TOWNS TRY TO PUNISH PUBLIC MARIJUANA USE

Officials Want Children Shielded

Dozens of Massachusetts cities and towns are taking steps to impose
stiff new fines for smoking marijuana in public and even to charge
some violators with misdemeanors, a trend that critics say subverts
the state ballot question passed overwhelmingly last fall to
decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.

In recent weeks, at least seven communities - Duxbury, Lynn, Methuen,
Medway, Milford, Salem, and Springfield - have passed bylaws that
target people who light up in public. And two dozen cities and towns
expect to vote this spring on similar measures, which proponents
liken to local open container laws that ban drinking alcohol in public.

Police officials say they want to discourage flagrant marijuana
smoking, particularly in public parks, schoolyards, and on beaches
where young children gather. While last year's ballot initiative
reduced possession of an ounce or less from a misdemeanor to a civil
infraction carrying a $100 fine, police say that some marijuana
smokers mistakenly believe that the voters legalized the drug entirely.

"If you're smoking marijuana in front of schoolchildren, to me that's
a little bit more serious than smoking a joint by yourself out in the
middle of the woods," said Salem police Captain Brian Gilligan. His
city recently authorized officers to fine public smokers $300 in
addition to the $100 fine for possession. The Salem bylaw also lets
officers give them a misdemeanor summons, although Gilligan predicted
that few will get them.

Advocates of last fall's ballot initiative say the new civil fines
for smoking marijuana in public are, at best, unnecessary because
those individuals can already be fined for possession. At worst, they
say, bylaws that treat smoking violations as a misdemeanor are a
backdoor attempt to subvert the will of Massachusetts voters, who
approved decriminalization in November by a margin of nearly 2 to 1.

"This seems to be much more about people who never liked the law to
begin with looking for an end run around the will of the voters,"
said Dan Bernath, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, an
advocacy group in Washington, D.C., that rallied support for the
ballot initiative known as Question 2. "And it's particularly
disturbing because they were wrong on this policy. The voters were right."

Question 2 passed by a vote of 65 to 35 percent, making Massachusetts
one of a dozen states to decriminalize possession of small amounts of
marijuana, Bernath said. Proponents of the change, including
billionaire financier George Soros, who spent more than $400,000 in
favor of decriminalization, said that it would ensure that those
caught with small quantities would avoid the taint of a criminal record.

The measure, which took effect Jan. 2, turned possession of an ounce
or less of marijuana into a civil offense on par with a traffic
violation. (Previously, simple possession was a misdemeanor that
carried penalties of up to six months in jail and a fine of up to
$500.) Violators under 18 must attend a drug-awareness program that
includes 10 hours of community service. The fine increases to $1,000
for those who fail to complete the program within a year.

While the state law goes after those who possess marijuana, the
cities and towns are now specifically targeting those who smoke the
drug in public.

The ballot question passed over the objections of the Massachusetts
Chiefs of Police Association, the Massachusetts Association of
District Attorneys, Attorney General Martha Coakley, and Governor
Deval Patrick. They said decriminalization sends the wrong message
and create a bureaucratic nightmare.

Spokespersons for state public safety officials and the court system
said they did not keep track of how many people have received citations so far.

The statewide referendum specifically said each city and town could
pass bylaws banning public use of marijuana, and communities across
the state have started doing that. They are relying on a sample bylaw
provided by Coakley's office, which says fines can be imposed, a
criminal penalty, or both, in addition to the $100 possession fine.

Coakley's office reviews bylaws enacted to make sure they pass
constitutional muster, but takes no position on penalizing people who
smoke in public, said spokeswoman Emily LaGrassa.

In recent weeks, Duxbury's Town Meeting overwhelmingly approved
imposing a $300 fine on people who smoke marijuana in public.
Methuen's City Council passed a bylaw to impose a $100 fine on people
who light up at parks, playgrounds, on school grounds, or a public beach.

Mayor William M. Manzi III of Methuen said he sponsored the measure
because he wants to keep those areas free of marijuana and alcohol.
"You can already be fined under a local ordinance for having an open
container of Budweiser," he said.

To show that Methuen was being even-handed, he added, the council
increased the fine for drinking alcohol in public from $50 to $100,
the same as the fine for public marijuana smoking.

Some communities, however, are also authorizing officers to give
people who smoke in public a misdemeanor summons.

Residents attending Milford's Town Meeting, for example, recently
approved such a bylaw. The measure also imposes a fine of $100 for a
first offense, $200 for a second offense, and $300 for subsequent offenses.

Police Chief Thomas O'Loughlin of Milford said he favored
decriminalization last fall. But he supported the local bylaw because
police need a tool to contend with young people who flout state law
by smoking in public, sometimes in groups that make it difficult to
determine who owns the marijuana.

"In the circumstances where you have a dozen young people or two
dozen young people out in a park at night, OK, who possesses what?" he said.

He said it was unlikely that officers would charge smokers with a
misdemeanor, given that police have long exercised discretion when
arresting someone for marijuana possession. Last year, before
decriminalization, Milford police arrested only 34 people for
possession, he said, a fraction of those police could have charged.

Since marijuana has been decriminalized, he added, officers have
handed out only one citation, and that was to a high school student
whose parents wanted him to get counseling.

"Believe me, we're not walking around town looking through people's
windows to see whether they're smoking a joint," O'Loughlin said.

But critics of the bylaws are skeptical.

Steven Epstein, a Georgetown lawyer and founder of the Massachusetts
Cannabis Reform Coalition, said he believes the efforts amount to
recriminalization and are "all motivated by police chiefs who lost
their power when they no longer had the arbitrary power to arrest
people for possessing or using marijuana."