COMMISSIONER BACKS POT PENALTIES

SPRINGFIELD - Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet said Monday he would
support a City Council ordinance to make smoking marijuana in public an
arrestable offense with a $300 fine.

The ordinance would be a response - with the approval of the state
attorney general - to a state law that took effect Jan. 2 that has
decriminalized possession of an ounce or less of marijuana.

"I would be agreeable to that, if the City Council saw fit to pass such an
ordinance ... I think smoking marijuana publicly, especially in the
vicinity of schools, is a bad message to send," Fitchet said, at a council
committee meeting at City Hall.

Under the new law, the drug is still illegal, but possessing a small
amount brings only a fine of $100 without an arrest. The $300 fine under
the proposed ordinance would be in addition to that fine.

The new law took effect after voters overwhelmingly approved ballot
Question 2 in November.

The proposed local restriction would be aimed at discouraging pot smokers
from viewing the new state law as a green light to smoke outside schools
or on sidewalks, parks, bridges and other public areas, officials said.

The city could use a model ordinance that the attorney general's office
has provided for cities and towns regarding the new marijuana law,
Assistant City Solicitor Michael E. Mulcahy said.

Chairman James J. Ferrera III called the meeting of the Veterans,
Administration and Human Services Committee because law enforcement
officials and others have said the new law is confusing and ill-conceived.

"It's not to circumvent the will of the voters. They have spoken. We're
just going to try to address qualify-of-life issues in the city," Ferrera
said.

He will propose the marijuana ordinance at the next council meeting on
Monday, he said.

A spokesman with a Washington, D.C., group that pushed for Question 2 said
he agrees the new law allows for tougher penalties for smoking marijuana
in public, but he said too little time has passed to judge whether the new
law is effective as is.

"They're not circumventing Question 2, but what I would say is they should
let the law work and see what takes place with marijuana use," said Daniel
J. Bernath, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project.

Under the new state law, people under age 18 caught with an ounce or less
of marijuana also are required to attend drug-awareness classes.