Daryl Nerl
The heart of Chief Mark DiLuzio’s dilemma is that the city is split between two counties and the jurisdictions of two different district attorneys, one of whom — Lehigh County’s Jim Martin — has taken the line that the state laws must be enforced and nonmedical marijuana possession is a criminal offense.
Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli, who favors statewide decriminalization of the drug, has said he will not take a position on local marijuana ordinances and is open to allowing local jurisdictions enforce the laws as they see fit.
Council’s Public Safety Committee voted unanimously, 3-0, to favorably recommend an ordinance that would reduce the penalty to be imposed on those holding 30 grams or less of the drug in Bethlehem. Instead of facing possible jail time for a misdemeanor, first offenders for the newly classified summary offense could walk away with as little as a $25 fine.
Councilwoman Olga Negron, who proposed the legislation, said she believes adoption of local ordinances like this one will help the state Legislature and Congress to see the logic of taking the criminality out of marijuana use and possession. Other council members echoed that sentiment, saying that the adoption of local ordinances such as this one will pressure state and federal officials to act.
As she has learned more and more about the drug, Negron said she believes it should no longer be classified by the federal government as a Schedule 1 substance, the same classification given to heroin. The Drug Enforcement Administration defines such drugs as having a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use.
The bill is scheduled for its first vote before the whole City Council on June 5. If adopted, Bethlehem would become the seventh or eighth municipality in the state to decriminalize marijuana.
Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Erie, Harrisburg, York and State College have adopted similar ordinances.
Allentown City Council narrowly passed an ordinance last week, but Mayor Ray O’Connell has until early next week to decide whether he will veto it. Allentown, like Bethlehem, is facing resistance from Martin, who told its City Council that he would direct police officers to continue to enforce state law and ignore council’s new mandate.
Martin has “made it very clear that he wants the police to enforce the state laws in Lehigh County,” said Bethlehem Mayor Robert Donchez, who told the committee that he and DiLuzio have met with the district attorney to discuss the issue. Donchez said he supports the proposed ordinance, but also believes that marijuana laws must be changed at the state level.
DiLuzio told the committee that one of the “operational problems” he foresees is the costs and logistics associated with laboratory tests of suspected marijuana should someone ticketed under the new law decide to challenge the charge in district court.
Lab tests for suspected marijuana cost $350, which would not be covered by lesser fines, he said. Sometimes state police laboratories take nine months to complete drug tests, which could lead to many dismissed charges.
Negron was skeptical of the idea that anyone caught in possession of marijuana would challenge a $25 ticket.
“You’d be amazed at what people will fight,” DiLuzio said.
DiLuzio also posed a hypothetical scenario in which two people are simultaneously caught with a marijuana cigarette on either side of the Broad Street bridge. While the person on the east side walks away with a $25 ticket, the person on the west side is charged with misdemeanor possession, which can carry a fine of up to $500 and 30 days in jail, as well as the possible loss of a driver’s license and a permanent mark on a criminal record.
Such a scenario could put the city at risk of a lawsuit alleging that it has failed to meet the “equal protection clause” of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, Donchez said.
“It puts me in the middle of the bridge,” DiLuzio said.
“We’re in two counties in Bethlehem and that’s what makes this a different argument.”
But City Council President Adam Waldron saw the issue differently.
“I don’t think the problem is that we have two counties. I think the problem is that we have one county that is not progressive, forward thinking and responsive to the will of the people,” Waldron said.
Waldron argued that the legislation does not attempt to supplant state law, as Martin has argued. It merely provides police officers with “another tool in the toolkit,” he said. “It’s all about the discretion of the officers.”
According to an October poll by Franklin & Marshall College’s Center for Opinion Research, 59 percent of Pennsylvanians support the legalization of cannabis. A poll done by Quinnipiac University in April puts national support for marijuana legalization at 63 percent.
“It’s obvious where this is going to be in five, 10, 20 years,” Waldron said. Medical and recreational marijuana will ultimately be legal in all 50 states, he said.
“I would be voting for this tonight if I was able to,” said Waldron, who is not a member of the committee. “We need to send a message to Harrisburg and Washington that we need to have change.”
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