POT NOT A CRIME, BUT TRADE STILL HAS VICTIMS

POSSESSING LESS than one ounce of marijuana is no longer a crime in
Massachusetts.

But crime still flows from supplying it.

To understand how far and how violently, consider again the story of
Justin D. Cosby, who was murdered inside a Harvard University
residence hall -- several months after the decriminalization law took
effect. Cosby, 22, a Cambridge Rindge & Latin School graduate who
attended Salem State College, sold marijuana on and around the
Harvard campus. On May 18, 2009, he was set up by three men -- not
Harvard students -- who were part of a plot to rob him. He was shot
three times and died later at a hospital while his mother watched.

Two men cut deals with prosecutors in return for dropping
first-degree murder charges. Last week, a third man, Jabral Jordan
Copney, 22, was convicted of murder and received a mandatory life
sentence. Two Harvard female students who were a week away from
graduation when Cosby died knew about the plan to rob Cosby of cash
and marijuana. One still faces trial for illegal possession of a
firearm. The two women will probably never receive Harvard diplomas.

It's easy to view this as a simple story about six young people
making bad choices that played out unexpectedly in the supposedly
sequestered Ivy League. But the story is more complicated than that.

For one thing, it involves a circle much bigger than the five people
directly connected to Cosby's death. "Justin had been selling drugs
on and around that campus," said Gerard T. Leone, the Middlesex
district attorney whose office prosecuted the defendants in the case.

Leone said it also illuminates in dramatic fashion the downside of
the Massachusetts law that decriminalizes possession of a small
amount of marijuana, while the drug itself is still illegal. It's why
Leone opposed the 2008 state ballot question that led to what he now
calls "a half-baked law."

"A cottage industry has sprung up around it," said Leone. "They know
if they sell less than one ounce at a time" it's not a crime for the
buyer. But, "You still have to go to illegal drug dealers to get it. "

Violence can break out between buyers and sellers. Leone's office is
prosecuting a case involving a drug dealer who was shot to death last
October during a drug deal gone awry. Four young men, including a
senior at Newton North High School, are charged in the fatal
shooting. Between sellers, violence often breaks out over cash and
turf. Cash was the target for those who accosted Cosby, said Leone.

"Anecdotally, I can tell you plenty of stories about the crime and
violence that comes with all of this," he said.

It is easy to dismiss this as a problem associated with bad guys from
the mean streets. But Leone said that the son Denise Cosby described
was not so different from any mother's child. He played intramural
college basketball, worked part-time at a gas station, had friends,
and called home to say, "Mom, I love you."

Besides, aren't the "good kids" from the right side of town
exacerbating the problem by providing a market?

What is the responsibility of any Harvard student who may have bought
less than ounce of marijuana from him? Possession is not a crime;
it's a civil offense, punishable with a $100 fine. But what about
moral accountability? Given the consequences that flowed from their
desire to buy, they are more than innocents puffing away harmlessly.

The fact that Cosby died on the Harvard campus gave this story more
altitude in the media. But drugs are, of course, everywhere,
including other campuses. Leone believes colleges must acknowledge
not only their use, but the potential consequences. For users,
there's an addiction issue. For sellers, there's still a criminal issue.

Violence is also an outcome more common than most people want to
think about. But that probably never crossed the very fine minds of
those who crossed paths with Cosby. And that's kind of a crime, isn't it?