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Summit County Sheriff's Office Confused About How To Enforce Medical Marijuana Laws

Utah State

Medical Marijuana is legal in Utah but the Summit County Sheriff’s Department is unclear how to carry out their duties when it comes to traffic stops that include marijuana possession.

Summit County Sheriff, Justin Martinez says the legalization of medical marijuana, has left his deputies at a loss of what to do when they smell marijuana during a traffic stop.

“We don’t have the authority to dispense it yet, as a state. There are no dispensaries right now so where do they get it from? There are so many open questions right now, it’s very hard to regulate it or enforce it, because we have not been given a lot of direction from the state as to how we can go about arresting people for something that on the books is legal in the form of an edible but not in the form of a bud substance. So, it’s making it very difficult for law enforcement to enforce the law the way it is currently written.”

Martinez says he has no idea when the state will clarify the medical marijuana issue. He says there’s a lawsuit claiming the state is violating federal law.

“It’s being done by former (Salt Lake City) mayor, Rocky Anderson and his office and they’re looking to take the legislature to task basically saying that what the state, the state of Utah is doing is illegal by mandating county government to be the dispensary which is a violation of federal law. Medical marijuana is still federally illegal. I think it’s putting counties in a bad position. Basically, the states telling them you will violate federal law.”

In other Sheriff’s Department business, Martinez says Sundance and the FIS Championships in February were cooperative efforts on the part of all the public safety agencies throughout multiple counties and cities. The opening FIS ceremonies at Canyon’s Village drew a crowd double the size expected. The police presence was staffed to handle 3000 people and estimates show about 6000 people attended. Martinez says valuable lessons were learned and he’s confident the venue hosts will fine tune their process for future large events.

“We’re there for public safety. It’s ultimately up to Park City and Canyons base operations to make it very clear where the patrons are going to come in and go out, on load and off load. That’s not our responsibility. That’s their responsibility because there, it’s a private organization. So, I think it just needs to be a little bit more coordination. This is the first time we’ve done something of this magnitude.  And, it stretched from the Canyons, to Deer Valley, to Park City Mountain, out to Heber. So, there’s a lot going into it and it’s the first time we’ve done this since the Olympics.”

Martinez thinks if the Olympics returns to Utah, the community will be well prepared. 

 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 

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