PORTLAND, Maine -- Portland Police Chief Michael Sauschuck said people celebrating the city's groundbreaking marijuana legalization effort presented no trouble for his officers. But he said police will continue to issue citations for possession of the drug under state law when necessary.
"We didn't have any problems at all," Sauschuck told the Bangor Daily News on Wednesday morning.
The chief reiterated comments he made before the passage of the referendum, which legalizes possession of up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana in Portland. Recreational use of the drug remains illegal under federal and state laws, which Sauschuck said "pre-empt local ordinances."
But he said police in Maine's largest city did not consider small-scale marijuana possession a high priority even before Tuesday night's election. The ordinance takes effect in 30 days.
"This doesn't change anything for us in terms of enforcement," he said. "But the actual statistics show this is a low priority for us."
Possession of less than 2.5 ounces of marijuana is not a criminal offense in Maine, but rather a civil offense, effectively meaning that instead of any jail time, those convicted face court dates and fines.
Sauschuck said his department responds to 85,000 calls for service per year, and handed out 68 civil summonses for marijuana charges between June 2011 and June 2012. The following 12-month period, from June 2012 to June 2013, Portland police issued just 54 such citations.
Under Sauschuck, the Portland police department has a track record of flexibility when dealing with controversial issues. The police have agreed not to enforce a recently approved -- and hotly contested -- ordinance prohibiting panhandling or other demonstrations in city median strips until a First Amendment lawsuit over the new rule plays out.
During a late-night event in September protesting the proposed sale of the publicly owned Congress Square Park to private hotel developers, the chief allowed demonstrators to stay long past a standing 10 p.m. park closure time on the books in order to allow them to get their message across.
Similarly, when it comes to enforcement of marijuana laws under the new local ordinance, Sauschuck said Wednesday, "Officers will use their discretion."
While the referendum may not have much functional effect in Portland, supporters have celebrated the legalization as importantly symbolic.
Portland becomes the first city on the East Coast to even nominally legalize pot, and is a new rallying place for marijuana advocates nationwide after successful and high-profile legalization efforts in Washington and Colorado states.
David Boyer, Maine political director for the national Marijuana Policy Project, has said he hopes Portland will play a similar role here as Denver did in Colorado. The passage of a local measure legalizing recreational use of marijuana in Colorado's largest city in 2005 was seen as a harbinger of the statewide legalization last year.
The Portland effort also comes as the tide of public sentiment nationwide appears to be turning in favor of marijuana legalization. National polling company Gallup reported late last month that 58 percent of Americans surveyed favor legalizing recreational use of the drug, a jump of 10 percentage points over a year's time and the first time a majority signaled support.
Medical use of marijuana was legalized in Maine in 1999, and larger-scale dispensaries of medical cannabis were newly allowed in 2009.
The proposed Portland ordinance change, which still would prohibit use of marijuana in public, was put on the ballot through the citizens' initiative process. A coalition of organizations -- Portland Green Independent Committee, Marijuana Policy Project, the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine and the Libertarian Party of Maine -- collected nearly twice the 1,500 petition signatures necessary to force the referendum.
Proponents of the legalization measure have argued prohibition of the drug is ineffective, drives use of the substance underground and unnecessarily ties up law enforcement resources.
Opponents of the move, including the Maine Chiefs of Police Association, have argued that the step will exacerbate substance abuse problems that feed other crimes, and that overseeing regulation and distribution of pot would be an expensive and time-consuming task for overburdened state agencies if the drug is legalized across Maine.
The Maine Office of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services has argued that marijuana today has more than double the mind-altering chemical THC that the pot on the market in 1983 had, making it more potent and addictive, and that teenagers may be more likely to experiment with the drug after hearing legalization advocates downplay the danger.
Copyright 2013 - Bangor Daily News, Maine
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
