Council considering tougher pot law
By DAN MORIARTY
Staff Writer
WESTFIELD – The City Council is reviewing an amendment to city ordinance which could establish a hefty civil fine for violations involving consumption of marijuana.
The proposed ordinance change, sponsored by Ward 2 Councilor James E. Brown Jr. at the Council’s Feb. 2, 2012 session, is currently in the council’s Public Health, Safety and Traffic Committee and in the Legislative & Ordinance Committee, for further evaluation and review.
The existing ordinance has no provision for a civil fine, although offenders can be cited under state law which provides for a fine of $100 for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.
The amendment proposed by Brown would add a $300 municipal civil fine to the city ordinance. Brown has sponsored similar legislation related to possession of alcohol by minors, changing the city’s code of ordinances to establish violations as a civil violation.
“Young people make bad choices, but we don’t want to tattoo them for life (with a criminal arrest record),” Brown said Wednesday. “We want a penalty that will get their attention, and hopefully, send them in the right direction.”
“We’re trying to give police officers another avenue of enforcement, similar to what we did to the alcohol ordinance for people under 21,” Brown said. “It gives officers that ability to cite people without bringing a criminal charge. It’s just a civil city ordinance violation.”
The ordinance will prohibit the smoking, consumption and ingestion of marijuana (or tetrahydrocannibinol as defined in Massachusetts General Law 94-C, Section 1) while in or upon any public way, street, sidewalk, passageway, park, playground, beach, recreational area, public building, schoolhouse, school grounds, cemetery, parking lot or any area owned by or under the control of the City of Westfield; or in or upon any bus or other passenger conveyance operated by a common carrier; on in any place accessible to the public.
Any person cited under the ordinance is required to provide identification, including full legal name and address. Failure to provide that information or providing false information is considered a separate violation and is also subject to a fine of $300.
Brown said the committee may also expand its review of the proposed ordinance to include other substances sold as bath salts and incense and which contain designer chemicals similar to the banned substance.
“There is a change we may modify (the proposed ordinance amendment) to include synthetic marijuana,” Brown said.
The committee is expected to take up the issue on February 27 with the goal of presenting the revision to the full council at its March 1, 2012 session.
The Board of Health is also reviewing its options to deal with the use of the synthetic marijuana. The board, under state law, can establish policies, to protect the public health and good of citizens that have the same legal weight as city ordinance.
Dan Moriarty can be reached at [email protected]
