POLICE WRITE UP TEEN UNDER NEW POT LAW

MANCHESTER - Days after annual Town Meeting elected to send the issue
of stiffer fines for public consumption of marijuana to the Board of
Health, police issued a citation for possession of less than an ounce
of marijuana to a teenager at Manchester Essex Regional High School.

The citation, the first issued in Manchester and the third on Cape
Ann, was written by police Detective Rick Newton just after noon
Wednesday to a young woman. Newton had been called in by school officials.

Police said the girl was not smoking, which is the issue that has
been a matter of public debate since police Chief Glenn McKiel placed
an article on the Town Meeting warrant that would have created a $300
fine for public consumption.

Police would not say how much marijuana was seized.

Massachusetts voters supported the decriminalization of marijuana
last November, making possession a civil penalty with a fine of $100.

However, the law, which went into effect in January, carries a
stiffer penalty for minors.

"An offender under the age of 18 shall be subject to the same
forfeiture and civil penalty provisions, provided he or she completes
a drug awareness program," reads the law.

The law also includes a provision requiring that the minor's parents
receive notification and, that, should the offender not complete a
drug awareness program and required community service within one year
of the offense, the fine can be increased to $1,000.

Town Meeting has tasked the Board of Health to consider adding a
provision regarding public consumption of marijuana, or
tetrahydrocannabinol, to an existing Board of Health regulation
prohibiting consumption of tobacco in certain public areas. The board
met yesterday morning but did not taken up the issue, and have yet
to set a date to do so.