Methuen’s City Council gave first read approval to my proposal to levy additional fines for public usage of marijuana last night. The approval was unanimous. I did announce to the City Council that I would submit to them revisions to the earlier ordinance that would change the proposal as follows:
1) The recommended fine would be reduced from $300 to $100.
2) The areas where the additional fine would be imposed would be only in parks, playgrounds, school grounds, and Forest Lake. All other eareas of the community would only be governed by the newly passed state law that deals with possession.
3) I will submit a revision to the open container ordinance (beverage alcohol) raising that fine from $50 to $100.
We have talked about this in a couple of earlier posts. At least one and likely two councilors indicated that they do not agree with lowering the fine and would favor keeping it at $300 as well as raising the open container fine to $300. That is the story for now. The Eagle Tribune has written a story that you can link to here.
Bill Manzi.com 
Methuen, MA City Council Hearing with Prospect Hill and Methuen Mayor Bill Manzi.
http://bostonfreedomrally.com
http://myspace.com/prospecthill
http://billmanzi.com
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Methuen, MA City Council Hearing with Prospect Hill and Methuen Mayor Bill Manzi.
http://bostonfreedomrally.com
http://myspace.com/prospecthill
http://billmanzi.com
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Mayor Manzi:
Why did you reduce the fine? Was it pressure from the You Tube item?
Gerard
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Gerard,
It had become apparent that there was a deep misunderstanding of the goals of the ordinance, and that led to some heavy political fire. But there was also some good points made about some equity issues, and I agreed that to rework it in this fashion would not defeat the intent of the ordinance. I am not sure if City Council agrees with a reduction, but we will find out soon enough.
Bill
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Mayor Manzi, I’ve followed this story closely and to me it seemd that it was “Politics AND Publicity in a smoke filled room”. You got what you were seeking, a modified pot ordninance and the band got a LOT OF FREE PUBLICITY! One hopes that there was no, you know, quid pro quo here! 🙂
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Ben,
You have not been the only one to ask if I made a “special deal” with the band! I can assure you that there was no quid pro quo here. (At least as far as I can remember!)
Bill
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Your Honor,
It seems to me that a $300.00 fine for a premeditated act of smoking pot on public land is fair and equitable. Please keep the fine at that amount unless you want to raise it to $500.00 per offense, with my blessing.
Methuen people should be able to bring their children and grandchildren anywhere in this town without being confronted by “POTHEADS”!
Further, the only place a pothead should be seen is in REHAB!!!
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