Rhode Island lawmakers have debated legalizing marijuana for years. The state in 2012 decriminalized small amounts of pot and established a medical marijuana program. Now, with Massachusetts allowing legal cannabis sales, Ocean State pols have to grapple with the issue.
Gov. Gina Raimondo has proposed putting the state into the business of regulating and selling pot in much the same manner as alcohol. Most of Rhode Island’s population lives within a 20 minute drive from the Bay State border. There isn’t any means short of martial law to keep Rhode Islanders from buying legal weed in Fall River or anywhere else along the East Side of Narragansett Bay that borders the Bay State.
Except for illegal parking and speeding on Route 95, are there any laws that over the years have been flouted more than those banning pot?
Since Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs in the 1970s, Marijuana laws have created widespread cynicism about government. Minority neighborhoods were long targeted by police, while pot became de facto legal in white, affluent communities. Cops hassled poor kids smoking a joint or two, but didn’t bust kids at Brown, Harvard or Providence College who indulged.
It’s past time for Rhode Island to legalize marijuana.
Those who want legal weed have a strong argument – whatever social costs come with legalization in Massachusetts will surely be shared with Rhode Island. Let’s say Rhode Island decided to keep its ban on recreational pot. The result would be that the Ocean State would all of any of the downside of legal weed –such as stoned drivers –and none of the tax money from legal sales.That doesn’t mean this is going to be easy.
Even such proponents of recreational pot as State Sen. Josh Miller, D-Cranston acknowledge that hurdles remain. Miller says that as Statehouse hearings kick off in the next few weeks, lawmakers have to face everything from impaired driving to whether citizens should be allowed to grow their own personal stashes.
There will also be debate about how much security should be required at stores, how to best keep the drug from children, how those convicted of marijuana possession in the past should be treated and how to regulate the potency of pot and cannabis edibles. Under Raimondo’s proposal, sales taxes would be similar to Massachusetts.
Law enforcement has legitimate concerns. Say a cop pulls over a driver going 20 in a 50 mile an hour zone. When the driver rolls the window down, the pungent odor of pot drifts out. Inside there is a nimbus of smoke filling the car and the driver has an open bag of Doritos on the seat.
Unlike alcohol, there is yet no standard for how much cannabis, –if any– a driver can consume before he or she is impaired and jeopardizing the safety and lives of other drivers.
So the state should study Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker’s lead and ban unsealed packages of marijuana in a car, the same way open containers of booze are banned in vehicles.
And folks to be allowed to grow small amounts of the weed for personal use., as advocated by the Rhode Island Chapter of the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws. It’s also time to expunge the criminal records of those sent to jail years back for small amounts of what states now want to sell and tax.
Let’s end pot prohibition. Cops should be chasing real crimes, not making criminals out of people having an after dinner smoke or brownie.
Scott MacKay’s commentary can be heard every Monday morning at 6:45 and 8:45 and at 5:44 in the afternoon.
