On a groundbreaking vote, the legislature's judiciary committee decided Tuesday night to decriminalize marijuana possession for adults 18 and older who have less than half an ounce of the drug.

Under a compromise, the marijuana laws would not change for anyone under 18, and the amount that would be decriminalized was reduced from less than 1 ounce to less than half an ounce. The possession of small amounts would no longer be a crime and would instead be an infraction with a maximum fine of $250 that could be paid like a speeding ticket.

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Change Drug Law. Fines For Small Amounts Of Marijuana Make Sense

When legislators proposed decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana, they pointed to a Harvard study that said police spend about $30 million a year arresting and investigating low-level marijuana users in Massachusetts. There was not a similar study in Connecticut.

Now there is. According to the General Assembly's Office of Fiscal Analysis, there were 9,928 marijuana arrests in Connecticut in 2007, which represents 7 percent of total arrests statewide. Based on prior research, the office estimates that about a third of those arrests, or 3,300, were for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.

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Lawmakers could take up the contentious question of decriminalizing marijuana this afternoon as the state legislature's powerful judiciary committee heads toward a Friday deadline to act on legislation.

The judiciary committee had considered a possible vote on the proposal Monday, but the matter was postponed because other bills were debated longer than expected. The committee will meet again today at noon.

Some Democratic legislators have been pushing hard this year for the decriminalization of less than an ounce of marijuana, pointing out among other issues that doing so could save the state more than $11 million in law enforcement costs, according to a new legislative report.

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Gov. M. Jodi Rell indicated Monday that she opposes the decriminalization of marijuana, a contentious issue that could come up for a committee vote in the General Assembly as soon as today.Some Democratic legislators have been pushing hard this year for the decriminalization of less than an ounce of marijuana, and Rell had not previously voiced a public view on the bill.

Two of Rell's spokesmen stopped short Monday of using the word "veto," but they both said that Rell opposes the concept.

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UConn's branch of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) held a conference on Saturday supporting state senate Bill 349, which proposes decriminalizing minor possession of marijuana.

The conference, called "Decrim Makes Cents," went from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., featured a host of guest speakers. They included Micah Daigle, SSDP's field director, and Eric Sterling, president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation and advisor to SSDP.

The event featured panels on decriminalization, group discussions and workshops on organizing groups.

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Few people go to jail for possessing small amounts of pot, anyway, so why is the state spending millions to arrest and prosecute recreational users and give them a criminal record?

The Connecticut General Assembly should follow Massachusetts' lead and change possession of less than one ounce of marijuana from a criminal misdemeanor to an infraction. Gov. M. Jodi Rell is looking for substantive ways to save money. Here is one.

According to the Office of Fiscal Analysis, there were 9,928 marijuana arrests in Connecticut in 2007, representing 7 percent of total arrests statewide, and about one-third of those involved possession of less than an ounce of pot. By making those small-possession incidents infractions, akin to getting a speeding ticket, the state could save $11 million in reduced police, court and attorney costs, the OFA concluded.

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Senator Toni Boucher (R-26) has called for the General Assembly to reject proposed legislation that would "erode the progress made over the years to combat marijuana usage."

Senator Boucher, whose district covers Ridgefield, recently testified before the legislature's Judiciary Committee, opposing Senate Bill 349, An Act Concerning the Penalty for Possession of a Small Amount of Marijuana.

The bill would decriminalize the possession of less than one ounce of marijuana by classifying it as an infraction. Currently, first time offenders convicted of possessing up to four ounces of marijuana are subject to a maximum fine of $1,000 and, or, a maximum prison sentence of one year.

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HARTFORD -- The legislative push began Tuesday for a Massachusetts-style law to decriminalize possession of up to an ounce of marijuana, making it punishable by a small fine and removing the lifetime stigma of a misdemeanor arrest.

Led by Senate Majority Leader Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, the bill would save the state an estimated $11 million a year in police, court and incarceration costs and produce about $320,000 in revenue from fines.

More than a dozen people, including college students and drug-policy advocates, from throughout the state testified in favor of the legislation during an afternoon-long hearing before the powerful Judiciary Committee.

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STAMFORD -- The barbershop is considered by some to be the black community's forum, and these days, conversation from the barber's chair on the West Side is about Benjamin Malloy.

After the mayor's 21-year-old son was arrested in an attempted robbery in wealthy, largely white Darien, Stamford's black community has been abuzz with speculation about whether Malloy will get off lightly for the alleged crimes because of his father's prominent political position.

"They're saying if that had been anybody but the mayor's son, they would have thrown the book at him," said Tommy Bradford, owner of Superior Barber Shop on West Main Street. "They say, 'Let the boy go to jail, do his time.' "

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When Charles Lynch asked local officials for permission to sell an herbal medicine in the central California town of Morro Bay, they granted it to him, even though the medicine was marijuana.

Marijuana recommended by a doctor has been legal in California since 1996. A dozen other states have passed similar laws. Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and New Hampshire are among about 10 states that have been debating similar measures.

Lynch applied for a business license, joined the Chamber of Commerce, talked to lawyers and even called the federal Drug Enforcement Administration before opening his medical marijuana dispensary with a grand ribbon-cutting ceremony.

