Although “anybody selling marijuana right now would be illegal,” says Franklin Police Chief Thomas Lynch, his department is busy trying to prepare its officers for implications once it goes into effect in about June of 2018, once a Cannabis Control Commission is established.
“We’re in that quasi-gray area right now where marijuana would be considered legal, but you couldn’t purchase it. Distribution is still illegal,” he says.
Franklin Police were among 160 regional public health, law enforcement, education and municipal leaders who attended District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey’s “Marijuana Legalization – Community Strategies” seminar in January learn about the public health, safety and governance issues and problems related to the new law.
“I’ll be honest,” says Lynch. “Our job has so many different facets. Am I an expert on marijuana or the new law … no.”
“The ballot question was designed to maximize corporate profit, without regard for graceful or efficient implementation. That leaves towns and cities with a lot of unanswered questions,” said District Attorney Morrissey, whose office organized the seminar in partnership with the Canton Alliance Against Substance Abuse, Needham Public Health, Walpole Police and Stoughton U-Knighted.
Attorney Katherine Laughman from the firm Kopelman & Paige led with a presentation on regulation and taxation of marijuana, including the steps towns need to take to regulate employees getting high at work – since marijuana will no longer be defined as a controlled substance – and ways to zone where pot shops can locate.
With an audience that was almost half police officers, Attorney John Scheft from Law Enforcement Dimensions detailed the intricacies of enforcing the new hodgepodge of law, where a citizen can grow 6 marijuana plants at their home legally, but to do so at a second home or rented space is a crime.
Walpole Police Chief John Carmichael, whose personal research into the impacts marijuana legalization has included visiting Colorado manufacturing and selling facilities, and Needham Health and Human Services Director Timothy McDonald joined Scheft and Laughman to field questions from the group.
Lynch explains that “there’s definitely a concern – will there be an increase in people driving drugged or intoxicated due to substances other than alcohol.” It’s not something police officers are unfamiliar with, he says, but what is lacking is a definitive test to prove a case of driving under the influence of narcotics.
All Franklin officers have been trained in conducting fieldside sobriety tests, he says, and 80% of the Franklin patrol force is now trained in ARIDE, or advanced roadside impaired driving enforcement, a program developed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Lynch hopes to increase that to 100%.
In addition, Lynch says, Franklin has an advantage over other local departments in that three officers are Drug Recognition Experts (DRE’s) after having taken a very intensive training.
“For us to have three DRE’s on a department of 46 is probably better than average,” he says. In fact, Franklin’s Detective Joe McClean is a DRE instructor. “Because of that, we’ve actually taken advantage of the training offered through NITSA,” says Lynch, who says the training is free, thanks to help from the DA’s office, but the department is responsible for overtime costs.
Three more Franklin officers are currently involved in DRE training, which is two weeks of intensive training, compared to the 2-hour ARIDE training. Officers who take this course must evaluate 12 drivers who might be impaired, and to gain this experience, they’ve headed out of state, to Maricopa County, Arizona.
“They spend several days there. People, when arrested are brought directly to the jail -- a lot of people are under the influence of narcotics, and people volunteer to go through this evaluation process,” says Lynch.
“We support our people. They become instructors, and that gives us better opportunities to capitalize on their knowledge of training. We’re trying to get ahead of the curve, so to speak, to be able to enforce the law and acquire a conviction if someone is under the influence of narcotics,” says Lynch.
Chief Lynch also explains that the upcoming legalization of recreational marijuana can present challenges where retail establishments arise.
“The law as it was written states that only a vote of the people of your community can basically regulate whether it’s going to occur. Is that going to occur, I don’t know,” he says. Franklin has zoned such business to certain areas and has one medical marijuana cultivation facility in an industrial park, a site that has not had many issues aside from the complaint of smell, he says.
Another concern is the potential for marijuana customers to consume the cannabis nearby, in their cars, and the question of whether police officers can consume the drug has also arisen, he says. The answer to the latter, he says, is clear. “For us, the answer is no, because technically it is a schedule 1 drug. Our employees are not allowed to utilize marijuana.”
Issue Date:
March, 2017
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