LITTLE FRACAS IN BIG WATER

The Big Water Town Council's recent decision to more or less decriminalize
the possession of small amounts of marijuana may have been a mistake and it
may not stand if it conflicts with state law, but the decision in no way
justifies the Utah Highway Patrol and Kane County Sheriff's Office mounting
a harassment campaign against residents.

This is just what Mayor-elect Willie Marshall says the two law enforcement
agencies are doing, stopping residents for minor and picayune traffic and
vehicle violations -- an effort presumably aimed at letting residents know
that these august agencies disagree with the Town Council's decision.

The highway patrol acknowledged the traffic effort, but an official says it
is purely coincidental, part of a "special enforcement" that can take place
in various localities throughout the state and has nothing to do with the
Town Council's decision.

Perhaps the highway patrol official is right, but if the "special
enforcement" he spoke of has been foreign in Big Water and its environs and
appeared only after the Town Council's ordinance change and after a highway
patrol trooper allegedly told town officials "all hell was going to break
loose" as a result of the ordinance, residents cannot be blamed for seeing
a connection.

There are legal and proper ways to sort out the efficacy of the Big Water
ordinance vis-a-vis state law. If state or Kane County officials are upset
with the Town Council's ordinance, they should pursue their complaints in
these legal venues, which invariably will be adjudicated the first time the
ordinance and state law collide on a marijuana possession case.

State and county law enforcement agencies, no matter how ridiculous they
feel the Big Water ordinance is, have no business using it -- or any other
excuse -- to throw their weight. It is this kind of conduct that gives law
enforcement and its practitioners a bad name. These agencies cannot afford
that. Their ability to do their job is dependent, in large measure, on
community support.