Pubdate: Mon, 16 Feb 2015
Source: Boston Herald (MA)
Copyright: 2015 The Boston Herald, Inc
Contact:  http://news.bostonherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/53
Note: Prints only very short LTEs.
Author: Julia Purdy
Note: Julia Purdy is a freelance writer residing in the Rutland, Vt., area.

POT'S JUST ONE TOKE OVER THE LINE

What if Vermont legalized recreational marijuana? A report from the 
Rand Corp., commissioned by Gov. Peter Shumlin - in anticipation of 
legislative action - addresses that question, including an assessment 
of the potential for the state to make some money off the weed.

Rand looked at the likelihood of Vermont becoming a destination for 
marijuana buyers from out of state.

Here we learn, "There are more than 1 million U.S. current 
(past-month) marijuana users within a two-hour drive of Vermont and 5 
million within 500 miles ... Visitors from surrounding states and 
Canada present an opportunity in terms of tax and fee revenue from 
marijuana sales and complementary goods but a potentially very large 
burden in terms of public nuisance, traffic safety, and enforcement costs."

The report is mum about the potential collateral damage to 
surrounding states, nor does it provide any warning that said states 
might object to such goings-on in their backyards. Clearly, their 
reactions would be out of Vermont's control.

In fact, this conundrum is already the basis for Nebraska and 
Oklahoma v. Colorado, a lawsuit filed in December directly with the 
U.S. Supreme Court. The lawsuit alleges that Colorado's 2012 
recreational marijuana law is creating a cross-border nuisance. It 
asserts that cannabis contraband is spreading to the those 
neighboring plaintiff states and resulting in injury to them by 
"draining their treasuries, and placing stress on their criminal 
justice systems."

"Cross-border nuisance" was addressed in a 1907 lawsuit in which 
Georgia sued to force Tennessee to shut down a copper smelter whose 
airborne toxic fumes endangered the health of Georgia residents. The 
issue was - and is - that states are prohibited by the Constitution 
from subjecting their neighbors to harmful and uncompensated effects 
of those activities.

In a paper published last December entitled "Fear and Loathing in 
Colorado" Chad DeVeaux and Anne Mostad-Jensen, both of Concordia 
University Law School, point out that "Colorado's introduction of 
recreational marijuana into the stream of interstate commerce has 
reawakened this long-dormant body of constitutional law."

One of the hopes of marijuana legalization is that it would make the 
local illegal market wither and die. But it would be naive to assume 
that cannabis products would not leave Vermont as contraband in 
luggage or in private vehicles, feeding the illegal drug trade of the 
neighbor states, potentially taxing their law enforcement, courts, 
and medical services.

Idaho State Police report that most of its drug seizures have been at 
the border with Washington state. So far, Idaho has not launched a 
similar lawsuit against Washington state.

In any case, the term "marijuana tourism" is a euphemism for a 
regional smuggling operation, of which Vermont would be the 
epicenter. It would put neighbor states in a spot they might not want to be in.

That is unless the Massachusetts Legislature decides to get there first.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom