Anson Stevens-Bollen
Department records show Santa Fe police are still issuing criminal citations and arresting people for marijuana possession, despite an August 2014 city ordinance designating the act as the city's "lowest law enforcement priority" and establishing a civil fine for possession of an ounce or less and drug paraphernalia.
Even so, decriminalization advocates point to a drop in criminal charges for possession since 2015 as a sign of progress. Under the city policy, police still have the discretion to charge people with a criminal misdemeanor for holding cannabis under a state statute.
As Albuquerque implements its own decriminalization ordinance that, like Santa Fe's, reduces the penalty for possession to a non-criminal $25 ticket, SFPD's approach to possession may serve as a model for other New Mexican cities considering similar changes, for better or worse.
In the first four months of 2018, Santa Fe police leveled criminal charges against five adults for small-time possession of marijuana, compared to four during the same time last year. Nearly all were issued while the person suspected of holding marijuana was inside a car or standing in public. Three of the five people charged this year were jailed because they already had active warrants for their arrest.
And in the case of three individuals charged in the first five months of both 2017 and 2018 for possession, weed citations snowballed into bench warrants.
In one example from January of this year, an unemployed man who already had a warrant was arrested a block away from the downtown Plaza for possession and paraphernalia—in this case, pipes to smoke marijuana. He pleaded no contest to both charges in March, but by April 13, the Magistrate Court issued a bench warrant for his arrest for failure to pay $426 worth of fines and fees.
In another case from last February, a man who had been staying at the Interfaith Community Shelter was criminally cited for possessing "a small amount of marijuana in a sandwich baggy" and a glass pipe. The man was confronted by police after someone reported he had been masturbating or urinating behind a tree, though Officer Lucero Gregory wrote he was unable to confirm either.
County records indicate the man spent 14 days incarcerated at the Santa Fe County Adult Detention Center at various points between February and December because he missed court appearances and meetings with his probation officer, and was unable to pay his court fees on time.
Prosecutors eventually dropped the paraphernalia charge, and by Dec. 7 the man's fines were reduced, resulting in his completion of probation for the possession charge.
A third man also arrested last February for possession and disorderly conduct had a bench warrant issued two months later for failure to appear in court, only to have all charges dismissed in August.
"Cases like that are very concerning to me," says Emily Kaltenbach, the executive director of Drug Policy Alliance New Mexico, which helped draft the Santa Fe ordinance and advocated for its passage. "One reason why we worked so hard to decriminalize marijuana possession is that collateral consequences are no joke … [the] inability to pay fines and fees is something we should be looking at very closely."
Still, Kaltenbach says, that only five people were criminally cited for possession of cannabis so far this year "sounds like a lot of progress" when compared to the 51 who were criminally cited in the first eight months of 2015. She also lobbied for Albuquerque's City Council and Mayor Tim Keller to pass its decrim ordinance, which is modeled on Santa Fe's.
An investigation by SFR published August 2016 found that 36 people had been arrested and jailed by SFPD solely for possession of small quantities since the passage of Santa Fe's directive. A total of nearly 70 were arrested for possession concurrent with other charges or in the execution of bench warrant arrests.
The decision by an officer to issue a criminal instead of civil citation depends on a number of circumstances, including an officer's personal views on cannabis, as well as pressure for officers to create a paper trail after receiving calls for service.
One man, who asked his name not be used due to his open case, was criminally cited in March for possessing cannabis after an officer approached his car following a suspicious vehicle call. The man tells SFR he was smoking in his car with a friend outside his apartment complex.
Although he was charged with having less than an ounce, the man tells SFR he was actually in possession of two ounces for personal use, and that he "buys in bulk because it's cheaper than buying little amounts." The city decriminalizes possession of an ounce or less, and though this amount is based on emerging cannabis law elsewhere, it is basically arbitrary, Kaltenbach says.
In the police report, Officer Kyle Elliot says he explained to the man that "it is still illegal to smoke marijuana contrary to popular belief." Elliot also wrote that he let the man off with a criminal citation rather than taking him to jail because he was "honest" about possessing marijuana.
But the man tells SFR he only admitted to it because he didn't believe there was any problem with what he was doing. He recently submitted his application for a medical marijuana card to the Department of Health, which he he hopes will help his case if it goes to trial.
"I don't think I did anything wrong that day," the man tells SFR, "That's why I pleaded not guilty [and why] I'm trying to fight it."
