Pubdate: Mon, 30 Dec 2013
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2013 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Sadie Gurman

POLICE SAY POT PUFFERS NOT TARGETED

Extra Denver police officers will be on hand to protect patrons of
newly legalized recreational pot shops on Wednesday, but they won't be
actively looking to arrest them if they light up in public.

"I am not going to have a team of officers specifically going out
looking for people smoking marijuana," Police Chief Robert White said.
"If we get complaints or run into it, we're certainly going to
investigate it. We have to balance our resources as it relates to
addressing these issues."

The legalization of recreational marijuana has created new gray areas
for the police department, which is still wrangling with how strictly
to enforce laws against public consumption of the drug. The City
Council this month approved rules banning the display or distribution
of marijuana on the 16th Street Mall or streets around it and in city
parks.

White said he plans to issue a training bulletin by Wednesday
reminding officers about the nuances of the new rules.

"If we get complaints, we'll balance that with other priorities,"
White said. "I'm interested in making sure that those retail shops
that are going to open - we want to make sure that's done in an
orderly fashion."

He told officers earlier this month that they would not be allowed to
moonlight as uniformed security guards at marijuana shops because the
drug remains illegal federally and "we need to see how this thing is
going to evolve."

City Council members have pressed the department to crack down on
public consumption after officers stood by in September as scores of
people smoked marijuana joints during a pot giveaway in Civic Center
park. Police officials said at the time that they were acting based on
lessons learned from 4/20 events, in which officers have kept the
peace as tens of thousands of people smoked in the park.

"They should be a little proactive," said Councilman Charlie Brown,
who led a committee on recreational marijuana, adding that "I don't
envision people in riot gear" but he hoped officers would remind
smokers of the rules if they observed them being broken.

"We didn't pass the laws for them not to be enforced," he
said.

The department will have a list of which retail stores are opening on
Wednesday and will provide extra patrols around them in the event of
large crowds, White said.

"The officers working in those areas will be aware of those locations
and will monitor the crowd from the outside," he said. 
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D