Darien Youth Detectives Mark Cappelli and Sam Boccuzzi oppose a plan supported by Gov. Dannel Malloy to reduce the penalty for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.
"It's a gateway drug, that's the biggest thing," Boccuzzi said. "Also, today's marijuana is more potent than it was 20 years ago."
Malloy wants the penalty for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana to be reduced from a crime to an infraction. Currently, possession of less than 4 ounces can bring a year in prison and a $1,000 fine. Malloy says offenders should pay just a $100 fine, arguing that these cases waste law enforcement resources and stigmatize young people.
Boccuzzi thinks reducing the penalty to an infraction would lead to more people to think marijuana possession is no big deal. "If you give people a finger, they'll take a whole hand. This is going to encourage it," he said, pointing out that people will misunderstand the law and how much they are allowed to carry.
The subject of the legality of marijuana hits home for Malloy. In 2007, police accused his son Benjamin of selling pot, and in 2009, Benjamin was arrested for robbing a Darien man of his marijuana while armed with a BB gun. Benjamin was sentenced to five years of probation for the robbery.
A measure similar to the one backed by Malloy was introduced in the state legislature in 2009, but fears that then-Gov. M. Jodi Rell would veto the bill prevented it from going to a full vote.
In a recent poll conducted by Quinnipiac University, 67 percent of Connecticut voters said they would approve the decriminalization of a small amount of marijuana, and 32 percent were opposed.
In the past six months, Darien Police have arrested 14 people for possession of marijuana, and all were carrying less than an ounce.
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