PORTLAND, Maine — Despite voters approving an ordinance that claimed to legalize small amounts of recreational marijuana for adults, Portland police have handed out nearly two dozen citations so far this year.
Chief Michael Sauschuck sent a memo to council members on Oct. 21 about the city’s pot ordinance passed two years ago.
In it, he said officers aren’t actively looking for people in possession of marijuana, but they are enforcing state law when the situation requires it. Under state law, marijuana is still illegal.
Between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30, the department issued 23 citations for the civil possession of marijuana. During the same period in 2014, 44 citations were handed out.
In 2014, 23 percent of citations were issued during traffic stops, compared to 30 percent this year.
Sauschuck wrote, “It is troubling officers continue to encounter individuals impaired by or actively using marijuana while operating a motor vehicle.”
According to the memo, if police followed the city ordinance as it was passed, allowing adults 21 and over to possess 2.5 ounces of marijuana, eight would have been cited anyway this year because they were minors.
Eleven adults were also arrested on criminal charges.
Advocates said police should follow the will of the voters.
“Whatever charges they were going to be charged with, charge them with that and not marijuana, not possession of marijuana, because under city ordinance that’s not illegal,” said Portland Green Party Chairman Tom MacMillan, who was part of the effort to legalize pot in 2013.
Sauschuck will present his report to the city’s public safety committee Tuesday night at 5:30.