PRO-POT BACKERS AIM HIGH

Out-of-State Funds Fuel Mass. Effort

Activists who want joints sold over the counter like cigarettes are
bankrolling a Bay State pot referendum backers claim will simply clear
the air of piddling marijuana cases choking the court system.

The Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy, which placed Question 2
on the November ballot, collected from the Marijuana Policy Project
$200,000, about 30 percent of its total. Indeed, about 90 percent of
the $635,000 the committee has raised comes from people who live out
of state.

On its Web site, the marijuana project's mission statement states
clearly: "Adults who use marijuana should be able to obtain it from
legally regulated establishments and not from illegal drug dealers."

Woody Kaplan, a Hub real estate developer and self-styled
"provocateur" who donated $10,000 to the state ballot initiative, also
backs the call for legal pot sales.

"I believe taxing and regulating is a much better way than what the
ballot question proposes," said Kaplan, who held a $250-a-head
fundraiser for the Marijuana Policy Prject earlier this month.

"This is government making a choice that something that is clearly
destructive - alcohol - is OK, but somebody smoking marijuana isn't,"
Kaplan told the Herald.

Daniel R. Lewis, 62, of Coral Gables, Fla. - the scion of the
Progressive Insurance fortune and a self-confessed former toker - also
would like to see grass legalized and regulated.

"I think it's a relatively harmless drug, as compared to alcohol,"
said Lewis, who gave $5,000 to the pot project.

The group also counts among its backers actor Jack Black, talk show
host Bill Maher and former wrestler and Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura,
and uses Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion for its lavish
fund-raisers.

If passed, the ballot initiative would make having an ounce or less of
marijuana a civil offense punishable by a $100 fine. Minors' parents
would be notified, and the kids would have to complete a drug
awareness program.

Middlesex County District Attorney Gerard Leone slammed the pot
activists as out of touch and predicted the measure would be a gateway
to weaker drug laws.

"Question 2 will allow a foot in the door to people with a misguided,
radical agenda," Leone said.

Whitney Taylor, campaign manager, pointed to a Suffolk University poll
that showed 72 percent of voters support the ballot question.

"They are not out of the mainstream," Taylor said. "They are the
mainstream."

Kaplan, a 66-year-old board member of the Godless America PAC, which
"mobilizes nonbelievers for political activism," said he's heard it
all before.

"Same-sex opponents said if you allow same-sex marriage, people would
marry dogs," Kaplan said. "Yeh, right. It's just fear tactics, and
it's absurd."