Pubdate: Fri, 10 Jan 2014
Source: Lowell Sun (MA)
Copyright: 2014 MediaNews Group, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.lowellsun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/852
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v14/n030/a03.html
Author: Steven S. Epstein

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.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom