New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
City preps for new legal weed laws
NEW HAVEN — Come July 1, possession of marijuana for recreational adult use will be legal in Connecticut — and in the living rooms of New Haven — but don’t expect to see big changes immediately, according to some of the key people guid
ing the city’s response.
A lot of those changes occurred when pot was decriminalized a few years back and possession of marijuana went from being a misdemeanor to an infraction, said acting Chief of Police Renee Dominguez and Mayor Justin Elicker. But there will be additional training and
“It won’t significantly change New Haven’s policing practices as far as marijuana enforcement,”
said Elicker. “In New Haven, because it’s been decriminalized, we don’t give out a lot of infractions or make a lot of arrests, already.”
Training
The Connecticut Police Officer Standards and Training Council, or POST, is in the process of reviewing the legislation that Gov. Ned Lamont signed into law Tuesday “and breaking it down into a teachable document that will be distributed to police around the state,” said Elicker.
“We will be training our officers
on the changes in the law ... and the officer may receive that training either in lineup or in special session,” he said.
Connecticut is the 19th state in which recreational marijuana use has been legalized. Use of marijuana will continue to be illegal in a motor vehicle and anywhere smoking in general is not allowed, including in public buildings.
“The new things are, obviously, it’s no longer a crime” to possess cannabis, effective July 1, so POST, which is oversees training for police department’s across the state, “is providing every municipality a shorter, more concise version of the bill,” said Dominguez.
“Then our training academy will be doing some sort of training once we have the document,” Dominguez said.
“In general, because ... the legalization is taking place quite quickly after the statute was passed, we’re working to respond quickly,” although “there may be changes” in the law down the line, she said.
While additional training is likely to take place with regard to procedures to determine when people are driving under the influence — which will remain illegal — “we’ve already had that ability,” Dominguez said.
“So if an officer stops somebody due to the way they’re driving ... and do the field sobriety tests, those tests are the same,” Dominguez said.
Currently, when someone who appears to be intoxicated is given a Breathalyzer test and it comes
back negative, there are additional field sobriety tests they are given to determine whether they may be under the influence of something else, she said.
“What I am concerned about is, are we going to see an increase in motor vehicle accidents,” Dominguez said. “Are people going to be less likely to smoke and drive because it’s legal?”
She pointed out that in Colorado, where cannabis was legalized in 2013, the state saw an increase in traffic deaths in which drivers tested positive for marijuana.
“So I just think more education is important,” Dominguez said.
The report by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Training and Information Center found that since recreational marijuana was legalized in 2013, traffic deaths in which drivers tested positive for marijuana increased 135 percent while all Colorado traffic deaths increased 24 percent.
It also found that since recreational marijuana was legalized, traffic deaths involving drivers who tested positive for marijuana more than doubled from 55 people in 2013 to 129 people killed in 2019, and that the percentage of all Colorado traffic deaths that were marijuana related increased from 15 percent in 2013 to 25 percent in 2019.
According to Connecticut’s new cannabis law, people of legal age (21 and older) can legally possess 1.5 ounces of “cannabis plant material,” or flower, on their person, plus an additional “five ounces of such material in a locked container in the person’s residence or locked glove box or trunk in the person’s motor vehicle.”
The New Haven Health Department, meanwhile, “is developing an informational pamphlet just to let people know what their rights are ... and to let people know what the resources are,” said Elicker.
“They’re going to let people about the safe consumption of cannabis, pregnancy” and other key issues, he said.
“The Health Department is working (on) a few messaging campaigns for residents on the new legislation,” said acting Health Director Brooke Logan in an email. “These should be finalized in the coming weeks.”
Officials at Yale University didn’t immediately return requests for comment on how legalized pot will be handled among students living both on campus and off.
Southern Connecticut State University spokesman Patrick Dilger said the university is awaiting guidance from the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities System office.
“One issue with allowing marijuana on public campuses would be how it would potentially jeopardize federal funding,’ Dilger said.
“For example, even though medical marijuana is approved for use in Connecticut it cannot be used in residence halls on public campuses,” he said.