Pubdate: Tue, 15 Apr 2014
Source: Star Democrat (Easton, MD)
Copyright: 2014 The Star Democrat
Contact: https://stardem-dot-com.bloxcms.com/site/forms/online_services/letter/
Website: http://www.stardem.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1233
Note: from the Associated Press

PROSECUTORS CONFRONTING MARIJUANA LAW'S CHALLENGES

ANNAPOLIS (AP) - A new law that will decriminalize marijuana in
October involves some ambiguities that police and prosecutors are just
beginning to confront.

Under the law, possession of rolling papers, pipes and other marijuana
accessories will remain a criminal offense. This means a person caught
smoking a joint technically could be arrested for the rolling paper
but not the marijuana inside.

Also, fines are supposed to go up for anyone caught with the drug more
than once, but Scott Shellenberger, the state's attorney of Baltimore
County, says it will be hard for police to establish whether a person
has been charged before. Since marijuana possession will no longer be
a crime, it will not show up in the criminal database.

Gov. Martin O'Malley signed the decriminalization bill into law on
Monday morning. It will eliminate criminal charges for possession of
less than 10 grams of marijuana and reduce the offense to the level of
a traffic violation.

Sixteen other states have taken similar measures since the 1970s. It
is distinct from the full-on marijuana legalization bills passed in
Colorado and Washington.

Sen. Bobby Zirkin, D-Baltimore County, the bill's chief sponsor, said
he intentionally left intact the criminal penalties for having
marijuana accessories. He said it could help ensure that if police see
marijuana accessories in someone's car, they still have legal grounds
to search the car for items like guns and heroin.

But it also creates a strange inconsistency. Republicans have
suggested even a bag used to carry marijuana could still be cause for
a criminal charge.

Zirkin said the legislature will consider eliminating those penalties
next year.

Until 2012, Ohio's law had the same discrepancy. Dan Riffle, a former
Ohio prosecutor who now works for the Marijuana Policy Project, said
each jurisdiction decided its own procedures. Stubborn police
departments still arrested people for carrying marijuana pipes and
papers. However, this happened less and less as the public became more
supportive of decriminalization, Riffle said.

Shellenberger said Maryland's prosecutors will send out guidelines for
enforcing the new law. Every county could agree not to arrest people
for carrying pot accessories. But the prosecutors' association can't
force anyone's hand, he said.

Shellenberger raised other ambiguities as well. Will marijuana cases
go on courts' traffic dockets or criminal dockets? What will be the
standard of proof to make a marijuana charge stick? If police find
several baggies of marijuana in a car, totaling more than 10 grams'
worth, can they aggregate them and issue a criminal charge?

The prosecutors sent O'Malley a letter last week, urging him not to
sign the bill. They agree it was passed too hastily.

"Clearly we could've gotten a better bill than this," Shellenberger
said.

It's hard to nail down how many people are arrested for marijuana
possession each year. The American Civil Liberties Union found that in
2010, Maryland had the country's fourth highest arrest rate for
marijuana possession. Legal analysts have said the state had more than
19,000 marijuana cases last year. But in at least a small number of
cases, the defendants were likely just given citations and never arrested.

Shellenberger said that most often, marijuana defendants are arrested
but released immediately, without requiring a bail hearing.

Last year, only 252 people were kept in jail for marijuana possession
alone, according to data the Associated Press obtained from Maryland's
Administrative Office of the Courts.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jo-D