Photo used under a Creative Commons license with JosephAdams.

Much like in the rest of the country, police and prosecutors in Maryland spend a large amount of their time dealing with small-time marijuana users. But a pair of new laws in the Old Line State is reshaping how casual marijuana use is policed and prosecuted. The Gazette reports that Montgomery County Police are changing their tactics in response to two new state laws that lessen the penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana:

In effect, police are moving toward an enforcement strategy that continues to consider marijuana possession a crime, but sees possession of small amounts of the drug as a less serious offense than it now is, officials said.

That move is being made to reduce the backlog of marijuana-based court cases and to conform with two new laws that decrease the criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of the drug.

“It is still the most prevalent and widely available illegal drug in Montgomery County by far, and we’re going to keep targeting it as such until the law is changed,” said Lt. Stephen D’Ovidio, deputy commander of the department’s Special Investigations Division overseeing the Drug Enforcement Section. “We’re going after the dealers and suppliers; we’re not targeting the users.”

Under the new laws, which go into effect in the coming months, being found with small amounts of marijuana will lead to little more than a citation. In the past, marijuana possession could result in a year-long prison sentence, leading many defendants to request jury trials and effectively tying up Maryland’s judicial system with nonviolent cases that took time and money away from other more serious offenses.

In Montgomery County, marijuana-related arrests have represented between 67 and 74 percent of all drug possession arrests in the last few years.