"We never made any kind of agreement that said police weren't going to enforce the laws," Amherst Police Chief Scott Livingstone said.
AMHERST – Organizers of the 20th annual Extravaganja on the Town Common admitted Tuesday that they were wrong when they told the public police had agreed not to cite anyone caught smoking marijuana.
Emily Butler, a spokesperson for the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Cannabis Reform Coalition, said there had been “a simple miscommunication with the police” and “we didn’t mean to mislead anybody.”
“We should not have led them to believe that smoking would be tolerated,” Butler said in an email. “The current (coalition) officers will make sure that this miscommunication does not occur in future years.”
In the days leading up to the event, area publications reported statements from coalition officers saying participants could smoke without consequences, as long as they stayed on the common. The group’s Facebook page, website and newsletter reported the same.
Police Chief Scott P. Livingstone said that was not true.
“We never made any kind of agreement that said police weren’t going to enforce the laws,” Livingstone said Tuesday.
When asked why the police hadn’t corrected the group’s statements before the event, he said, “I don’t know.”
Livingstone said he believed the number of attendees over the weekend was 7,000. Sgt. Jesus Arrocho said a total of 17 citations had been issued and no arrests had been made.
“Violations that officers saw, they took action on,” said Livingstone. “The police presence that was there this year was the same that has been there for the past 19 years."
There were officers patrolling the area around the common and plainclothes officers in the crowd, he said.
Coalition treasurer Adam Freed said the confusion came from the fact that it was difficult to monitor every statement made by every member of the group, most of whom are new and unfamiliar with the CRC’s messages and policies.
“We are working kind of like with a blank slate,” he said. “We don’t know what’s going on and that’s why the wrong things were said.”
“The only thing that’s tolerated is us holding the event in the first place,” said Freed. “Our message is (marijuana) ... is still decriminalized.”
He said he heard a few stories that citations were issued after police entered the common to confiscate drug paraphernalia, then asked suspects to step off the common and receive a ticket. The coalition had repeatedly said smoking was allowed on the common.
Three of the 17 people who received citations have come to the group to seek a solution to their legal problem, he said.
“We’d be happy to have more come forward to us and have a discussion about it,” he said. “We feel bad for the misinformation they received from the group.”
“We as a group are going to try to do whatever we can to help those who were issued citations,” said Butler in an email.
Livingstone said he plans to meet with the coalition members to discuss plans to hold a 21st annual Extravaganja next year.