Tufts police and administration officials do not foresee significant changes to the university's marijuana policy, in spite of the passage of a ballot question decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana in Massachusetts.
Question 2, which voters approved on Nov. 4, is set to change state law so that individuals found with an ounce or less of marijuana can be asked to forfeit it and receive a $100 fine, but cannot be charged with a felony. Offenders under 18 will face the same punishment and will also be required to either undergo a drug awareness program or pay a steeper fine.
Tufts and local police officers are awaiting guidelines from the state attorney general's office on how to implement the new law.
"Right now, I'm not anticipating a big change on how we deal with it," Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) Captain Mark Keith said. "[We are] waiting on some direction on how the state is looking to enact policy procedure."
Question 2 passed with 65 percent of the vote, but the state is still awaiting official results from local elections before formalizing the change.
"The unofficial results revealed that Question 2 prevailed," Brian McNiff, a spokesperson for Massachusetts Secretary of State William Francis Galvin, told the Daily. But he said the question's provisions will not become law until 30 days after the Governor's Council certifies the results.
The state continued to receive overseas absentee ballots until Nov. 13. Cities and towns were not required to report their official results to the secretary of state's office until this week, and the tallies will now be audited and sent to the council.
Until then, current state law, which deems possession of any amount of marijuana a criminal offense, will remain unchanged.
Under TUPD's current procedure, officers usually do not arrest students simply for use or possession of small amounts of marijuana, although they have that option.
"Typically, [TUPD officers] will take and destroy the marijuana that's found," Keith said. After this, the officers will write a report to Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman and the Office of Judicial Affairs.
Reitman said that the university will probably not change its disciplinary policies regarding students caught with marijuana.
"I don't think that Tufts' policies are affected very much by the vote that was taken in the election," Reitman said. "The reason for that is that what was changed … was whether or not possession is a criminal offense. The university isn't in a position to look if it's a criminal offense because we can't take criminal action," he said.
Tufts will normally arrest students caught with marijuana only if they are also involved in other, more serious criminal activity.
Tufts' policy treats marijuana possession as roughly equivalent to the underage use of alcohol, Reitman said.
Police officials in Somerville and Medford are also refraining from implementing new marijuana policies until they hear from the state.
"There are guidelines that need to be set up that aren't in place right now," Lt. Paul Covino of the Medford Police Department told the Daily. "If the legislature is smart, they should step in and make it easy to cite people."
Covino added that comprehensive enforcement of Question 2's policies could potentially bolster the town's coffers, since revenue from marijuana fines will go to municipalities.
Under the current legal code, the police rarely carry out punitive measures for small-time marijuana offenders, Covino said.
"Currently, most people over the age and under the age are given a break on the street if they're just in possession of a small amount," he said.
But Covino said that Question 2 was poorly worded because it failed to account for the fact that most people who are carrying an entire ounce of marijuana intend to sell it.
Additionally, Covino believes that increased marijuana availability will drive up use and could lead people to experiment with drugs of a "higher capacity."
"If you make it easier, then more people are going to smoke it," he said. "Drug dealers will be making more money, and society is going to be paying for it."
While Keith did not speculate on the effect the change would have on marijuana use at Tufts, Reitman said that it should have little impact because students who choose to experiment with marijuana are not weighing the legal consequences.
"I don't think people decide whether or not to do some things in their lifestyle, including the use of a substance, because of what they think might be the police reaction," Reitman said.
One Tufts student, who requested anonymity because of marijuana's illegality, said that his personal use of the drug, which he smokes "very occasionally," would not change as a result of Question 2.
Still, he said that the threat of a $100 fine would deter increased usage among students and could potentially lead to harsher police regulation.
"Now that it's decriminalized … the cops might be more inclined to be [stricter] about it, which would lead to less use," he said.
Various forms of decriminalization of marijuana exist in close to a dozen states today, including New York, Alaska and Colorado.
Administrators at several Colorado universities said that the decriminalization law, which has been in place for decades, in no way changed how they deal with student drug possession.
At Colorado State University, most students guilty of marijuana-related infractions pass through the university's judicial process and can face legal charges, according to Director of Outreach and Prevention Programs Pam McCracken.
"We kind of give them a double whammy if they're a student," she told the Daily. "I wouldn't say we ease up on anything."
At the University of Colorado, Boulder, campus police can issue a fine to students or go through the school's judicial affairs procedures.
"Typically, they'll get one or the other or both," Public Information Officer Brad Wiesley told the Daily. "They're not going to get nothing."
Covino, of Medford, said that it is important to recognize that the possession of marijuana is still considered an illegal act, even if the punishment is now lighter. "A lot of people [are] under the perception that they can walk around openly with it now," he said.
