Bud Lite
By Peters, Joey | |
Proquest LLC |
BY
@JoeyPeters
Lower penalties for marijuana are a hit in the city limits
By many accounts, even before last week's vote to decriminalize mari- juana in
But exceptions always arise, and Caitlyn recently found herself among them when she returned home one evening in June. After a lazy day of watching movies and "doing girlfriend things" at her friend's house, Caitlyn, 28, pulled into her apart- ment complex around 11 on a Friday night.
Two police officers, who say they noticed a burned- out headlight on her car, stopped behind her. They quickly turned on their red and blue lights and ap- proached the passenger side of Caitlyn's car. Officer Trace
"I pull out my insurance and registration from my glove box, but I had to get my license out of my wallet in my purse," she says. "At this time it dawns on me that I have a small container in my purse with a very small amount of pot in it."
Specifically, Caitlyn was holding a half-gram of marijuana in a glass jar. For perspective's sake, that's equal to about the size of a
Evridge asked Caitlyn what she had in the jar. "Feeling like honesty is the best policy and instead of trying to deny what I have, I pull the container out," she says.
Caitlyn, a brunette with wide eyes and a round face, doesn't exactly come off as a criminal. During the day, she works as a wellness practitioner. She asked that SFR not reveal her last name because news of her arrest might lead to workplace stigma.
Though she was cooperating with the officers, Evridge made her step out of her car, then slapped a pair of handcuffs on her wrists. He explained to her that possessing marijuana was against the law. As her husband came outside to see what the commotion was all about, Caitlyn says she begged the cops to con- sider the triviality of her crime.
"I tell them this has to be a com- plete waste of their evening, as there are other people who might actually be hurting or endangering others to focus on," she says.
Instead, Evridge and his field trainer Officer
When she arrived at the jail, Caitlyn says she shared a crowded cell with other women, including one passed out in the corner and another who paced back and forth "saying she's gotta get out before she starts detoxing in the cell." Caitlyn says she didn't get to leave jail until
Since then, she's been to
Her arrest is an example of why thousands of
"I think that the War on Drugs has been a colossal failure, and that it's high time we nipped it in the bud tonight," was Councilor
But a conflict persists. State law still defines pen- alties for less than an ounce as a petty misdemeanor, virtually the same language as
Though some speculate that the new policy leaves the city open to a challenge from the state, and Gov.
"It's all going to come down to what the officers on the street do," Walker says.
That, some say, could still lead to problems for potheads.
"That's probably something that shouldn't be happening," Marlowe says. "If the city ordinance says it's OK, they should leave it that way."
Marijuana charges are frequent in the City Different. From
While it's hard to swallow the line that possession arrests are wrecking homes and bank accounts, most people charged with small marijuana crimes make multiple trips to court to deal with their charges.
Marlowe and others say those appearances are time vampires.
"It you're out there smoking pot," he says, "that doesn't mean you should need to jump through all the hoops that a judge wants you to jump through in order to get it offyour record."
A problem also lies with the amount of resources dedicated to enforcing small pot penalties. According to Drug Policy Alliance New Mexico, a nonprofit that advocates for reforming illegal drug penalties and that spearheaded the recent
"We're threatening our public coffers and threatening our public safety in a city where our property crime is higher than the national average of a town of this size," says
Advocates also charge that the policy jeopardizes families and ruins people's lives, but cases like those appear to be few and far between in
That's what happened to Josue, a 25-year-old
The officer told Josue to step outside his car, where he handcuffed him and asked permission to search the vehicle. Josue cooperated, and the officer came away with the apple pipe, a metal grinder (used to crush buds into smaller pieces) and 11 grams of pot, or a little less than a half-ounce. Then, he uncuffed Josue and sent him off.
"He gave me a citation," Josue says. "He was like, 'OK, I'm going to give you a warning for the cell phone, but I can't let this go. You're going to have to go to court.'"
When Josue asked if the citation was going to lead to large problems, he says the officer responded by saying, "No, you're probably just going to have to watch a video."
Over the next month, Josue made multiple trips to
It works like this: People in Josue's situation plead not guilty in
"It's an incentive to make better choices, so they don't end up [in trou- ble] with the law again," Picard says.
She adds that she almost never sees the same person reoffend.
Josue says he came from the class with a better understanding of what can be at stake with getting caught with marijuana.
But not everyone responds to the class this way, and few people say pos- session charges make them eschew pot.
