GROUP: PUT POT ON BALLOT

Possession of small amounts of marijuana would no longer be a crime
if a reform effort under way in Massachusetts is successful.

A group calling itself the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy
has gathered more than 100,000 signatures to get its proposal on the
2008 ballot. The proposed change would make possession of one ounce
or less of marijuana a civil offense punishable by a $100 fine,
rather than a criminal offense.

Whitney Taylor, campaign manager for the group, said 11 other states
have decriminalized marijuana and there has been no increase in use
in those places.

She said giving a person a criminal record for possession of small
amounts of marijuana is too harsh because that record can prevent
them from getting jobs or college financial aid.

"It's a lifelong penalty," she said.

She also said a study has found that prosecuting minor marijuana
cases costs Massachusetts $24.3 million a year in police and court expenses.

"We are seeing human costs and financial costs," she said.

Similar proposals have been made in the state Legislature over the
years and have never gotten anywhere.

Law enforcement and some child advocacy groups oppose
decriminalization because they say it would send a message that
society condones smoking marijuana or at least does not take it seriously.

A spokesman for Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter said
prosecutors in Massachusetts oppose the measure.

Some critics say they oppose decriminalizing any amount of marijuana,
saying it could send the wrong signal to children.

Michael Mather, a retired police officer and head of the anti-drug
education group DARE-Massachusetts, says easing the marijuana laws is
a bad idea.

"It's not the right thing to do to our youth. Our youth needs to be
strong and not have these drugs inside of them," he said.

He also said marijuana could act as a so-called "gateway drug" to
other, more harmful drugs.

"I'm not saying that everyone who smokes pot will do heroin, but
almost everyone who does heroin didn't start out with heroin," he said.

Surprisingly, some of the toughest criticism of the proposed ballot
question is coming from other activist groups also pushing for the
decriminalization of marijuana.

They point to a portion of the proposed ballot question that would
define possession of marijuana to include finding traces of the drug
"in the urine, blood, saliva, sweat, hair, fingernails, toe nails or
other tissue or fluid of the human body."

"It uses the drug laws to identify marijuana smokers not who are
impaired, but who might have smoked in the past six weeks or so,"
said Keith Stroup, founder of NORML, a national nonprofit group
advocating for the easing of marijuana laws.

"If it makes it to the ballot, a lot of people who would be strong
supporters of decriminalizing marijuana may not be able to support
this fatally flawed language," said Stroup, who was arrested for
smoking a marijuana cigarette at a rally on Boston Common.

The ballot question isn't the only effort underway to ease the
state's drug laws.

A bill working its way through the Statehouse would also
decriminalize possession of an ounce or less of the drug, but set a
higher fine of $250.

The bill has already received a public hearing, but won't come up for
debate and a possible vote until next year.

Bardsley said the wrong message is being sent to children by the
current law because people wealthy enough to afford high-powered
lawyers can get off without a criminal record while the poor cannot.

The group said it has submitted 105,000 signatures to city and town
clerks across the state, well above the 66,000 needed to move the
petition process along.

Once the signatures are certified, the matter goes to the Legislature.

If the Legislature does not pass the measure into law, the group can
collect another 11,000 signatures and put the question on the ballot
in November of next year.