ACTIVISTS PUSH MARIJUANA REFERENDUMS

According to federal government estimates, about 335,000 adults in
Massachusetts smoked marijuana during the past month.

And in preparation for the Nov 7. election, some have ''come out of the
closet'' to petition publicly in three state legislative districts for
measures seeking decriminalization of the drug.

In what supporters say marks the emergence of a new marijuana legalization
effort here, residents in 11 communities will vote on initiatives urging
their legislators to make possession of an ounce or less of marijuana a
civil, rather than criminal offense.

Though the measures are nonbinding, proponents say they will force
lawmakers to recognize the widespread sentiment that drug laws should be
liberalized.

''We hope it gives evidence to Massachusetts politicians that there's
popular support for the reform of these laws,'' said Bill Downing,
president of Mass-CANN, the state affiliate of the National Organization
for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

The districts include those of Senator Charles Shannon, Democrat of
Somerville; Representative Brad Hill, Republican of Ipswich; and
Representative John Stasik, Democrat of Framingham.

The initiative also proposes that those under 18 caught smoking marijuana
should be held by police until a parent arrives, rather than arrested.

There is no organized opposition to the measure, but many dismiss it as
unlikely to pass, and a bad message to send to children.

Karen Langlais, an eighth-grade teacher in Ipswich and mother of teenagers,
said she can't imagine Question 9 being approved.

''Most parents are educated voters who, because of the DARE program, and
other initiatives have been educated about the dangers of marijuana,''
Langlais said. ''We are working to get cigarettes and alcohol away from
kids, so why turn around in the face of all of that hard work and then
decriminalize marijuana.''

Hill said he hopes voters reject the measure and spare him an awkward dilemma.

''I would have to consider it if it's passed by an overwhelming majority,''
said Hill, who represents 45,000 people. ''But philosphically, I am against
this. It's a subject that has come up quite a few times and now we can get
a true sense of how people really feel about marijuana.''

Meanwhile, Barnstable voters will cast ballots on whether marijuana should
be legalized for medical purposes.

Energized by the national movement to relax marijuana laws, activists
collected signatures in Massachusetts this year to put a question on
decriminalizing the drug on the state-wide ballot, but only collected
36,000 - about half the signatures needed.

So Maddy Webster, a 54-year-old computer programmer, brought the initiative
to the Somerville state Senate district by collecting 1,200 outside of
supermarkets and cafes in her area.

Webster, whose boyfriend used marijuana to ease his pain before he died of
cancer a few years ago, said most people walked right by her petition -
until they heard the cause.

''Then they'd come back,'' she said. ''I have had police officers sign it.
I had people pushing baby carriages.''

Jim Pillsbury, the activist behind the Framingham initiative, explains his
cause in nearly identical terms. He was a 32-year-old engineer and father,
serving in his local Parent Teachers Association, when he was arrested for
growing marijuana in 1985.

''It was terrible,'' he said. ''Then I just thought the best thing would be
to come out of the closet and say, `Hey, I smoke pot, and I'm not going to
ashamed of it for anybody.'''

Today, Pillsbury eats hemp granola cereal, wears hemp shirts and hangs
framed hemp leaves around his living room. And, of course, he said, he
smokes it.

But Pillsbury claims to be the public face for thousands who are far more
mainstream: people like David Monte, a Somerville patrolman who said he
voted for the initiative by absentee ballot yesterday.

''I believe a lot of court time is wasted on possession of marijuana,''
said Monte, who said he was speaking only as a voter, not on behalf of the
police department. ''I think it takes up a lot of bureaucracy, when the
money could be better spent in other ways.''