Pubdate: Mon, 23 Mar 2015
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2015 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Joshua Miller

STATE PUSHES FORWARD TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA

Beacon Hill legislators are working on a marijuana legalization 
proposal, in part as an effort to short-circuit an expected 2016 ballot push.

Advocates have long planned an initiative petition to legalize the 
recreational use of the drug for adults, and political analysts have 
expected that measure to pass in the next presidential election year.

But some lawmakers are balking at the prospect of activists 
unilaterally writing a law that would have such a profound effect on 
the state. The legislators would rather write the proposed law 
themselves, allow for lots of public input, and have final say on the 
scope and details.

"Wouldn't it be a good idea for the Legislature to look at it ahead 
of time, listen to every point of view, anticipate every problem that 
we could, and try to do it right?" said Senator Patricia D. Jehlen, 
Democrat of Somerville and a lead sponsor of a bill to legalize, tax, 
and regulate recreational use of marijuana.

Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg, who said he doesn't have a 
strong opinion on legalization and backs a Senate panel researching 
the issue, added, "I think it's better, if we're going to do this, to 
do it in the Legislature than on the ballot." Rosenberg, who is not 
listed as a cosponsor, later continued, "I believe if the Legislature 
doesn't act on it, it will be done on the ballot."

Opposition from top officials could doom a legislative push. Governor 
Charlie Baker, Attorney General Maura Healey, and Mayor Martin J. 
Walsh of Boston all oppose legalizing marijuana for recreational use.

But that is not stopping legislators from trying.

Nor is the legislative push slowing efforts of multiple groups 
working to give voters a direct say on legalization for recreational 
use, which four states and the District of Columbia have approved so far.

"Colorado has demonstrated that regulating marijuana works," said 
Mason Tvert of the Marijuana Policy Project, a national group that 
was deeply involved in the successful 2012 campaign for legalization 
there and is backing one of two official committees working toward a 
ballot question here.

He said the success of regulation instead of prohibition is something 
Massachusetts "voters are going to take into consideration."

Previous popular votes indicate Massachusetts voters are open-minded 
on marijuana-related issues. Strong majorities approved measures that 
decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana in 2008 and 
allowed its use for medical purposes in 2012. In 2016, political 
analysts of all stripes expect a yet-undetermined legalization 
measure to probably garner the tens of thousands of signatures to get 
on the ballot and enough votes to pass into law.

Looming over the discussion of recreational marijuana is the state's 
troubled implementation of the voter-approved medical marijuana law. 
Massachusetts has struggled in its licensing of medical marijuana 
dispensaries, with the process prompting more than two dozen lawsuits 
against the health department. And although the measure became law 
following a November 2012 vote, no dispensaries have yet opened.

Jehlen, the Somerville Democrat, said lawmakers behind the 
legalization bill hope to avoid a repeat of the state's experience 
with medical marijuana. She indicated a "thoughtful and careful" 
legislative process, including committee hearings and public input, 
would help make a better law than a narrow group of activists would write.

"I think it's time we got on with it and legalized marijuana," said 
Senator William N. Brownsberger, a Belmont Democrat, committee 
chairman, former prosecutor, and one of more than a dozen cosponsors 
of the bill. "There are too many ways for people to get in trouble in 
this state, and it's time to get rid of one of them."

But not all legislators feel the same way.

Representative Bradley H. Jones Jr., the House Republican leader, 
said he opposes legalization by ballot or bill. He said he 
understands the legislative impulse to fear a ballot question "not 
dotting all the i's or crossing all the t's."

But, he said, "I just don't understand how we can be in this headlong 
rush to legalize when we're dealing with the opioid crisis in the state."

Senator John F. Keenan, Democrat of Quincy, said he is opposed to the 
legalization of marijuana for recreational use and it would be a good 
idea for Massachusetts to wait for more long-term data from states 
that have legalized the drug - Colorado, Washington, Alaska, and Oregon.

"There are," he said, "so many unanswered questions."

Specifically, Keenan cited safety issues such as people driving under 
the influence, long-term health effects of inhaling or ingesting 
marijuana, and concerns about addiction.

His worries are similar to those expressed by the state's chief executive.

Baker has said he is "going to always be opposed to legalizing" 
recreational use of the drug, which remains illegal under federal 
law. The governor, who has made addressing the state's opioid 
epidemic a top goal, underscored his position on marijuana 
legalization again last week, pointing to concerns from people in the 
"addiction community" about its being a gateway drug and worry about 
the effect it has on teenagers and young adults.

Asked whether he would veto a marijuana legalization bill if it 
reached his desk, Baker paused for a few seconds before saying he 
hates to speak to hypothetical situations, but "conceptually" he is 
opposed to legalization.

The attorney general, who also is focusing on the scourge of opioid 
overdoses, is opposed to "the full legalization of marijuana in 
Massachusetts," a Healey spokesman said.

And the state's district attorneys expect to "oppose the legalization 
of marijuana in Massachusetts" and expect to join "education and 
health care experts in doing so," said a spokesman for Suffolk 
District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, president of the Massachusetts 
District Attorneys Association.

So will Boston's mayor, who said recently the push to legalize 
marijuana is a "big mistake," alluding to concerns about its being a 
gateway drug, and pointing to what he said are struggles with 
legalization in Colorado.

A spokeswoman for Walsh added in an e-mail that the mayor has 
indicated he would campaign against a ballot question that would 
legalize recreational marijuana.

Advocates reject the link between the opioid crisis and marijuana legalization.

Matt Simon, New England political director for the Marijuana Policy 
Project, said many are very legitimately concerned about opioid 
addiction and heroin use, "but people have to realize that marijuana 
is not heroin. No one has died of a marijuana overdose." He said 
marijuana is objectively safer than alcohol, prohibition isn't a good 
policy for either, and it's better to have a regulated marijuana 
market than a black market.

The chairman of one of the ballot question committees pushing for 
legalization, Northampton lawyer Dick Evans, said he hopes Beacon 
Hill moves on the legalization bill, which he helped write, but he is 
not holding his breath.

"I've been an advocate for marijuana reform for close to 40 years," 
he said. "And if there is anything I have learned during that time, 
it is what politicians want when it comes to marijuana: They want to 
change the subject."

Come 2016, they might not have a choice.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom