HOW WEED WAS DECRIMINALIZED

The Nov. 4 vote to decriminalize marijuana possession says as much
about ballot referendums as it does about drugs. According to
material posted on the Web site of the state Office of Campaign and
Political Finance, the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy (OCPF)
raised over $1.2 million in support of Question 2. Over $1 million of
that, or just over 83 percent, came from outside Massachusetts. The
opponents of Question 2, the Coalition for Safe Streets, a group
organized largely by the district attorneys, raised just over
$60,000, or about 5 percent of what the proponents raised.

Why the disparity? Again, the OCPF Web site tells the story. Most of
the proponents' donations came from George Soros, a New York City
entrepreneur who personally donated $400,000, along with several
out-of-state pro-marijuana groups whose stated mission is to
decriminalize marijuana nationally.

One particularly disturbing aspect of the proponents' campaign was a
series of 30-second television ads which featured two retired police
officers. In each case, photos of the former officers wearing police
uniforms were shown as the men touted the value of civil penalties.
One ad promised that the new law would free up officers to go after
violent criminals and that a 'yes' vote would "make our communities
safer." Both claims are erroneous and, by the way, the OCPF Web site
indicates that the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy paid the
officer $4,000 for this 30-second ad.

So now we are left with a law that makes no sense. Civil penalties
will not save the state $30 million dollars each year in criminal
justice costs like the proponents promised. In fact, it will cost the
state money to develop and administer a drug awareness program
mandated by Question 2, and to pay the salaries of the program's
instructors. And the new law does not decriminalize only small
amounts of pot - it decriminalizes up to an ounce of marijuana or
hashish. Non-drug users probably don't realize that an ounce of
marijuana generates about 50 joints and sells for about $500.

The proponents led the public to believe that people's lives had been
ruined because convicted marijuana users were left with a drug
conviction on their record. But under the old law, a person caught
for the first time with marijuana was placed on probation for six
months, then the case was dismissed and the record sealed.

CORI files accessible to the public contain only information on
convictions, so these records were not revealed. What most people
don't understand is that the CORI law is actually designed to protect
criminal records. Ironically, the new law moves marijuana out of the
arena of criminal records and into the civil. There are no
protections pertaining to the disclosure of civil records by criminal
justice agencies. Under the old law, if a newspaper were to ask a
police department for a list of all the people charged with marijuana
possession the previous year, the police department would have been
legally prohibited from disclosing it. Once Question 2 goes into
effect, a police department will be required to disclose such
information because it will become a public record under Massachusetts law.

And contrary to the myths promoted by the Committee for Sensible
Marijuana Policy, marijuana arrests don't prevent students from
getting college loans for life and marijuana smokers don't serve jail
time in Massachusetts.

When the new law takes effect, the police will still be able to
arrest minors caught with alcohol, but not if they're carrying $500
worth of marijuana. A person under 21 who is convicted of
transporting alcohol will still lose his license for 90 days, but a
minor who transports marijuana or hashish will not lose it. Getting
caught with an open beer in a vehicle carries a $500 fine, but
getting caught with marijuana or hash will carry a fine of only $100.
High school teachers are already telling us that students are talking
about how much easier it will be to smoke weed.

The system that brought about this change in our drug laws is flawed
and the public was hoodwinked. Now law enforcement is left to deal
with this mess.