught with an ounce or less of marijuana must complete a four-hour drug awareness program and perform 10 hours of community service, or they could face a $1,000 fine and juvenile delinquency proceedings.
The law requires juveniles' parents or guardians to be notified by the courts of the offense.
The drug awareness program is administered by the Cambridge-based Institute for Health and Recovery. Classroom sessions are scheduled across the state based on need, according to Department of Youth Services spokeswoman Jennifer Kritz. A western Massachusetts session is scheduled for mid-July in Belchertown.
Adults issued a marijuana citation can either pay the $100 fine or dispute the citation in a court hearing - in much the same way someone would contest a speeding ticket.
As of mid-May, hearings had been set for 11 out of the 164 citations written in Hampshire County, according to the district courts.
In spite of the small number of hearings, the new law hasn't done much to lighten courts' workload, said Northampton District Court Clerk Magistrate Jacklyn Connly.
"It's still paperwork, stats and keeping track of the notices," she said.
Unpaid fines
Fewer than half the people issued marijuana citations as of May 21 in Hampshire County - 78 out of 164 -have paid their fines.
The statutory $100 fee is to be paid to the clerk in the community where the offense occurred. For example, in Northampton marijuana fines - along with dog licensing and a raft other fees - are collected by the city clerk's office, then turned over to the city treasurer, who puts the cash in the city's general fund.
As of May 21, the city had collected $1,900 in marijuana fines, according to police records. Police had issued 31 citations since Jan. 2, meaning 12 people were delinquent.
UMass police by far have issued the most marijuana citations of any department in the county, 73. But the university doesn't collect any of the fines - those go to Amherst or Hadley, depending where on campus a given bust takes place.
Archbald said the university is working with the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association to make a change in the law that would allow UMass to recoup fines for itself.
James F. Lowe can be reached at jlowe@gazettenet.com.