The dope on dope
MLPD Chief offers his take on potential legalization.
Weed will soon be legal as California and some lawmakers are passing legislation now to make sure there are no stems or seeds in the way before voters are expected to give the green thumb to marijuana in November 2016.
Mammoth Lakes Police Chief Al Davis was asked by The Sheet to weigh in on the legalization of marijuana and what it might mean for the Town. Mono County Supervisors are in favor of some guidelines for the State from counties that call for local control Davis is in favor of. Davis said local control on locations, for example, coupled with guidelines from the State that would allow for that control, is very important
The Sheet: Marijuana in town, is it a problem?
Chief Davis: That is a matter of opinion. We’ve had three attempted break-ins of the [medical marijuana] dispensaries … they are a focal point for people to want to break in to steal money or marijuana, so on that level you could say its a problem, but no more or less than any other high-end business in town, liquor store or otherwise.
The Chief then came to his biggest concern, which is driving under the influence of marijuana.
“One of the biggest areas that i have in why I’m against legalizing marijuana is that there is no clear-cut way to determine if someone is under the influence to the point where they are to impaired to drive,” he said.
There are field sobriety checks, but that’s just one portion. With alcohol, there’s the field sobriety test and the real hard evidence that goes to court; the blood or breath test. With alcohol there are also clear and decisive levels of amounts in the system that are used in court to determine that a person is legally impaired.
If you are at 0.08 level or higher it can be determined that the person is too intoxicated to drive.
“With marijuana, there’s no way to know that,” Chief Davis said. “One: there are so many variables that go into it; how many times the person has smoked recently, as THC [the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana] can stay in a person’s system for 30 maybe 40 days and it adds up too.
“There’s no way to know … there’s no definitive drug test to say that somebody’s under the influence. So it purely boils down to 100 percent the field sobriety test.”
In a felony DUI, when a blood test is mandatory, even with a positive for THC in the driver’s system, there’s no way to know if weed was a contributing factor to the crash, unlike alcohol.
And THC is more potent than ever, Davis explained. Heady weed, the stickiest of the icky, has as much as 20 percent THC, four to five times greater than weed 20 years ago. There are also edibles, like brownies and candy, that are not properly labeled, making it hard to determine how much a person is consuming.
In addition to edibles there is a new form of concentrated THC, called “dabs” or “ear wax” for its yellowish-brown color that is close to pure, 100 percent THC.
“The problem I see is the DUI aspect,” Chief Davis said. “I don’t see a large amount of crime as a result of marijuana usage.”
When it comes to grow space, particularly illegal indoor grows, Davis said he was unsure if the few numbers of illegal grows would grow. Growing for personal use could actually decrease, Davis speculated, because while marijuana is easy to grow, it may be even easier to go to a dispensary and buy the product. He added that anecdotally, the County may see a decrease in illegal outdoor grows.
Mammoth is a transient community and there are drugs that come and go, but there are on-going users of harder drugs in the area, not a big or small problem, he said. Davis said the newly formed Mono County Investigative Unit, composed of Sheriff’s deputies, District Attorney investigators and Mammoth Lakes Police officers, will be going after local dealers. The team works cases County-wide: “Its a way to get the most bang for the buck,” Chief Davis said.
The unit has proven itself, cracking the case of multiple burglaries and car break-ins in the Snow Creek area. Davis said it would have taken “forever” for a single officer to crack the case, including interviews ad evidence collections. Time is of the essence when trying to solve a crime.
The Investigative Unit is not just in it for the drugs, it is a crime task force. MONET, or Mono County Narcotics Enforcement Team, a County-wide law enforcement collaboration effort, is no longer active due to staffing limitations. There is still money in the MONET account that is utilized in making undercover drug buys or to buy the new canine drug detection unit.