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Meet Michael Linares '09, Altered state specialist, collector of children's dinosaur paraphenalia.

Founder of the Yale Chapter of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy.

hometown Los Angeles, California.

pipe, bong or jay? Bong. It's smoother. But jays are so communal. And pipes have their own charm. Just kidding - I don't do drugs.

Senior thesis? Freud's discovery of cocaine in the 1880s.

who's the greatest stoner icon: jay, silent bob, harold, kumar or "the dude"? The Dude. Or Charlize Theron with the apple. Have you seen the photo? She's at this expensive resort smoking out of an apple. [Michael mimes smoking out of an apple. He does not attempt to mime Charlize Theron.]

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WATERBURY - John Carusello has sold pipes and related products for 30 years at his Lakewood Road shop, and he would love to see his customers put those products to use without fear of jail.

"We sell everything for tobacco," Carusello said, carefully, from behind a counter stocked with glass pipes in a wide range of colors, shapes and sizes. What goes in those pipes when the customers go home, Carusello said, is not his business. "We don't ask."

A bill now under review by the legislature's Judiciary Committee would create some peace of mind for many of Carusello's customers, and add Connecticut to a growing list of states that have decriminalized the possession of small quantities of marijuana, turning a misdemeanor offense that can bring up to a year in prison into an infraction similar to a speeding ticket.

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When you learn that there is a movement on college campuses across this great nation to lower the legal drinking age your first reaction might be to tell the young whippersnappers to drink milk, get back to class and come back when they can handle their liquor.

Some have said recently that such is not the wisest advice. Beyond that, the message is improperly targeted. The message needs to be directed at the presidents of many of America's finest colleges and universities. For it is they who seek to allow Buffy, Biff and the frat brats to imbibe at the student union.

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Decriminalize Marijuana. Fines, Legal Medical Use Both Make Sense

Are Olympic champion Michael Phelps or Super Bowl hero Santonio Holmes going to jail for using small amounts of marijuana? Probably not. In which case, neither should anybody else.

Massachusetts overwhelmingly passed a ballot measure last year making possession or use of an ounce or less of marijuana a civil infraction that carries a $100 fine. In other words, it's not a crime. Two New Haven lawmakers, Sens. Toni Harp and Martin Looney, have proposed a similar law here. They note that the state is facing a major budget crisis and that committing police, court and prison resources is, as Ms. Harp put it, not a good use of the people's money.

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Seeking response to Gov. M. Jodi Rell's budget proposal, a television news reporter surveyed businesses near the courthouse in Meriden, which the governor wouldChris Powell close. The reporter found a bail bondsman worrying that he might have to close his office too.

Criminal justice apparently isn't just overhead expense for society; it's economic development. Maybe Connecticut should try putting everybody in jail.

Actually, one sign that state government is getting serious about saving money will be that it is ready to put fewer people in jail.

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Michael Phelps has achieved greatness in sport, but he is a failure as a role model. He can be trusted to win gold medals and make endorsements. He could not, however, be trusted to operate a submarine.

Photographs of Phelps inhaling marijuana were recently published. Inhaling marijuana was not his greatest failing. It was the aftermath more than the offense itself that revealed Phelps' most significant shortcoming.

Phelps issued a statement that began, "I engaged in behavior which was regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment."

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Remember in "The Wizard of Oz" when Toto tugged at the curtain and revealed the fraudulent, unsustainable nature of Emerald City's whole wizard-centric way of running things? For some reason that image occurs to me whenever our fine elected officials give their latest "My fellow Americans, regarding the economy, we're screwed" speech.

Of course we are. Economies based on unpayable debts, rulers claiming fake magic powers - sooner or later, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" stops working, so you witness the "Come out and fess up" stage instead.

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Several state lawmakers have taken a stance on marijuana that they hope would alleviate the number of criminal cases in the state's judicial system: decriminalizing possession of less than an ounce of it.

While legislators hope that doing so would have a positive effect on the state budget and judicial systems, law enforcement officials are concerned that decriminalizing the drug would lead to social confusion, create enforcement problems for officers and counter efforts to relay the message that drug use can carry a variety of negative effects.

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NEW BRITAIN - The nation's "War on Drugs" has its roots in efforts to control and repress ethnic minorities and should be abandoned in favor of a policy that ends its racially disparate enforcement by the criminal justice system, speakers at a state college-sponsored conference said Wednesday.

Moreover, the principal participants in the parley at Central Connecticut State University argued that public opinion has changed significantly so that lawmakers now have the political capital to refocus federal and state drug policies away from incarceration and toward treatment.

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NEW BRITAIN - The war on drugs is misguided and needs to change, said Ethan Nadelmann, founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, in a rousingly applauded keynote address Wednesday at Central Connecticut State University's one-day forum on "Drug Policy for the 21st Century."

The conference was open to university students and faculty, criminal justice and law enforcement personnel, legislators and the public.

Nadelmann, with a Harvard doctorate and eight years of teaching at Princeton University under his belt, has written on drug policy for the journals Science, Foreign Affairs, American Heritage and the National Review. He is also the author of "Cops Across Borders," a study of the internationalization of U.S. criminal law enforcement.

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