Pubdate: Tue, 15 Apr 2014
Source: Washington Times (DC)
Copyright: 2014 Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.washingtontimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/492
Author: Nick Tabor, Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

MARYLAND'S POT LAWS PRESENT CHALLENGES FOR POLICE, PROSECUTORS.

Possession of Papers, Pipes Remains Criminal

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, a Democrat, 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. Robert A. Zirkin, Baltimore County Democrat and 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.

Mr. 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, Mr. Riffle said.

Mr. 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.

Mr. 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 Mr. 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," Mr. 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.

Mr. 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.
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