A local police chief said he is telling his officers not to confiscate marijuana from anyone under age 21 until language in the law is fixed.

Saugerties Police Chief Joseph Sinagra said he believes there is a hole in New York’s Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act that could open up his department to lawsuits, while the state assemblyman representing Saugerties said Sinagra is deliberately creating confusion about the law.

“We missed a little loophole,” Sinagra said during an interview in his office Monday morning.

Sinagra said that while the law states only people ages 21 and older can carry and smoke marijuana, it is unclear to him how police should proceed when encountering someone age 20 or younger who has marijuana.

“Right now, if I take cannabis away from somebody under 21 years of age, a defense attorney is going to have a good argument that I stole it from that person,” Sinagra explained. “I have to try to avoid any type of civil exposure to my community, both the town and village of Saugerties.”

District 103 Assemblyman Kevin Cahill pointed to a Section 132 of the MRTA that states anyone under age 21 who is found to be in possession of cannabis would be in violation of the MRTA and would be subject to a civil penalty.

“It can be confiscated, as it is specifically written in the law that the chief has apparently decided to talk about, but not read,” Cahill said Tuesday when reached by phone.

The law allows for penalties of $50 for underage offenders to be paid to the newly formed Office of Cannabis Management, and through key words seems to assume local police agencies can issue citations.

“Any identifying information provided by the enforcement agency for the purpose of facilitating payment of the civil penalty shall not be shared or disclosed under any circumstances with any other agency or law enforcement division,” the section reads.

Cahill said the law makes clear police can issue citations and they can confiscate cannabis from underage offenders. However, police cannot arrest offenders, nor share identifying information, since marijuana possession is no longer a criminal offense in New York.

“For the chief to go around and create uncertainty about the law, to make things up about the law, makes me question how he intends to uphold the law,” Cahill said.

Sinagra maintains lawmakers need to clarify that local police have the power to confiscate and destroy marijuana. He believes he is getting through to lawmakers.

“They understand there are flaws in the law that they’re going to have to address,” Sinagra said, “some things they didn’t think about.”

The chief is asking the Saugerties Town Board to consider a local law that would give his officers additional power to seize marijuana from people who are underage, until the state law is amended.

Cahill said Sinagra is exploiting the issue, perhaps for personal or political gain, and that Sinagra is acting irresponsibly.

“This is a man who carries a gun and has the power to put people in jail,” Cahill said. “It troubles me when he misrepresents things publicly.”