LEGALIZING MARIJUANA IS AN INEVITABLE QUESTION

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.