"State pushes forward to legalize marijuana" by Joshua Miller, Globe Staff March 23, 2015
Beacon Hill legislators are working on a marijuana legalization proposal, in part as an effort to short-circuit an expected 2016 ballot push.
Yeah, they don't dare let voters decide anything around here.
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.
No, because they never get it right, they only seem to make problems worse.
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.
Actually, from what I've read in the Boston Globe, it's been a failure. Businesses hate them, and it has really turned Colorado into a dump.
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.
I'm sorry, what were you saying?
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.
Yeah, can you imagine all the addicts that would be created?
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.
I will be voting against it.
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.
Stop clouding the debate with facts and rational thinking!
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.
That's funny!
“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.
We voted in medical three years ago and there are still no clinics open yet. How long do you think they will hold the joint here?
--more--"
Related: Marijuana Monday
Yes, I know what day it is.
UPDATE: Suffolk DA slams top judge over drug sentences
NDU:
The Globe must be smoking something because they forgot to put it on the website.
"DeLeo says it would be ‘very difficult’ to support marijuana legalization" by Joshua Miller, Globe Staff March 24, 2015
Speaker Robert A. DeLeo said Tuesday it would be “very difficult” for him to support legislation legalizing marijuana for adult recreational use.
The powerful legislative leader’s comments instantly dimmed the prospects of a bill that would legalize, regulate, and tax recreational use of marijuana in Massachusetts.
I knew it would be snuffed out as soon as the match was lit. You would have to be stoned to think they would do this. Now allowing the overprescription and misuse of pharmaceutical poisons for young and elderly? That would be okay because of the lobbyists lining their pockets.
Some lawmakers are pushing that bill in part to bypass an expected legalization question on the 2016 ballot. They want to have the final say on the law, and intend to craft it with lots of public input, rather than advocates writing it unilaterally.
But if the speaker is not keen on a bill, it’s likely to die long before it gets close to becoming law.
And they called it a liberal democracy.
And DeLeo does not seem keen to back a legalization bill.
“It would be very difficult considering I think I’d feel somewhat hypocritical right now if I’m, on the one hand, fighting what I can in terms of drug abuse, to be supporting that as well,” he told reporters at the State House.
Of course, this is the same guy who slammed casinos through the state. I mean, hey, there are addictions and then there are addictions. Nothing hypocritical about it. Always gotta con$ider the intere$ts at $take and jwhose $erved.
DeLeo said he expects a marijuana legalization question to make the 2016 ballot, but said the Legislature could well amend language that voters might pass into law.
In other words, it DOESN'T MATTER WHAT WE VOTE FOR!
Legislators are working on a legalization proposal, in part as a way to short-circuit an expected 2016 ballot push.
“If there were some problems the way it was written, I wouldn’t hesitate, probably, to have the Legislature take a second look and make any necessary changes that we felt had to be made,” DeLeo said.
My lid just blew!!
“Now, of course I give the weight of the vote great consideration, but on the other hand, I would consider this to be such a concern for folks, that I think we would have an obligation — public safety obligation — to take a look at it even after it was passed,” he added.
Some advocates shrugged off DeLeo’s comments about legalization legislation.
******************
Massachusetts voters gave the green light to measures that decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana in 2008 and allowed its use for medical purposes in 2012. But the state has struggled to implement the medical marijuana law. And that was meant for sick people who are suffering. So much for that vaunted liberal compassion that makes us better than all other states.
Of course, as far as I can tell the only issue where the state is liberal is gay marriage. Other than that, it's worse than those yucky conservatives. Wealth inequality at all-time highs here, same with poverty. The whole liberal blue stuff is nothing but bull$hit, confusion for the masses.
Many political analysts believe activists will collect the tens of thousands of signatures needed to put a question legalizing the drug for recreational use on the ballot. They also believe it will pass.
I won't be signing one, no way! I think I'll even add a snide editorial comment if asked.
Governor Charlie Baker, Attorney General Maura Healey, and Mayor Martin J. Walsh of Boston all oppose legalizing marijuana for recreational use, something four states and the District of Columbia have approved so far.
Many officials opposed to marijuana legalization cite concerns about it being a gateway drug and speak about the scourge of opioid addiction in Massachusetts.
DeLeo, too, appeared to reference the state’s opioid problems. “Just listening to the number of overdoses that have occurred, continuing to increase in every part of the Commonwealth. So I say, as we’re standing here right now, I’m not sure if ... I could be supportive of that legislation,” he said.
Legalization supporters reject the connection between the opioid crisis and marijuana legalization.
Matt Simon, New England political director for the Marijuana Policy Project, a national advocacy group that backs a 2016 ballot question, said that marijuana is not going to make the opioid problem worse and regulating marijuana could actually help with that problem by separating the marijuana market from the heroin market.
Representative David M. Rogers, a Cambridge Democrat and a lead sponsor of the legalization bill, had a more philosophical take on DeLeo’s comments.
“I fully respect the speaker’s position,” he said. “The reason I filed it is to foster a constructive public dialog, so I think the hearing process will enable that to happen.”
He has to respect the speaker; otherwise, he'll be punished by the lord of that branch's fiefdom.
Regardless of whether legalization passes into law or not through the legislative process, he said, “there’s great value in having a discussion.”
He means di$cu$$ion, and just say no to drugs.
Any questions?
--more--"
Yeah, it's not like you would want to give them a tax break for creating jobs or anything.
And about those jobs:
