VOTE NO ON QUESTION 2

On Nov. 4 Massachusetts voters will be asked to choose whether they
want our state, our communities and our families to be the testing
ground for what The Economist magazine has called the most radical
marijuana ballot initiative in the country.

Voters will choose between our current laws or the radical agenda of
national marijuana proponents whose end goal is legalization of the
drug.

Voters will choose between a steadily declining rate of marijuana use
among teenagers in Massachusetts or sending the message to our young
people that drug use is safe and acceptable.

Passage of Question 2 will decriminalize marijuana use and turn
possession of an ounce or less of marijuana into a fine similar to one
you'd get for a traffic violation. And for kids under the age of 21,
the penalties for marijuana possession will be reduced well below
current penalties for alcohol possession. Drug use and abuse will
increase among children and adults. And Massachusetts communities and
families - not the well-heeled, out-of-state proponents of Question 2
- - will be left to deal with the consequences.

Despite the best efforts of Question 2 backers to paint marijuana as
harmless, the facts are clear.

Kids who smoke marijuana are more likely to do poorly in school, more
likely to require counseling, more likely to engage in violence and -
perhaps most importantly - are more likely to get behind the wheel of
a car high on marijuana. According to MADD, 41 percent of teens are
not concerned about driving high on marijuana - a shocking number
considering drivers who've smoked pot are 10 times more likely to be
injured, or to injure others, in automobile crashes. Marijuana is more
carcinogenic than tobacco and is a major factor in juvenile hospital
admissions. To use marijuana, children have to buy it - putting
themselves at enormous risk.

Call Question 2 the drug dealer protection act. Why? Question 2 will
enable and embolden drug dealers and allow them to carry up to an
ounce of marijuana without the threat of criminal prosecution. Despite
the best efforts of proponents to paint an ounce of marijuana as
something too small to be worth the attention of the police and
courts, the fact is that one ounce of marijuana is worth from $400 to
$600 and represents about 60 individual sales. And where does that
ounce come from? It comes from the pounds of marijuana that
traffickers will bring here and cut up in our neighborhoods once there
is no downside to retailing the drug.

Question 2's supporters argue that existing laws unfairly and harshly
punish those who have been caught with an ounce or less of marijuana.

But it simply isn't true.

In Suffolk and Middlesex counties last year not one person went to
jail for a first-time marijuana offense alone. Of the 371 marijuana
convictions in Suffolk County last year 18 of those ended with a jail
sentence. And those sentences weren't handed down for marijuana
possession - they were handed down for the crimes that so often
accompany marijuana on the streets of our cities: Armed robbery,
assault, rape or burglary.

Statewide, according to the Massachusetts District Attorneys
Association, the numbers are similar: of the 174 people sent to jail
in 2006 for marijuana there was not one case where that possession
charge was a first offense. Instead, those sentenced to prison were
guilty of prior convictions, had violated parole or probation or were
convicted in tandem of another, more serious crime.

As for simple possession: Carrying an ounce or less of marijuana in
Massachusetts means probation for six months. If you don't get
arrested again during that period, the criminal record is wiped clean
and the CORI record is sealed and inactive. Those are the facts.

What about claims that our current drug laws are unfairly limiting
access to student loans for first-time offenders? Again, not true.
Only a conviction leads to a temporary one-year suspension of federal
loans. And in Massachusetts judges and prosecutors are required to
place first-time offenders on probation and wipe their records clean
after six months.

Passage of Question 2 will come at an incredible social and economic
cost to all of us. Drug use will cost America $258 billion just this
year. Here in Massachusetts, we can count on increased health costs,
traffic injuries and fatalities, increased law enforcement costs, lost
productivity, lowered workplace safety, and the heavy toll of
addiction on communities and families.

Please join me in voting no on Question 2.

Michael O'Keefe District Attorney Cape & Islands District

Barnstable