Parental notification for underage pot use passes

By: Mike Davis
Asbury Park Press
USA Today Network - New Jersey

TRENTON - Parents will get word from the police it their minor children are caught with alcohol or marijuana, under new legislation sent to the governor.
..... The Senate and Assembly passed measures Thursday [03/25/2021] requiring police to notify the parents of anyone under 18 years old who is found possessing or using marijuana or alcohol, even on a first offense, patching up what many legislators, law enforcement and parents deemed to be a hole in the New Jersey legal weed laws enacted last month. [02/2021]
..... Both chambers passed the change unanimously.
.... "Marijuana was legalized for adults, not for children or teenage," said Senator Vin Gopal, D-Monmouth, who sponsored the parental notification bill. "Parents need to be notified if their underage child is using marijuana or alcohol so they can take the appropriate steps to protect them form the potential harmful effects of substance sue at young ages and to help them make responsible decisions.
..... "Allowing parents to remain involved and informed can help to make sure that first-time offenders do not become repeat offenders," he added.
..... The parental notification change now heads to Governor Phil Murphy, who is expected to sign it into law. Earlier this month, [03/2021] Murphy called the idea a "step in the right direction."
..... Under the recently enacted New Jersey marijuana legislation, police were barred from contacting parents on a minor's first offense.
..... The issue of underage marijuana use was a major sticking point between the governor's office and legislators, delaying the marijuana legalization laws by nearly two months. New Jersey approved recreational marijuana in a November [2020] ballot question. The governor wanted a legislative fix spelling out that marijuana is illegal for minors. The legal weed ballot question, approved by 2.7 million New Jerseyans last year, [2020] only covered those 21 years or older.
..... Members of the Legislative Black and Latino caucuses wanted a solution that didn't allow police to search anyone who simply looked underage.
..... In New Jersey and elsewhere, marijuana laws have been historically enforced disproportionately against Black and brown people, even though they have the same usage rates as whites.
.... A compromise eventually signed into law - and now earmarked to change - treats both underage drinking and underage marijuana use as the same offense, but allows for police to only issue written warnings. Police can notify the parent or guardian of an offender under 18 years old - but only on the second and subsequent offense.
..... Before the compromise bill passed, police advocates and elected officials began pushing for the Legislature for a change allowing parental notification on a first offense.
..... But opponents said there was still work to do. Senator Robert Singer, R-Ocean, said the compromise bill was a "smoke scree" that didn't go far enough in addressing other issues he said "holds police as criminals."
..... There's nothing in this bill that says, if you notify a parent, it goes by registered mail. How do you know if they got it," Singer said. "There's nothing in this bill that says, if a youth gives you a false name and address, you can prove it's real one. All this bill is doing is (making a) smoke screen to what has to be fixed."
..... In a statement, the New Jersey Association of Chiefs of Police called for more "clean-up" bills that would also ease the potential criminal penalties faced by officers who illegally search anyone underage for marijuana.
....."The potential for criminal liability in any interaction will prevent officers from intervening in situations where underage criminal activity occurs, allowing underage marijuana and alcohol sue to run rampant in our schools, in our parks and on our beaches," the police chiefs' association said.

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