NEW POT LAW: 'A COMPLETE MESS'

Raynham - A new law decriminalizing the possession of a small amount
of marijuana looked good on paper.

But it will be hard to enforce, lead to privacy issues and pave the
way for more widespread use of hard drugs, Police Chief Lou Pacheco
said this week.

"The situation is a mess - a complete mess," Pacheco
said.

Effective on Jan. 2, the law stems from the voter-approved ballot
Question 2 that makes the possession of an ounce or less of marijuana
a civil offense punishable by a maximum $100 fine for those 18 and
older.

Pacheco said the problem lies less in measuring the quantity of the
drug than in the quality.

Officers can be trained to assess what an ounce of the drug looks like
or use a scale. But the law doesn't differentiate between Class D
marijuana and the more potent Class C form of the drug like some hashish.

There's also a problem with ticketing by state police. Troopers won't
have the 351 different types of tickets needed to write civil
citations for each of the cities and towns in Massachusetts.

Civil fines are also a matter of public record.

Pacheco said simple marijuana possession accounts for only a handful
of local arrests a year because the culprits are usually caught with
stronger drugs.

He is concerned that the public views an ounce of marijuana as a small
amount for personal use.

An ounce can be rolled into 40-50 joints and sell for about $600 on
the street, he said.

Law enforcement dropped the ball on the ballot that was passed by 65
percent of the voters, he said.

Many supporters were parents who saw it as a way to avoid saddling
their children with criminal records for youthful slips.

Younger offenders will undergo drug awareness programs and perform
community service.

"We fought it the wrong way. We didn't challenge the facts," he said.