[420 Girl]

NEW BRUNSWICK NJ — A marijuana-law reform group is hoping to persuade city voters that marijuana possession isn't worth the police department's time.

The New Jersey State Chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Law is gathering signatures for a ballot initiative aimed at making marijuana possession the city's lowest law-enforcement priority.

Organizers are hoping to place the question on November's ballot. The measure would only deprioritize arrests for possession of the drug for personal use, meaning those attempting to sell or distribute the drug could remain high priorities.

Matt Brockbank, a Rutgers University senior and one of 42 volunteers circulating the petition, said marijuana possession laws are ineffective and enforcement of them wastes valuable policing time.

"New Brunswick is a dangerous city and the police have a tough time managing the crime as it is," Brockbank said.

Similar ordinances have already been enacted in more than 30 U.S. cities, though this would be the first in New Jersey. According to NORML-NJ, a 2003 law passed in Seattle resulted in a 75-percent drop in marijuana possession arrests after two years.

Earlier this month, New Jersey became the 14th state to pass a medical marijuana law, which allows the sick to use the drug in certain circumstances.

Nicholas R. DeMauro, chairman and chief executive officer of DARE New Jersey, said he fears pro-marijuana groups will try to use the medical marijuana legislation as a springboard to pass more pro-pot laws like the low-priority initiative.

"I don't think there's any legislator in the state of New Jersey who is saying that it's OK to smoke marijuana," he said. "I think what they're saying is that under certain circumstances, for medicinal purposes, it is OK to use under a state-approved means."

DeMauro said misusing the drug is harmful and so it needs to be controlled.

Evan Nison, ballot initiatives coordinator for NORML-NJ, said deprioritizing the drug and using it for medicinal purposes are separate issues. But he said the medical marijuana law could indirectly benefit his cause.

"Once they can have marijuana dispensaries, when they see that dispensaries are in the neighborhood, they would get a sense that it's just not worth the resources that we're putting into it," he said.

The measure also would require police to track demographic figures such as race and age for each marijuana arrest and issue a supplemental report within 30 days of an arrest explaining why the officer arrested the individual in spite the offense's status as a low priority.

City Council President Elizabeth Sheehan Garlatti said she doesn't like the idea of legislating priorities for the police department.

"I'm always reluctant to legislate priorities for the city's professionals," she said. "There's a police director and he does a great job, why should I feel like I should be telling him how to do it?"

City Attorney William Hamilton said the city has no other ordinances that assign priorities to one crime or another.


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