Police Chief Files Bylaw Prohibiting Public Consumption Of Marijuana

[The Straight Story]

Police Chief Files Bylaw Prohibiting Public Consumption Of Marijuana

by William F. Galvin

HARWICH -- Just as the public is forbidden to consume alcohol on public property by town bylaw, Police Chief William Mason has proposed a bylaw to be acted upon in the annual town meeting in May prohibiting the consumption of marijuana in public.

The bylaw proposal is necessary given passage of a state-wide referendum question in the November election which decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana, Mason said. The law now in effect sets a civil fine of $100 and no longer requires a report to the state’s criminal history board for people caught possessing small amounts of cannabis.

“It’s not a one-ounce possession bylaw, it deals with consumption,” the police chief said of his proposal.

The bylaw would not supersede the state law, Mason said, because that law relates to a person in the possession of marijuana and the bylaw relates to public consumption.

In Massachusetts the referendum passed by nearly a two-to-one margin. In Harwich voters supported the decriminalization of less than an ounce of marijuana by a 4,839 to 2,947 vote.

http://www.capecodchronicle.com/harnews/har020509_1.htm

[rcrush]

1. This marijuana law actually makes sense. n/t

[Betsy Ross]

2. Resonable law.

Even within states that have approved medical marijuana, restriction on public consumption seems ok.

Besides, if you smoke in public others will want some too.

[Dora]

3. Reasonable. nt

[Fovea]

4. Iff there is a concomitant ban on public alcohol

then this makes sense. If selective prosecution, no.
I mean, sloshing, obnoxious drunk on the sidewalk on St. Pat's Day OK?
And getting fined for quietly firing one up ?

To me that does not fly.

[nichomachus]

5. It would be open to challenge

The reason there's a ban on the public consumption of alcohol is because alcohol sale and consumption is related to licensed facilities. They don't want people taking the alcohol out of the licensed facilities. Also, in many places the laws against public consumption are racially related.

I used to live in a community that had been predominantly white and started to see an influx of immigrants from the carribean. All of a sudden, the public consumption laws -- rarely enforced before -- became a hot topic. Most of the white people drank behind closed doors -- some in total secrecy. However, Carribean culture tends to be more outdoor-related. So, it was a way to bust immigrants heads under the guise of enforcing some stupid law.