STATE CUTS THROUGH HAZE OF MARIJUANA LAW, SET TO TAKE EFFECT FRIDAY

Officials Are Urging Cities And Towns To Ban Public Marijuana Smoking

As Massachusetts prepares to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana
on Friday, state officials are urging cities and towns to ban public
pot smoking and assuring school administrators that students caught
with the drug may still be disciplined.

Guidelines issued Monday by the Executive Office of Public Safety and
Security also say that - as with marijuana - possession of an ounce
or less of hashish may be reduced to a civil offense because its main
psychoactive ingredient - THC - is the same as in marijuana.

Massachusetts will become the 12th state to do away with criminal
penalties for light-weight possession, enacting a $100 fine instead
of misdemeanor criminal charges. Voters passed the measure by
referendum last month.

Since then, law enforcement agencies have awaited guidelines on how
to enforce the new law.

While state officials expect the courts will eventually have to
address unsettled questions about the law, the guidelines offer
police departments a general roadmap for enforcement and make it
clear that laws against selling marijuana or driving while stoned
remain intact.

The state agency encourages cities and towns to pass ordinances or
bylaws banning the public use of marijuana, until now an unnecessary
step because possessing any amount of marijuana was illegal. As of
Friday, someone caught smoking a joint in public risks nothing more
than a $100 fine.

Attorney General Martha Coakley has prepared a sample bylaw that
would punish public pot smokers with an additional $300 fine and the
possibility of being charged with a misdemeanor crime.

Last week, the state's commissioner of elementary and secondary
education, Mitchell Chester, said in a memo to superintendents that
he believes they still will have authority to suspend or expel
students caught with an ounce or less of marijuana on school property
or at school-sponsored events. Chester suggested schools should rely
on their own legal advice.

Proponents of decriminalization argue the new law will free police to
focus on more serious crimes. Still, police chiefs and the state's 11
district attorneys opposed the referendum.

Norfolk County District Attorney William Keating and Plymouth County
District Attorney Tim Cruz campaigned against the change, arguing
marijuana is a proven gateway to harder narcotics and forewarned of
"more carnage on the roads."

Under the new law, anyone under 18 would have to surrender their
marijuana and pay the same fines as an adult if they complete a drug
awareness program within a year. Failing to complete the program
could result in the fine being raised to as much as $1,000.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.