"I think it's bullshit," says Watson, whose most recent bust happened after being pulled over along
Like Caitlyn, Watson was carrying just a half-gram of marijuana. The of- ficer, who also retrieved a pipe and a grinder from Watson, gave him a cita- tion to appear in
Originally from
"We got people here slinging meth, pills, and here we are wasting time on a little bit of weed," Watson says.
City police officers sometimes refer marijuana citations to Santa Fe Coun- ty Magistrate Court, which, unlike
"I've deferred sentences, I've sus- pended sentences, but no one has spent a night in jail because of that of- fense," he says.
In cases of people charged only with a marijuana crime, Segura says he's often deferred the sentence in exchange for something like community service. Still, magistrate judges have the pow- er to suspend a marijuana sentence, which gives offenders an alternative to jail time but keeps the conviction on their records. This, decriminalization proponents say, is dangerous because drug convictions can follow people for the rest of their lives, jeopardizing fu- ture employment and more.
Both Segura and SFPD Operations Commander
"We're not going to split the case and send one violation to
Throughout it all, Carlos maintains that city police have long been treating low-level marijuana crimes as a low priority. He adds that the police re- ports are reviewed by sergeants, lieu- tenants and captains to hold officers accountable for their actions on the street.
"We review it, we let the whole case speak for itself, then provide some feedback," he says.
Still, Kaltenbach of the
"The city says, 'It's our lowest priority.' In one single case it wasn't, and that means something," Kaltenbach says.
Currently, city officials are going through an ad- ministrative process to agree on how to best enforce the new law. Once that's decided, Carlos is in charge of relaying the new parameters to the city's 160 police on the streets.
Some areas do it differently than others.
NORML defines decriminalization as "no prison time or criminal record for first-time possession of a small amount for personal consumption."
"It's usually an organic thing," St. Pierre says. "Usually activists get behind a local initiative because they can't get their governor to move, they can't get their legislature to move. For us it's a mantra: Change the laws where you live first and everything will work out."
One example is the small ski town of
A decriminalization bill in the state Legislature died in
In light of the inaction at the state level, Kalten- bach and
Organizers started collecting signatures in both cities at the beginning of the summer. Among the can- vassers was
Now in her 70s, Law's hippie-era idealism is prevalent in her attire, which on a recent summer day included dark shades, bright bracelets and tur- quoise-colored slacks. She occasionally smokes mari- juana-just a few tokes to help her sleep every now and then-and is quick to point out the unfairness of how the law looks unfavorably on responsible mari- juana users and favorably on drunks.
"I go to bars and watch people drink and drink and drink, and I think, 'Oh my God, how can they do that to themselves?'" Law says.
She ended up collecting more than 1,500 signa- tures for the decriminalization effort.
In mid-August, City Clerk
Signatures must come from registered voters liv- ing within city limits. Finding people who properly fit this demographic proved to be problematic. Organiz- ers didn't meet the city's threshold until submitting 11,000 signatures-twice the amount of valid signa- tures required.
After all the on-the-ground work over the sum- mer to get the measure on the ballot,
"I worked personally for seven weeks," Law says. "I told people we were doing it in order to get it on the ballot. We were disappointed, but also very happy that it passed."
Another organizer,
"I just wanted to see this over with tonight," Hill- man said shortly after the vote. "The whole concept was to get it to go to the November election, but there was going to be dirty deeds to stop that, and I think we had to take care of it tonight."
Kaltenbach says she expects a statewide decrimi- nalization bill to be introduced during the com- ing session of the state Legislature early next year. Whether lawmakers have the political will to support such an effort, and who gets the final say from the Fourth Floor, remains to be seen.
And until broader reform comes, different laws for different jurisdictions leaves
"In terms of discretion, nothing changes," Carlos says. "We just have another tool."
SFR intern
"It's all going to come down to what the officers on the streets do."
FAST TRACK TO CHANGE
ProgressNow New Mexico and Drug Policy Action, the advocacy arm of Drug Policy Alli- ance
"Reducing Mari- juana Penalties" submits 7,000 sig- natures from people in and around
The clerk certifies enough signatures to get the initiative on the ballot. At this point, roughly 11,000 signatures have been turned in to her.
On a 4-0 vote, the
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City officials say the next step is to publish legal notic- es of the ordinance change. Rules to go into effect five days after that.
Will you get cited for marijuana possession? That depends on whether a police officer decides to enforce city or state laws.
The city says, 'It's our lowest priority.' In one single case it wasn't, and that means something.
City Clerk
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