MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - An initiative announced Tuesday cracking down on marijuana use in public places came after months of complaints, according to Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch.
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The sheriff said he has personal experience with the assault of marijuana odor – including during a recent family outing to an entertainment venue in Mobile.
“One of the questions I got from my daughter not too long ago was – you know, she knows what the smell is now,” he said. “And she’s like, ‘Well, you’re the sheriff, why don’t you arrest ‘em?’ And so that that’ll get your attention. … That really was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“Operation Up in Smoke” will involve undercover officers in parking lots and other public places looking for the smell of marijuana. But told FOX10 News that he is not targeting people’s private residences.
“If that’s something you choose to take that risk to do, do it inside your home; don’t expose unwilling participants in public, especially people with their young children having to walk through and having to answer a lot of questions about what that smell is,” he said.
Virginia Guy, executive director of the Drug Education Council, said marijuana holds medicinal promise. But she says there are downsides as a recreational drug – especially for children. She said it has 400 chemical and more when it is burned. She said reactions to it vary person to person and can cause impairment and mental health problems.
“When folks are smoking marijuana out in public, it gives impressions to young people that it’s normalized and that everybody’s doing it,” she told FOX10 News.
Timothy Hollis, a community activist in Mobile who has been pushing for marijuana reform in the city, said he agrees that people should not smoke pot in public near children. But he added those same goals could be accomplished by making marijuana possession a ticket-able offense, similar to speeding.
A fine and court costs should be enough to deter people from lighting up joints in unauthorized places.
“I don’t think that we need to be focusing our time on jailing more people,” he said. “I think we need to be focusing more time on how to actually alleviate the pain in the community. And when you do that, you’re gonna be targeting the community that deals with the most pain.”
Burch said marijuana arrests often lead to more serious charges.
“I would say three out of five arrests we make with marijuana – and I’m talking larger volumes marijuana – there are illegal weapons involved as well as other drugs.”
It was not immediately clear how common it is for someone to be arrested for simple marijuana possession absent other charges. According to the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office, prosecutors filed 289 marijuana charges last year – either as a stand-alone misdemeanor offense or first-degree possession of marijuana. That does not include juvenile cases.
But a spokeswoman for the office told FOX10 News that those defendants have other charges in many cases since felonies are recorded separately. It also does not include misdemeanor marijuana cases prosecuted in municipal courts.
“It’s rare that, you know, somebody just has a joint and goes to jail for it,” Burch said.
But the sheriff said that number likely will go up.
“Until we make an impact, there’s gonna be zero tolerance,” he said. “You get caught doing it in public, you’re going to jail, and we’re gonna tow your car if you’re in your car.”
Burch said he recognizes that there is a national trend away from marijuana criminalization. But he said that will not alter his policy.
“I will say that right now, it’s against the law,” he said. “If there’s a large movement to want to legalize it, contact your legislators and change the law. You know, as the sheriff, we’re gonna enforce the law. I’m a law-and-order sheriff.”
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