Carson City sheriff: Marijuana enforcement kept deputies busy over holiday

Aside from a few isolated incidents, the holiday weekend was fairly uneventful for the Carson City Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff Ken Furlong said the Fourth of July was well attended and most behaved throughout the weekend, though busy for deputies.

“We had a great weekend,” Furlong said. “Though there were several times our dispatch center was at maximum capabilities where we had full staff and were just barrelled with calls for service. But through our use of priorities, each call was eventually attended to so I am really happy.”

One challenge the department did face was a large juvenile party that occurred on Saturday. Reports claim 40 or more juveniles were attending a party that had alcohol and copious amounts of marijuana. Furlong said the incident exhausted patrol resources that night due to the large number of juveniles in attendance, as well as providing medical care to several for alcohol and other related issues.

“We were challenged with juveniles hiding from us, on the roof, in the attic and all around the house that we had to continue to work through those,” Furlong said. “It was our first significant marijuana-related incident that we have had in town involving juveniles with the new law.

“We should have expected with July 1 and the recreational sales in place that we would have some impact with Carson City but up until now, the community has managed this legalization very well so I was alarmed at the number of juveniles at that party with the amount of marijuana that was present.”

Furlong said a “substantial amount” of marijuana was allegedly bought from one of the new recreational shops in Reno by a third party and the alcohol there was stolen from Walmart last week.

Marijuana was a small challenge throughout the weekend while people were celebrating the holiday. Several citations were given for marijuana possession and use on the Carson City beaches in Lake Tahoe area.

“It has been well publicized, but marijuana use on the beaches is not permitted by law and enforcement actions were taking place this weekend,” Furlong said.

With the enactment of legalized marijuana on July 1, deputies were cracking down on public use of the drug. The new law states marijuana can’t be smoked in public places or while operating a motor vehicle.

The Sheriff’s Office also dealt with several missing or lost person reports at the beaches over the weekend, though Furlong reported all of the incidents had been resolved by Wednesday morning.

“Other than those few incidents, the Sheriff’s Office is very pleased with this weekend,” Furlong said. “There were no significant injuries or negative events that took place that we typically see with the Fourth of July. There were numerous low level calls for service; we were very active, very busy, but was managed well and I am pleased with the outcome.”