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Fairfield Police Lt. James Perez knows his job wont change much in the next few months, whether or not Gov. Dannel Malloys plan to decriminalize marijuana passes. Marijuana will still be illegal, and police officers will still have to stop people from trying to use it in public. What concerns him, however, is what will change about peoples attitudes toward the drug.
I think it could send the wrong message, Perez said. People may think, Now that [marijuana] is decriminalized, its okay to do. Its still illegal.
Gov. Malloy has proposed reducing the penalty for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana from a crime to an infraction. Currently, possession of less than four ounces is subject to up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine. Malloy is seeking to reduce that to a $100 fine, arguing that these cases waste law enforcement resources and stigmatize young people.
The subject of the legality of marijuana hits home for Malloy, whose son Benjamin was accused of dealing the drug in 2007. In 2009, Benjamin was arrested for allegedly robbing a Darien man of his marijuana while armed with a BB gun. Benjamin was sentenced to five years probation for the robbery.
The Connecticut Legislatures Judiciary Committee approved a similar proposal in 2009, but fears that then-Gov. M. Jodi Rell would veto it prevented the bill from going to a full vote in the General Assembly. 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, while 32 percent were opposed.
Dr. James McCabe, a criminal justice professor at Sacred Heart University and former New York City police officer, said that although he was not aware of Malloys specific plan, hes against decriminalization in principle. In studies hes done at Sacred Heart, he found a direct relationship between police enforcement of marijuana laws and overall crime rates in neighborhoods.
From a strict quality-of-life perspective, more marijuana use in public is not a good thing, McCabe said.
Perez admits that decriminalization would save the state money from court fees and incarceration costs, but he says that on a local police level, not much would be different from a cost or tactics standpoint.
I dont want people to think that its legal, so they can go light up at a party or out in the street, Perez said. Well still be enforcing it as if it were criminalized.
What do you think about decriminalizing marijuana? Share your views in the comments below.
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