Pubdate: Fri, 18 Jun 2010 Source: Rutland Herald (VT) Copyright: 2010 Rutland Herald Contact: http://www.rutlandherald.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/892 Author: Peter Hirschfeld, Vermont Press Bureau 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." - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D