Legislation

The state’s medical marijuana program suffered a huge setback when, in June, the House and Senate passed Attorney General legislation promoting discrimination and harassment of marijuana cardholders without cause.

The General Assembly is also considered a variety of legislation aimed at firearms possession and use, including a number of bills imposing mandatory sentences.

The House approved recurring legislation imposing additional penalties – up to an extra ten years – on individuals who participate in crimes if they are deemed to do so as part of a vaguely defined “criminal street gang".

Legislation was considered to overhaul the state’s prohibition on cyberstalking and cyberharassment. However, under this new legislation, one act online that is used by others to justify harassment would be criminal, whether or not the individual was aware of harassment that subsequently took place.

In June, the House and Senate approved disturbing legislation allowing for the collection of DNA from people arrested – but not yet put on trial – for a number of offenses.

Following a series of unpopular decisions by the Parole Board, the General Assembly weighed a number of changes to existing parole laws for individuals convicted of murder.

We supported legislation that aimed to reinstate the policy in place under a First Circuit decision by requiring law enforcement to have reasonable suspicion prior to performing a strip search of misdemeanant arrestees, and a warrant based on probable cause before conducting a body cavity search.

Over the past several years, the General Assembly has passed a number of new laws requiring nationwide criminal background checks be conducted on employees and volunteers across a wide spectrum of job titles, and this year was no exception.