Increased fines for pot possession approved at annual town meeting

By JOSEPH FITZGERALD

BELLINGHAM — The penalty for public consumption of marijuana in Bellingham just got costlier.

Last November, some 65 percent of voters in Massachusetts decided “yes” on Question 2, which reduces minor marijuana possession to a fine-only offense. The law makes possession of an ounce or less of pot a civil offense punishable by a $100 fine with minors required to attend a drug awareness program. Previously, possession of similar amounts of the drug was a criminal offense with a possible fine of $500 and a maximum six-month jail term.
The new Massachusetts law, however, specifically allows communities to draft their own public consumption ordinances, and dozens of towns, including Bellingham, are doing just that. 
At the Annual Town Meeting Wednesday, Bellingham voters overwhelmingly supported Police Chief Gerard Daigle’s proposal to move ahead with efforts to stiffen penalties for public consumption. Voters, numbering about 91 at Wednesday’s session, approved an article with virtually no debate to increase the fines for possession of one ounce or less of marijiuana from $100 to not-exceeding $300, the state maximum, on people caught using pot in public.
The only person to voice opposition to the article was Finance Committeewoman Toni A. Picariello, who argued that stiffening the penalties was not the intent of the ballot question when it was approved last year.
“Personally, I’m against this because this was not what the people voted for in November,” she said.
But Diagle explained that the law voters approved last November decriminalizing possession of marijuana also has a clause that allows cities and towns to adopt additional penalties for using marijuana in public — including a criminal charge — and that is why he was asking town meeting voters to consider adopting a $300 fine for such an offense.
According to Daigle, cities and towns can adopt local ordinances or bylaws regulating or prohibiting the public use of marijuana, or other substances with the active ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), such as hashish or hash oil. The fine increase proposed by Dailgle mirrors a sample law prepared by the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office that prohibits smoking, ingesting or otherwise consuming marijuana or THC in public places and imposes up to a $300 fine for each violation.
The sample law notes that each city or town can choose to enforce the $300 fine in three different ways — as a civil citation, through a civil court summons or through criminal indictment, which would make using marijuana in public a misdemeanor criminal offense.
In Bellingham, the fine would be issued as a civil offense.
A majority of the voters at last night’s meeting approved the article in a voice vote with only a smattering of “no” votes voiced.
In other business last night, voters supported the Board of Selectmen and Finance Committee’s recommendation to postpone action on the town’s proposed $43.9 million fiscal 2010 municipal budget pending adoption of the final state budget and more concrete numbers regarding state aide to cities and towns.
Town finance officials asked voters to delay a vote on the spending plan until next month. Once the state has presented an approved funding proposal, the Board of Selectmen and Finance Committee will amend the budget for voter consideration on June 24 at 7:30 p.m. in the Bellingham High School auditorium.