Thumbing their noses at the state’s lax new pot law, Bay State stoners are brazenly lighting up in front of cops and then refusing to pay fines – leading some frustrated police chiefs to all but give up the fight.
Local police report widespread defiance of the six-month-old law, and a Herald review shows a vast majority of potheads cited by cops blowing off their $100 fines.
The article goes on to say that the cost to prosecute these “offenders” through the court system is higher than the fine.
Of course, the tyrants are not liking this one bit:
Berkshire District Attorney David Capeless, head of the state prosecutors group that fought against relaxing pot sanctions, said, “It’s exactly what we were afraid of, and what we predicted would happen. They’d issue citations, and they’d be ignored.”
Proponents argued pot convictions made youthful indiscretions into lifelong liabilities. But while unpaid parking tickets can cost drivers their licenses, unpaid pot fines carry no repercussions.
“There’s nothing that can happen,” Capeless said.
Maybe there is hope after all for the complete decriminalization of even the mildest of illegal substances.
7:29 pm on July 25, 2009
