Boston, MA: Massachusetts lame-duck Governor Jane Swift has vetoed a provision in the state budget just approved by the state legislature that would have transferred from prosecutors to judges the option of treating many minor, nonviolent offenses — including drug possession offenses — as a civil matter instead of a criminal offense. The decriminalization provisions were included in the state budget by the House Ways and Means Committee, as a way to save money in a state that is facing a $2.5 billion budget shortfall. The committee said that state prosecutors, who currently have this option, have failed to exercise it.
House Ways and Means Chairman John H. Rogers (D-Norwood) said the provision could save about $1 million a year, since the state isn’t required to provide a lawyer in civil cases.
The state is spending $2.5 million annually on lawyers to defend approximately 5,000 indigent people each year on low-level misdemeanor charges, according to the Committee for Public Counsel Services.
Rogers called it a “waste of taxpayer money” to mount a full legal defense for crimes like running red lights.
Gov. Swift, who is not a candidate for re-election in November, said she vetoed the decriminalization provisions because they “unnecessarily took power away from prosecutors.”
NORML Executive Director Keith Stroup called the governor’s veto “a missed opportunity by the state to prioritize law enforcement expenditures, and save tax money that is currently being wasted prosecuting marijuana smokers and other nonviolent offenders.”
For additional information, contact Keith Stroup at NORML, 202-483-5500 or MassCann/NORML at 781-944-2266.