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MASS.  SHOULD GIVE ADULTS RIGHT TO GROW, SMOKE POT

The concerns for society and the children expressed in "Colorado's new high not for Massachusetts" editorial ( The Sun, Jan.  5 ) ignores two indisputable facts: no matter marijuana's legal status, adults and kids who want it will find a way to get it from those willing to supply it; and, according to surveys of Massachusetts High School students, a majority never try it.  The first fact implicates the fundamental issue of government: the "consent of the governed." The second, the claim children have a latent desire to use marijuana, is a delusion.  Yet it is true Massachusetts should not copy Colorado's way of ending a prohibition that never should have been.  Instead, the Bay State should allow adults to engage in the cultivation, commerce and consumption of marijuana as they may with any other herb.  Require adults take steps to prevent access to growing plants and marijuana by children and punish distribution to minors with significant jail time and/or fine.  Such a policy would seek our shared goal of suppressing access to marijuana by children in a constitutionally proper and fiscally responsible manner.

STEVEN S.  EPSTEIN Georgetown

Editor's note: Attorney Steven S.  Epstein helped establish the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition in 1989, and more recently helped establish Bay State Repeal, a state ballot question committee dedicated to the repeal of prohibition in 2016.