VERMONT'S SHUMLIN: LEGALIZE IT

A grassroots effort to decriminalize marijuana has the backing of a
Democratic candidate for governor.

Peter Shumlin, a Windham County senator in the thick of a five-way primary,
said he'll throw his support behind a burgeoning decriminalization movement
sparked by a former legislator from Brattleboro.

"Here's the difference between Pete Shumlin and other candidates: I think
the public is turned off by politicians who don't stand for what they
believe," Shumlin said this week. "Vermonters won't always agree with me,
but they know I'll fight for what I believe in."

Darryl Pillsbury, a former four-term independent from Brattleboro who now
serves as a town selectman, said an effort that sprouted in his hometown is
making its way upstate.

"We're trying to build a groundswell so we have enough people that can
support legislators in Montpelier that are willing to do this," Pillsbury
said. "If we can get the numbers, the support, we can go somewhere with this."

Attempts at marijuana reform aren't new in the Statehouse, where
decriminalization bills are introduced perennially. But Pillsbury, who said
he witnessed the fiscal toll of marijuana crimes on the criminal justice
system during his time on the House Committee on Corrections and
Institutions, said he plans to galvanize the public support needed to
actually change the law.

"Spending eight years in Legislature and seeing how many nonviolent
offenders we're putting in prison at $52,000 per year was one thing that
really got to me," Pillsbury said.

Shumlin said fiscal pragmatism also grounds his support for decriminalization.

"Vermont's second-fastest area of budget growth is prisons," Shumlin said.

While low-level possession charges rarely result in jail time, Shumlin
said, marijuana-related sanctions can be more severe for people already on
probation.

"Small marijuana offenses, when you're already on probation, can send you
to prison," he said. "That doesn't seem to me to be the best use of scarce
taxpayer dollars."

Pillsbury said his ultimate goal is outright legalization. The financial
benefits of regulation and taxation on the state's number two cash crop
(behind hay), according to Pillsbury, could solve next year's projected
budget deficit virtually overnight.

"Regulate it and tax the hell out of it," Pillsbury said. "I think this is
the revenue source Vermont is looking for."

Pillsbury said his chief motive though, is ending the unjust
criminalization of people who enjoy smoking pot.

"Personally I don't call marijuana a drug. I call it an herb," he said.
"And I'm an herbalist. I think herbs are good things."

Pillsbury, a longtime maintenance worker at a Brattleboro hospital, has
joined forces with Vidda Crochetta, a fellow Brattleboro resident, to
organize the effort. Two meetings in Brattleboro, they said, have shown
popular support beyond their expectations. They plan to convene meetings
elsewhere in the state this summer and fall.

Shumlin said he plans to stand beside the men at a meeting this summer.

In 2008, the Vermont Senate approved legislation that would have eliminated
criminal penalties for people caught with up to one ounce of the drug.

The bill never made it through the House. A decriminalization bill
introduced in the last session never got out of committee.

Windsor County State's Attorney Robert Sand, a longtime proponent of
marijuana legalization, said decriminalization is a good step.

"I am convinced that a regulated model would actually reduce use rates,
dramatically reduce if not completely eliminate law-enforcement involvement
as it relates to marijuana, and would help take the profit motive out of
the illegal sale and distribution, which is spawning extraordinary violence
through the sale of a substance that in and of itself doesn't induce
violence," Sand said. "The question then is what are the incremental steps
that get us there? And decriminalization, I think, is a reasonable
incremental step."

Sand said the costs of marijuana to taxpayers aren't borne out in the
corrections system specifically but in the criminal justice system as a whole.

Decriminalization would replace criminal sanctions with civil sanctions, so
that people caught possessing marijuana would be subject to fines, not jail
time.

"Police officers could respond, but they could respond roadside and issue a
ticket without the need to arrest, process, run a criminal history, prepare
a docket for state's attorney review," Sand said. "That would be a
significant savings in law enforcement time, which would allow police
officers to then move on to I would suggest are more pressing matters, like
patrolling for drunk drivers or responding to crimes against persons."

Sand, who has testified before legislative committees on decriminalization
bills, said he believes the majority of voters already support
decriminalization.

"I have said for years, and I believe it even more strongly now, that
voters are ahead of politicians on this issue," Sand said. "When I
testified in the Senate Judiciary Committee, I said, 'are you comfortable
branding as a criminal someone who chooses to ingest (marijuana)? ... And I
think phrased that way, the vast majority or people would say no. And if
you hold that view, then it ought not be a crime."

Sand said members of the Vermont Senate have "stuck out their necks
politically" on the decriminalization issue he references Shumlin and
Sen. Dick Sears, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, as notable
decriminalization champions but said the House has yet to follow suit.

"Even Jim Douglas said he was prepared to talk about penalties, and really
a decriminalization bill is a discussion about penalties," Sand said. "But
until House Speaker Shap Smith and (House Judiciary Committee) Chairman
Bill Lippert express a willingness to discuss the topic, it's going to keep
getting bottlenecked in the House. I think there may be enough of a
critical mass right now that they may take it up."

Pillsbury said the effort is still in its beginning stages. He plans to
meet with more organized marijuana-reform advocates including the
nonprofit Vermont Alliance for Intelligent Drug Laws as the push gains
steam. Ultimately, he said, the effort is about building up the "critical
mass" that will be needed to get the bill through the Statehouse.

"There's something to this. You can feel it at these meetings," Pillsbury
said. "People are ready for change, and I think we can make it happen."