Saturday marked the first day that marijuana was decriminalized in New Hampshire.
Possession of small amounts of the drug — three-quarters of an ounce or less — is now punishable only as a violation and fines of up to $300 for initial offenses.
Previously, a first-time offense for marijuana possession was a criminal misdemeanor, which could carry jail time and steeper fines.
In a May statement, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu called the bill “common sense marijuana reform” and in July he signed it into law.
After Sununu signed the bill, police departments had 60 days to prepare before the decriminalization law went into effect. Local departments were gearing up for the changes last week.
“We’ve had internal dialogue. We believe that we’re getting a grasp on some of the nuances on some of the new requirements,” Jaffrey Police Chief William Oswalt said Thursday.
Oswalt’s department had recently obtained the violation forms that will be served to those found in possession of small amounts of marijuana, hashish or marijuana-infused products. The form, a copy of which he provided to The Sentinel, allows offenders to plead guilty, not guilty or no contest to possession violations and pay their fines by mail.
Under the new law, people 18 and older who are found in possession of less than three-quarters of an ounce of marijuana or 5 grams of hashish will face a $100 fine for a first and second offense and a fine of $300 for a subsequent offense within three years of the other offenses. A fourth offense would result in a class B misdemeanor charge, according to the law.
Those who are 21 or older and are found in possession of a “personal use amount” of a regulated marijuana-infused product, such as edible products, ointments and tinctures that are obtained from states where sale of marijuana is legal, will face the same series of penalties. However, those between the ages of 18 and 21 found in possession of marijuana-infused products will face a misdemeanor charge, according to the law.
In a letter sent to the media on Wednesday, Tuftonboro Police Chief Andrew Shagoury, president of the N.H. Association of Chiefs of Police, wrote it has been a challenge for police to adapt to the new law so quickly.
“The 60 day effective date has made it very difficult to have everything prepared to implement the complex process and requirements such as complaint forms, policies, and procedures. It is a short time to train officers to implement the changes and comply with the restrictions on public information which are unlike any in any other drug or criminal law,” he wrote.
New Hampshire’s decriminalization law prohibits personally identifiable information resulting from possession violations from being made accessible to the public, federal agencies or agencies in other states, a policy that is not typical for most other criminal charges and violations.
Although the new law will result in making administrative shifts and other changes, Keene Police Chief Steven Russo said his department is ready to handle them.
“We will sort it out; our officers are pretty intelligent. It just seems to complicate things,” he said of the law.
In an interview Friday, he noted he wasn’t sure whether his department would receive the new marijuana possession violation forms in time for Saturday. He said his department had held off on ordering them until recently because it’s been unclear whether the courts would want to change the form.
On Saturday afternoon, Keene Police Sgt. Mike Kopcha said he didn’t believe the forms had been delivered. Russo said that even if the department was without the forms temporarily, police would still follow the law and seize marijuana; perpetrators would still face violations.
Some police have concerns about how the form is written, Russo said. For example, the form has boxes for officers to check off whether it’s a violator’s first, second or “subsequent offense within three years”; however, it does not have a box to indicate whether it’s a violator’s third offense. Russo said chiefs are concerned about this lack of clarity, because a fourth offense can be charged as a misdemeanor.
He added he wasn’t sure how much time the new law will save his department. Police under the law aren’t allowed to arrest for initial marijuana possession offenses, but Russo said his department will still have to address the violations on an administrative level.
“At some point we still have to take (the violations) here through our prosecution office and track them,” he said. “There has to be a police report that goes with it.”
“With the lessening of the threshold of stigma … I think there would be the possibility that more would be open with it,” he said.
He added it will be challenging for police to determine if a driver is under the influence of marijuana; he said he’s not aware of any standardized field sobriety test for marijuana like the one that exists for alcohol.
Shagoury also addressed drivers who use marijuana in his letter last week.
“We have concerns about the potential increase in the number of impaired drivers on our roadways and plans to address that through strict enforcement,” he wrote.
Heather Stockwell, a co-founder and regional organizer of the Monadnock Progressive Alliance, said she’s glad marijuana decriminalization is “finally happening.”
“I don’t think that we should be throwing young people in jail because they smoked,” she said. “(Marijuana’s) pretty widely used without terrible consequences, unlike alcohol,” she said.
She said she believes New Hampshire’s marijuana laws should be even more lenient. She’d like to see even lower violation fines and for the drug to eventually be legalized for recreational purposes.
She also disagrees with the theory that decriminalization will lead to increased marijuana use in the Granite State.
“I don’t think all of a sudden people are going to be carrying massive amounts of marijuana around with them,” she said.
“I just think there’s just going to be a lot less people arrested for misdemeanors because of it.”
credit:sentinelsource.com