VT. SENATE TO CONSIDER BILLS EASING POT LAWS, TIGHTENING SANCTIONS
FOR COKE AND HEROIN

MONTPELIER - Senate lawmakers will consider a bill making it a civil,
not criminal, offense to possess small amounts of marijuana. At the
same time, they will also look at a second bill increasing the
penalties for possessing heroin and cocaine by reducing the amount
possessed that constitutes "trafficking."

The moves come following months of public debate on the efficacy and
social and fiscal costs of Vermont's drug policies and whether it
makes sense to decriminalize marijuana.

Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington, has scheduled a hearing before the
Senate Judiciary Committee on the evening of Jan. 23 to hear from
members of the public who have concerns about Vermont's drug policies.

After the hearing, that committee is expected to begin taking
testimony on the two-pronged approach, which would boost penalties
for possessing the harder drugs and use civil violations and the
court diversion program for marijuana possession.

"I thought it was important to let the public weigh in before we
started taking a close look at the proposals," said Sears, the chair
of the Judiciary Committee. "This is a change in state law regarding
drugs, and the public probably has some thoughts about this."

The marijuana decriminalization bill, proposed last year by Sen.
Jeanette White, D-Windham, would make it a civil violation, with a
fine of up to $1,000, to possess up to four ounces of marijuana or
two small marijuana plants. Selling small amounts of marijuana would
result in a $250 fine, according to the bill.

Possessing or selling larger amounts of the plant more than four
ounces or more than five plants would still be a criminal act, under
the bill, and could result in fines of up to $100,000 and five years in prison.

The second bill, proposed last year by Sears, lowers the trafficking
criminal charges threshold for cocaine from 300 grams to 150 and from
seven grams for heroin to 3.5 grams. Penalties for being caught with
these drugs would be jail time of up to 30 years and a fine of up to
$1 million.

Sears said he believes the trafficking thresholds for the hard drugs
are too low in Vermont, but he added that he and other committee
members do have concerns with the levels of decriminalized marijuana
in White's bill, opening the door to the possibility that the four
ounces could lowered.

"Four ounces of marijuana is a felony," he said. "I don't think we
want to go there."

Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, D-Windham, has placed drug
law reform as one of his priorities for this new legislative session
- -- a topic that Gov. James Douglas, a Republican, has said he is open
to having discussed, although he has not endorsed the effort.

The new focus on marijuana decriminalization comes after a political
scuffle erupted several months ago between Douglas and Robert Sand, a
prosecutor in Windsor County who favors marijuana decriminalization.

Late last year Douglas ordered state-controlled police officials to
bypass Sand's office on marijuana cases after the prosecutor approved
court diversion for a local attorney caught with 30 marijuana plants.

He later rescinded that policy after Sand made it clear he does not
have a blanket policy regarding marijuana possession and after news
reports surfaced that an Orange County prosecutor also authorized
court diversion for a man arrested with more than 100 plants.

Vermont is certainly not the first state to look at marijuana
decriminalization, according to Bruce Mirken, the director of
communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington,
D.C.-based group that advocates for drug policy reform.

Eleven other states, including New York and Maine, already have
similar state laws, some dating back to the 1970s, Mirken said. The
specifics of the laws vary from state to state, he added, but
Vermont's latest effort seems to be moderate compared to some of the
other states.

"According to the FBI, last year there were 829,000 arrests in the
United States for marijuana possession," he said. "That's one arrest
every 38 seconds."

"The really shocking thing is that there were more marijuana arrests
than arrests for all other violent criminal acts combined," Mirken added.

Jane Woodruff, the executive director of the Vermont Department of
State's Attorney's and Sheriffs, said she has not looked closely at
the two drug bills and first needs to speak with members of her group
before taking a position on the efforts.

Woodruff did say that as a "rule of thumb" most cases involving a
small amount of marijuana from first-time offenders are sent to the
court diversion, which she called a "very good program."

"Unless they were a violent criminal, they will probably go to
diversion," she said.

She added that prosecutors in Vermont have told her anecdotally that
reviewing and bringing charges in marijuana possession cases do not
consume a large amount of time. That is in contrast to stories that
some other lawmakers have heard, including Sears.

"Some prosecutors have told me that they might spend as much time
investigating cases involving small amounts of marijuana as they
might for a clear-cut murder case," he said, adding that this issue
will be one of many that his committee looks at.

The public hearing on the two drug bills is scheduled for 6 p.m. in
Room 11 at the Statehouse on Jan. 23.