The advisory committee presiding over Boulder County Parks and Open Space on Thursday supported a slate of minor regulations and code changes, but abstained from recommending new marijuana policies for county parks that would be odds with the state Constitution.

Every three-to-five years — and most recently in 2011 — Parks and Open Space staff reviews its guidelines and proposes changes that go before the advisory committee and then the Board of County Commissioners. In a presentation before the former, Bevin Carithers, the county’s resource protection manager, laid out, among other proposals, the banning of marijuana consumption, possession, cultivation and sale on county parks and open spaces.

Public consumption and unlicensed cultivation of marijuana are both already illegal in Colorado. But Carithers’ proposal would have allowed rangers to ticket visitors who, for example, are in possession of pot, but not smoking it, while walking a trail or parking in a county lot.

Problem is, Colorado’s Constitution states clearly that there should be no penalty for private possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana by state residents at least 21 years of age.

Of course, ticketing abusers of that potential regulation would be also be immensely difficult in cases where pot were not openly displayed.

Boulder attorney Judd Golden, a board member for Colorado’s NORML chapter, argued before the committee that approving such a measure on Thursday would have set a dangerous precedent.

“We (Colorado NORML) don’t like the hypocrisy of criminalizing something that is clearly not going to be enforced,” Golden said. “These are the kinds of laws that allow the people in an enforcement position to keep it in their pocket and selectively enforce it against people they don’t like. That’s just not good public policy.”

But in voting to kick the issue down to the office of Open Space County Attorney Conrad Lattes, the advisory committee expressed a stronger fear that constitutional conflict around marijuana could lead to a slash in federal funding — not that it would be illegal to supersede state law.

In a comment before the committee, Lafayette defense attorney and former judge Leonard Frieling jokingly encouraged the approval of Carithers’ pot proposal, as it would surely put money in the pockets of attorneys representing those ticketed for possession.

Frieling added after the meeting that he was disturbed by the committee’s emphasis on federal funding, as opposed to actual law.

“Do we know of one program that the feds have cut funding on because of these issues? Anywhere in the country? The answer is no. That’s the red herring,” he said.

Lattes will now meet with pot advocates and Parks and Open Space officials before any new regulations are placed before the commissioners.

In addition to the marijuana conversation, two items also caught the committee’s eye.

The first was over a proposal to amend the hours of public operation for county-owned open spaces. Presently, those grounds open at sunrise and close at sunset, though rangers police that with roughly an hour of leeway on either end.

Carithers suggested removing any possible ambiguity by doing away with leeway and simply keeping parks open from one hour before sunrise until one hour after sunset.

“We have heard from the public that they would like to be able to use the trails earlier in the morning,” he explained.

The committee mulled amending Carithers’ proposal by allowing the extra two hours only on lands where the extended schedule would not conflict with wildlife. Ultimately, it decided to keep the regulation as is, loosely policing it with the current amount of leeway.

Also up for debate was a proposal to ban the recreational use of drones in county parks. Drones technically fall under the broad category of “unmanned aircraft systems,” but the technology’s recent proliferation prompted Carithers and his staff to add “drones” to that official language.

That proposal was approved.

“We have so many distractions now on open space,” board member Sue Cass said. “I cannot imagine having drones overhead. …The general public flying drones over open space is unacceptable.”

Approved without contest was a proposal to update the department’s fine schedule for the first time in 18 years.

For all but a few violations — such a weapons, hunting and illegal fire-starting — first offenses would now warrant $75 fines, as opposed to the current $50. Second offenses would move up from $100 to $150, while any subsequent offenses would be punishable by the same $300 fine that currently exists.