SENATORS DUBIOUS OF EFFORT TO CHANGE POT LAWS

MONTPELIER -- In the past couple weeks, the Senate Judiciary
Committee has listened to hours of testimony about decriminalizing
marijuana.

They've heard some people say the state is consuming valuable law
enforcement time pursuing users of a harmless drug who should not be
branded as criminals.

They've heard others counter all those arguments.

Committee Chairman Richard Sears, D-Bennington, emerged from
testimony Friday thinking he's not inclined to decriminalize
marijuana, as the proposed legislation that launched the debate would
do. He would, however, support eliminating jail time as a possibility
for first-time possession of 2 ounces or less and allowing all such
defendants to go through court diversion and receive no criminal record.

"The point I'm left with is we have jail time attached to a crime and
relatively few if any have done jail time on it," Sears said.

Sears' approach is a compromise, but he might not have the votes in
his committee to send it to the full Senate. Most of the five
committee members said Friday they don't see the point in changing
the law at all.

"I don't think we need to do anything," said Sen. Alice Nitka,
D-Windsor. Decriminalization sends a bad message to young people, she
said.

"I don't think the system's broke," said Sen. Kevin Mullin,
R-Rutland.

"I'm not going to do anything to put law enforcement in a precarious
position," said Sen. John Campbell, D-Windsor, a former police officer.

"I'm not sure anything I heard would make it better," said Sen. Ann
Cummings, D-Washington, adding that she's still considering the issue.

First-time possession of 2 ounces or less of marijuana is punishable
in Vermont by up to six months in prison and a $500 fine. Those
testifying before the committee said 90 percent of the cases go to
court diversion, meaning the defendant received no criminal record
and no jail time. Sears said he'd like the penalty to reflect the
reality so that people in all parts of the state are treated the same.

The committee has heard conflicting arguments about whether
decriminalization would help or hurt the state.

Windsor County State's Attorney Robert Sand, a strong advocate for
decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana, urged the committee to
divert such cases out of the criminal justice system. "Are we
comfortable calling someone a criminal simply because they use a
small amount of marijuana?" he asked. "I am absolutely convinced the
majority of Vermonters are not comfortable with that."

Vermont State Police Maj. Tom L'Esperance countered that
decriminalizing the drug would remove the deterrent for some young
people to try it, which he said would be a mistake. "I want this
decision to be so difficult it's easy," he said.

Sears said Friday he was unpersuaded that removing the cases from the
criminal system would be beneficial. If cases were handled with a
ticket similar to a traffic violation, defendants would be left with
a permanent traceable record, even if it wouldn't be a criminal
record, instead of having that record erased by going through court
diversion.

"It might stop somebody from getting a certain job," Sears
said.

Sears said he will think about the issue over the weekend and expects
the committee to take it up again Thursday.