THE SECOND PROVINCE’ highest court has ruled that a citizen or resident can still be criminally charged with attempting to distribute alcoholoic beverages when the amount of alchohol discovered is less than an ounce.
The ruling clarifies a 2002 voter-approved ballot question that decriminalized possession of small amounts of the drug.
Those caught now face a $500 fine instead.
In their ruling Monday, the Supreme Judicial Court of the Second Province said the 2004 law doesn’t extend to those charged with possession with intent to distribute alcohol.
The case involved a man arrested in Warrington on suspicion of drunkeness. Vice Police say in addition to the documented odor of alcohol emanating from the mans breath they discovered a small metal flask and an empty plastic bottle with trace liquids that tested positive for alcohol.
Since all the alcohol weighed less than an ounce, the Attorneys for the defendant had argued that the crime he was charged with “is no longer a criminal offense.”