A $100 FINE FOR MARIJUANA POSSESSION?

On Tuesday, February 2, state Representative Steven Lindsey of Keene
was in Concord testifying at a hearing on his bill to decriminalize
possession of up to an ounce of marijuana.

At the same time, in Cancun, Mexico, former brigadier general Mauro
Enrique Tello Quinones was taking his last breath, having been
kidnapped the night before and tortured by narcotics traffickers. Just
one week earlier, Tello had started a new job as the city's drug czar.
The mayor of the beautiful Caribbean community explained that his city
is awash in marijuana and cocaine, most of it destined for customers
in the United States.

In Concord, Lindsey complained that New Hampshire's marijuana law is
too severe. Possession of an ounce or less of marijuana is a
misdemeanor in New Hampshire, which means that violators can be
sentenced to up to a year in prison. Lindsey called that penalty
"draconian." It does apply mostly to people who have not committed
violent crimes.

In Cancun, Tello's body was found later that Tuesday in a truck cab
left by the side of a highway, along with the bodies of the man's
bodyguard and his driver. They had all been shot in the head. The
Washington Post reports that both the general's arms and legs had been
broken. Drug criminals were responsible for 5,300 murders in Mexico
last year, many of them law enforcement officers.

In Concord, Karin Eckel, an assistant attorney general, responded to
Lindsey's proposal by noting that first time marijuana offenders
rarely receive jail sentences in New Hampshire.

Felix Gonzalez, governor of the Mexican state where Cancun is located,
called Tello's murder "truly horrible." He spoke to a Post reporter
about the current war between Mexican authorities and the drug
cartels: "All over the country now we're seeing a big fight over
control of the biggest cities."

Lindsey's bill would loosen the penalty by imposing a maximum penalty
of a $100 fine for New Hampshirites found guilty of possessing an
ounce or less of marijuana. An almost identical bill is before the
Legislature of Vermont, sponsored by Representative David Zuckerman of
Burlington.

But, in the grand scheme of things, $100 is pretty small potatoes. The
Mexican government estimates organized crime earns $8 billion a year
from the marijuana trade alone. If American drug users - including
those from New Hampshire and Vermont - can afford to pay murderers and
torturers in Mexico that kind of money to secure their pleasure,
surely they can afford to pay heftier fines here at home.