[420 Girl]

The legislature's Judiciary Committee Tuesday heard companion arguments - practical and fiscal - in support of a bill to decriminalize the possession of less than one ounce of marijuana in Connecticut.

The proposal, which has support from influential lawmakers including Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, D-New Haven, would largely mimic the law passed by referendum last year in Massachusetts, reducing the penalty for possession of small quantities of marijuana for personal use to an infraction, resulting in fines but no threat of jail sentence. An infraction would carry a fine ranging from $59 to $121.

The practical goals are twofold, Looney said in testimony Tuesday before the Judiciary Committee: to eliminate what he and others believe is the counterproductive and costly process of prosecuting nonviolent, recreational pot smokers, and to eliminate the potentially lifelong stigma of a criminal record for those caught with only a small amount of the drug.

”The possession of a small amount of marijuana for personal use should not leave a person with a lifelong criminal record,” Looney said.

And in this season of budget strife, Looney said, there is another reason: The proposal could reduce court costs significantly while raising new revenue from fines on those caught with small amounts.

Looney cited a new report by the legislature's nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis that estimates the state could save up to $11 million by dropping criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana, and generate up to $320,000 in new revenue from fines.

Included in those savings, Looney said, would be a reduction in court costs, in part because the state would no longer be required to provide public defenders for those charged with simple marijuana possession. Instead, violators would be required to pay a fine, similar to a parking or traffic violation, unless they chose to challenge the matter in court.

”This is an issue, like medical marijuana, where the public is ahead of elected officials,” Looney said, noting a recent poll by Quinnipiac University that showed 58 percent of respondents supported lowering the penalty for possession of small amounts of marijuana. The Massachusetts ballot question passed by a roughly two-to-one margin.

But in addition to a broad swath of supporters, including members of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy and those who have previously supported allowing the chronically ill to use marijuana to treat pain and nausea, the committee heard from skeptics, too.

”I think this particular bill, this subject, erodes the progress made over the years to combat marijuana usage, and history proves the detrimental effect of decriminalization,” said Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton, usually among the loudest defenders of the state's existing policies against marijuana use.

”Decades of drug prevention efforts would be undermined by the passage of this proposal, and it should not be used during these difficult times to justify a proposal that has such damaging health effects,” Boucher added.

But she drew equally skeptical questioning from Sen. Edwin A. Gomes, D-Bridgeport.

”Do you really believe there's been any progress to combat marijuana usage?” Gomes asked, chuckling.

Boucher, smiling too, said she did.

The bill, S.B. 349, would not change existing criminal penalties for possession of other drugs or for other marijuana-related crimes, including cultivating or selling the drug.

Under the bill, the penalty for a first-time conviction on possession of between one and four ounces of marijuana would be up to $1,000 in fines and up to one year in prison. For repeat offenders, the maximums would rise to $3,000 and 5 years in prison, or a combination thereof.


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