Pubdate: Tue, 18 Mar 2008
Source: Daily Item, The (MA)
Contact:  2008 The Daily Item
Website: http://www.thedailyitemoflynn.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3654
Author: David Liscio, The Daily Item

LAWMAKERS CONSIDER MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION

BOSTON - The Legislature's Joint Committee on the Judiciary,
which includes three members of the Lynn delegation, meets today for a
hearing  on whether to decriminalize marijuana.

The Legislature is  constitutionally required to conduct a hearing on
the Committee for Sensible  Marijuana Policy (CSMP) initiative that
creates a civil penalty and fine system  for individuals possessing up
to an ounce of marijuana.

The initiative,  House bill No. 4468, is titled "An Act Establishing
a Sensible Marijuana Policy  for the Commonwealth."

According to Whitney A. Taylor, the CSMP campaign  manager, "by
creating a civil penalty system for possession of up to an ounce of
marijuana, the initiative will greatly reduce the human and financial
costs of  current laws. Massachusetts' taxpayers spend $29.5 million
a year just to arrest  and book these offenders. Even more costly is
the creation of a criminal record  for the approximately 7,500
offenders arrested every year.

Criminal  records are entered into the Criminal Offender Record
Information (CORI)  database and result in lifelong punishment,
potentially making an individual  ineligible for student loans,
creating barriers to employment, and barring  individuals from many
housing opportunities, Taylor said.

Sen. Thomas  McGee, and Representatives Robert Fennell and Steve
Walsh, all Lynn Democrats,  are members of the joint committee.

The 1 p.m. hearing at the State House  marks the third hurdle in the
ballot initiative process: The legislature has  until May 6 to pass
the initiative and send it to the governor, draft its own  version to
place on the ballot, or take no action and allow CSMP to continue the
initiative process, Taylor said.

The CSMP has lined up several panelists  for the hearing to offer
support for the initiative. Among them are Sen. Pat  Jehlen (D-2nd
Middlesex), sponsor of original legislation upon which the CSMP
initiative is based; Thomas Kiley of the law firm Cosgrove, Eisenberg
&  Kiley, former Massachusetts deputy attorney general and the lawyer
who drafted  the CSMP initiative; Jeffrey Miron, a Harvard University
economics professor and  author of "The Effect of Marijuana
Decriminalization on the Budgets of  Massachusetts Governments"; and
Jack Cole from Law Enforcement Against  Prohibition, former undercover
narcotics officer and an original signer of the  initiative.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Derek