Pubdate: Fri, 02 Aug 2013
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2013 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: John Ingold

IT'S STILL ILLEGAL IN DENVER, BUT IT'S RARELY PUNISHED

Denver police have written more tickets for public marijuana use so 
far this year than in all of 2012, but the crime is rarely punished, 
according to new statistics from the city.

Though Colorado voters in November legalized marijuana use by adults, 
consuming marijuana in public remains illegal, under both state law 
and Denver municipal ordinance. It brings a $100 fine under the state law.

According to figures provided by the Denver Department of Safety, 
police in the city wrote just 20 tickets for public marijuana 
consumption during the first half of 2013. Fifteen of those tickets 
came in May and June. Officers wrote only eight tickets in all of 
2012, all but one of those pre-legalization.

"Nothing has changed for us policy-wise," Denver police spokesman 
John White said. "If individuals are observed consuming marijuana in 
public, they will be cited."

It's difficult to determine whether public pot use has actually 
increased. There have been no scientific studies about public 
marijuana use in Denver, either pre-or post-legalization.

But people concerned about the impacts of marijuana legalization say, 
anecdotally, they have noticed a significant increase in open 
marijuana consumption.

"We've heard from a lot of people in the community that they're 
seeing more and more of that," said Diane Carlson, an organizer for 
the group Smart Colorado.

Carlson said she saw people smoking marijuana at the Denver Zoo's Zoo 
Lights event in December as children walked nearby. Some visitors to 
the city also say public marijuana use is a problem in Denver, with 
one Chicago resident writing in a letter to The Denver Post that he 
and his family observed pot smoking "literally every block" on the 
16th Street Mall.

Visit Denver spokesman Rich Grant said the tourism office has 
received several letters from visitors dismayed at the public pot 
smoking they saw in the city. But Grant said the number of those 
letters isn't any more than letters Visit Denver receives on other 
topics. The office even receives letters from people concerned 
that-with bans on public consumption and prohibitions on marijuana 
use at many hotels-they won't have a place to puff.

"At this point, nobody really knows what it's going to be like or a 
lot of the details," Grant said.

Public marijuana smoking, especially downtown, wasn't rare before 
legalization, though. Comments on the review website Yelp's entry for 
the 16th Street Mall make that clear; one reviewer in 2010 wrote that 
the mall was a place to watch people "just finishing toking their 
medical marijuana."

Mason Tvert, one of the proponents of marijuana legalization in 
Colorado, said the ticket statistics aren't an effective way to 
measure increases or decreases in public use. Police in previous 
years might have punished public consumption by writing a ticket for 
possession, Tvert said. And tickets written for marijuana possession 
have declined in Denver since legalization's passage.

In 2012, police in Denver wrote 1,600 tickets for marijuana 
possession. In the first half of 2013, with possession of up to an 
ounce now legal for people 21 and older, officers wrote 423 
possession tickets. The number written in June- 34- was the lowest 
monthly total for at least the previous 18 months.

"Nothing strikes me as being different now than it was last year, in 
terms of what I hear about marijuana use in public," Tvert said. "By 
keeping the public use of marijuana illegal, it is continuing to 
deter public use. There's no reason to think that those laws are all 
of a sudden not going to keep deterring use."

Tvert argues that public alcohol consumption is a bigger problem. 
Numbers from the city show it is certainly punished more frequently.

Officers wrote 651 tickets for public consumption of alcohol or 
possession of alcohol in parks in the first six months of 2013. Most 
of those- 557- came in May and June. In all of 2012, police wrote 395 tickets.

White, the police spokesman, couldn't explain the sudden increase in 
alcohol tickets this summer. A spokeswoman for Denver's parks 
department said some increase is possibly because of a combined 
effort of police and parks employees to address problems in Washington Park.

But officers in Denver might have another reason to go after people 
drinking in public before people puffing in public. A city ordinance- 
passed as a ballot initiative in 2007 - says officers should make 
small scale marijuana crimes "the city's lowest law enforcement 
priority." Though city officials have argued the ordinance has little 
practical effect, White said officers are often kept busy on more 
pressing matters.

"It is considered a low priority," White said. "But if officers do 
notice it is occurring, they will take action."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom