Sometimes, no matter how hard they try, drafters of major legislation fail to anticipate every circumstance where the new law will intersect with existing statutes. Ideally the gears of new statutory law will mesh with, rather than grind against, preexisting statutory law. Although such matters can be resolved by timely legislative amendment, often the task falls to the courts.

Our Supreme Court recently, in a methodical, unanimous opinion by Judge Jack Sabatino (serving temporarily to fill a vacancy), “harmonized” the major new cannabis legislation with the earlier pretrial intervention (PTI) and expungement statutes. State v. Gomes (2023).