December
19, 2001
By
Thomas Burr, The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt
Lake Tribune
Citing
police harassment, the Town Council voted Tuesday to repeal a 3-week-old
ordinance making it only a $10 fine to possess small amounts of marijuana.
Three
of the council's four members, including acting Mayor Raymond Rankin,
voted to dump the ordinance, which was passed by a unanimous council
Nov. 27. Councilwoman Francine Hoover was absent from Tuesday's meeting.
"We didn't undo state law with the marijuana ordinance. We just made
the punishment fit the crime," Councilman Willy Marshall, who wrote
and presented the ordinance, said before the meeting. "I guess it's
too progressive for Utah."
The
ordinance had essentially decriminalized the possession of less than
1 ounce of marijuana and made possessing drug paraphernalia only a
$5 fine.
Before
the meeting, Marshall said he brought the ordinance up because penalties
for marijuana should be lowered. Under state law the possession of
less than an ounce is punishable by up to 6 months in jail and a $1,000
fine.
Before
the council meeting, Marshall and Rankin said harassment from the
Utah Highway Patrol pressured them into repealing the ordinance.
"It's
not worth the damage," Rankin said of the cost of being harassed.
The
Highway Patrol has defended its one-day crackdown in Big Water, saying
it was a "special enforcement" action planned before the ordinance
came up.
The
council's action also came after Kane County Sheriff Lamont Smith
said he would not be able to renew his contract to provide police
services in the town of 400 if the ordinance stayed in place. The
contract expires Jan. 1.
Smith
also took issue with an ordinance passed the same night creating a
citizen review board for the sheriff's deputies that patrol the area.
That ordinance, which allowed the town to seek penalties against the
deputies, was also repealed.
"With
these ordinances in there, I just couldn't do business with Big Water,"
Smith said Tuesday. "It conflicts with state law."
Apparently
no one was charged with possession of marijuana under the lenient
ordinance, but that does not surprise resident Lindie Fenlon.
"There
are no more drugs here than anywhere else," she said. "Most people
I've talked to just think the marijuana ordinance is a big joke."
