The Senate Commission to Study the Prohibition of Marijuana met again Wednesday and heard testimony from Chief Public Defender John Hardiman, Jack Cole, former New Jersey state police officer and director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, and Joe Osediacz, retired Rhode Island police officer and Commission member.  Some important points were made around both the potential cost and safety benefits of marijuana decriminalization.  You can hear the wrni piece here.

Jack Cole is the director of LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition). He was a police officer for 26 years, 12 as a narcotics officer.  LEAP is a 15,000 member organization that includes current and former police officers, judges, governors, and attorney generals.  He stated that Massachussett's decriminalization law is more effective and efficient than criminalization.  As reported in an Attleboro paper, 90% of people ticketed pay-up easily.  Cole estimated that in 2009 the law brought in around $300,000 in ticket revenue and saved the state 19 full police officer's man time.

Cole also argued that decriminalization can actually "save lives." Marijuana prohibition requires a large amount of law enforcement time, which he argued could instead be used to increase the rate in which police solve crimes and actually increase public safety.  

In terms of marijuana use, Cole explained that evidence has shown no increase in marijuana use in states that  decriminalize, and in some states marijuana use, particularly amongst youth, rates have gone down.  In Nevada, for example, marijuana use fell from 7.6% to 6.1% after decriminalization.    

Chief Public Defender John Hardiman estimated that the Office of the Public Defender requires approximately $200,000 for most of two attorneys to handle marijuana cases. In 2009 his office represented 1,508 cases involving marijuana charges.  1,289 of these were misdemeanor charges of simple possession and 193 were felonies, which adds up to about two attorneys caseloads.  He stated this does not include many marijuana possession misdemeanors which are often disposed of quickly at arraignment that his office either does not represent or are too quick to count in the database.  He added that if his attorneys did not have to defend those cases, they could spend their time working on other important responsibilities. (Last April his office reported that they were too overworked to take post-conviction release cases for indigent clients even though state law requires that indigent defendants be provided post-conviction relief representation.)

He also provided clarity on the question of whether or not people currently go to prison for marijuana cases only.  He said that it is fairly common for defendants on probation to be sent to prison for new charges of marijuana possession or failing drug tests for marijuana.  Jack Cole testified that the Massachussetts decriminalization law applies to probation revocation cases, so that these individuals would no longer be incarcerated for marijuana possession.  This contradicted the testimony of the Attorney General's Office, which stated at the last hearing that there would be “zero savings” because no people would be spared incarceration by the decriminalization legislation.