BIG ISLE VOTE COULD LESSEN MARIJUANA ENFORCEMENT

Group Wants Small-Time Busts to Be County Police's Lowest Priority

HILO, Hawai'i -- The off-and-on political struggle over eradication
and enforcement of anti-marijuana laws on the Big Island is moving to
the fall election, when voters will be asked whether law enforcement
officials should make busts of small-time marijuana users the
county's lowest policing priority.

The proposed ordinance advanced by a group called "Project Peaceful
Sky" -- and ordered onto the ballot by a split vote of the County
Council -- would also prohibit the county from accepting any further
state or federal money for marijuana eradication operations.

However, County Corporation Counsel Lincoln Ashida said the proposed
ordinance to be placed on the ballot may be unenforceable even if the
voters do approve it because it apparently violates the pre-emption
doctrine arising from the U.S. and Hawai'i state constitutions.

That doctrine says legislative bodies such as the County Council
cannot dictate to executive branch agencies such as the police and
prosecutors how to run their day-to-day operations.

The initiative to de-emphasize marijuana enforcement appears to do
just that, Ashida said, and he will ask the state attorney general's
office to rule on whether the ordinance is legal if the voters approve it.

Marijuana eradication and police efforts to enforce marijuana
prohibition have been perennial political issues on the Big Island,
where the noise from low-flying eradication helicopters often
infuriates residents in otherwise quiet rural neighborhoods.

Police Opposed

Arguably, marijuana use is more accepted in some Big Island
communities than it is elsewhere in the state. The Big Island has by
far the largest number of legally registered medical marijuana users
of any county, and has long been home base for political activists
seeking legalization of marijuana for medical, religious or recreational use.

Cannabis is also a significant part of the underground economy, with
police seizing millions of dollars worth of marijuana plants last year alone.

Police and county Prosecutor Jay Kimura oppose the proposed
ordinance. Police Maj. Sam Thomas, who oversees police operations in
East Hawai'i from Volcano to Hamakua, said the proposed ordinance
creates "gray areas" that will hamper police officers' anti-drug efforts.

"There is so much gray in there, and police officers, we don't do
well in gray. We need to have a lot of black and white," he said.

The current proposal was advanced by Project Peaceful Sky, which has
registered as a nonprofit and calls itself a "grassroots"
organization advocating for the initiative.

The proposed ordinance would require that "the cultivation,
possession and use for adult personal use of Cannabis shall be the
Lowest Law Enforcement Priority for law enforcement agencies in the
county of Hawai'i."

The proposal would apply to adult personal users on private property,
with "personal use" defined as people who have less than 24 plants or
24 ounces of cannabis.

Ballot Attempt Invalid

Project Peaceful Sky needed to submit signatures of 4,848 registered
voters to get the proposal on the ballot. Volunteers collected 4,954
signatures, but County Clerk Casey Jarman ruled that only 2,214 of
those signatures were valid.

More than 1,500 of the initiative supporters could not be confirmed
as registered voters, 200 other signatures were invalid because
signers failed to list a home address, and nearly 1,000 gave
addresses that did not match their voter registrations.

Rather than let the issue drop, the council last week voted 5-4 to
accept the petition anyway and deem it sufficient to place the
question on the ballot.

Councilman Bob Jacobson, who introduced the council resolution to put
the proposal on the ballot, said he wants to see the issue put to a
public vote. Jacobson said a variety of people told him privately
they wanted to sign the petition, but were embarrassed or were afraid
to sign for fear they would suffer repercussions at work.

"Personally, I just believe it needs to be done," Jacobson said of
the proposed ordinance. "There are better, higher priorities for
police than running around trying to find a few casual marijuana users."

Adam Lehmann, board director of the Peaceful Sky effort, said his
group collected the nearly 5,000 signatures in about two months,
proving there is significant support for the idea.

"People are really tired of seeing money misappropriated away from
education and healthcare to fund a military-style war on a plant,"
said Lehmann, 30.

"It's clearly going to give law enforcement more time and resources
to focus on serious crimes. It's going to provide lots of space in
our prisons, it's going to help courts run smoother, and it's going
to essentially save this county's taxpayers millions of dollars every
year," because they will avoid the costs of strict marijuana
enforcement, he said.

Lehmann, an organic farmer in Kalapana, said he smokes marijuana
himself as a sacrament for religious purposes.

Thomas said his read of the proposed ordinance is that when police
come across small quantities of marijuana, "it pretty much tells us
we have to ignore it."

He said 24 marijuana plants might not sound like a lot, but fully
mature plants cultivated by an experienced farmer can yield up to a
pound of usable marijuana. With a street value of $6,000 per pound,
that crop would be worth $144,000, and Thomas said it would be
"pretty tempting" to cash in.

Tool Against Meth

Many people don't understand that marijuana raids can be a tool
police use to snare methamphetamine dealers or other kinds of
criminals, he said. When police see pot plants growing outside a
suspected meth dealer's home, they use that evidence to obtain a
search warrant to look for harder drugs.

"In this case, if I wanted to use the marijuana as the basis for a
search warrant, no, I won't be allowed to do that," Thomas said.

Another problem is the state and federal anti-marijuana funds are
used for "demand reduction" programs such as DARE and youth athletic
events as well as for eradication, he said.

Thomas said he doesn't know if the measure will pass, but "one would
have to question why they couldn't even get 4,000 qualified people to
sign the petition."

Jacobson said he isn't sure which way the November voting will go.

"If people work really hard and get the message out, it has some
chance of passage," Jacobson said. "The real work really begins now
to try to educate the voters and get them out to the polls in November."

"I've had many very conservative people who are just completely fed
up with this helicopter war that's going on. Many sensible people
have recognized that the drug war was lost on marijuana many years
ago," he said.

The Big Island County Council voted to reject federal or state grants
for marijuana eradication programs earlier this year and in 2000, but
the eradication program continued. This year, the funding for
eradication was included in the county budget.

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BIG ISLAND MARIJUANA ENFORCEMENT

Plants seized last year: 24,197

Arrests for marijuana possession, cultivation or sale: 751

Marijuana cases investigated: 953

Federal and state anti-marijuana grants: $582,000*

Days police conducted helicopter marijuana missions: 27

* fiscal year 2007

calendar 2007