BUDGET PROPOSAL WOULD CHANGE DRUG LAW ENFORCEMENT

BOSTON - A state budget proposal would give judges discretion over whether
to prosecute low-level drug offenders and others as civil or criminal
infractions, according to a published report.

District attorneys currently make those decisions, but would lose that
authority under a measure tucked into the state budget, which is awaiting
vetoes from acting Gov. Jane M. Swift.

Judges, under the proposal, could choose to try cases ranging from
marijuana or heroin possession to indecent exposure as civil matters.

Lawmakers say the state would save much-needed money because defendants
wouldn't need lawyers. The state spends $2.5 million annually on public
defenders for 5,000 poor people charged every year on misdemeanor infractions.

The proposed change also means people charged in civil court wouldn't face
jail, and any guilty findings would not become part of a criminal record.

"That undercuts the quality of life," Suffolk District Attorney Daniel
Conley told the Boston Herald. "If you leave those unchecked, that breeds
greater problems and violence."

Swift suggested she would veto the measure; it's not known if lawmakers
have the votes to override.

"It would be totally in line with past practices to come down, on any
section of the budget or any bill, on the side of public safety," she said.

House Ways and Means Chairman John H. Rogers, D-Norwood, said the provision
could save the state $1 million annually. He called it a "waste of taxpayer
money" to fund legal defenses for minor crimes.

"We just thought that was a foolish waste of money," he said.

Drug policy reformers backed the idea.

"We're hitting mosquitoes with bazookas," Michael Cutler, a participant in
the Massachusetts Drug Policy Forum, said of prosecution of low-level
offenders. "It's a waste of police resources to be chasing pot smokers."