MARIJUANA LAW IN HANDS OF VOTERS

Next month, California voters will consider the biggest change in
drug policy since Congress made marijuana possession a criminal
offense in 1937. Proposition 19, if passed, will not just legalize
marijuana possession, it will empower municipalities to regulate and
tax it. The state Legislature won't be able to stop it. Any community
looking to avoid a property tax hike could open up its own cannabis
revenue stream.

Marijuana would still be against federal law, which would put the
Obama administration in a quandary: Should they send an army of
federal agents to enforce a law state and local police won't, or turn
their backs and let Californians choose their own intoxicants?

That conflict is not without precedent. Back in the 1920s, New York
gave up on Prohibition before the rest of the country. While
manufacturing and distribution of alcohol remained against federal
law, it was legal under New York law. The feds mostly looked the
other way and New Yorkers kept drinking, which is one reason the
Prohibition-era crime wars were waged in Chicago and not New York.

Proposition 19 is no sure thing in California. Its opponents include
the usual - establishment politicians, law enforcement and some
religious groups - and the unexpected. Some entrepreneurs who have
profited from the state's medical marijuana industry oppose it, and
major funding for the opposition campaign is coming from California
beer and liquor distributors. Meanwhile, some Massachusetts voters
will have their own say on the Bay State's marijuana policy. Question
5 on the Nov. 2 ballot in Wayland, Sudbury and Lincoln will ask
voters' opinions on whether the Legislature should consider
legalizing and regulating marijuana like it now regulates liquor.
Similar questions will face voters in several other state House and
Senate districts across the state, including Wellesley, Hudson, Stow,
Newton, Maynard and Medfield. Voters in other districts will be asked
to weigh in on legalizing medical marijuana.

Those questions are all non-binding, of course, and if past history
holds, even the legislators in those districts will ignore the
results. The Massachusetts Legislature has for many years refused to
even discuss marijuana policy. Two years ago, voters took the issue
out of the Legislature's hands, approving the decriminalizing of
marijuana. Question 2 passed with 65 percent of the vote.

If California leads the way, we wouldn't be surprised to see a
binding legalization measure on the Massachusetts ballot in 2012.