The Drug Debate

BALLOT QUESTION TO MEASURE OPINION ON MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION

The legalization of marijuana is a highly controversial issue that
sparks passionate arguments whenever it is raised.

Thanks to the efforts of the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition
(Mass Cann) and its fellow activists, the drug debate will once again
be brought to the forefront in Massachusetts.

Mass Cann, which is the state's chapter of the National Organization
for the Reformation of Marijuana Laws (NORML), teamed up with several
college chapters of NORML and the Drug Policy Forum of Massachusetts
(DPFMA) to petition for the placement of Public Policy Questions
(PPQs) on the upcoming November election ballot in multiple districts
across the state - including many Worcester districts.

The question to voters is twofold: should the state
representative/senator from the polled districts vote in favor of
legislation that would allow the state to regulate the taxation,
cultivation and sale of marijuana to adults? And should the
representative vote in favor of legislation that would allow patients
to obtain permission from their physician to grow and possess
marijuana for medical use?

The organizations backing this ballot question hope to use the
answers that they receive from voters to further the cause of
marijuana legalization and to prove to reticent state officials that
the citizens of Massachusetts also support such an action.

According to a September 29 article on stopthedrugwar.org, answers to
PPQs represent nonbinding votes that indicate to legislators what
sentiments voters hold on a particular issue.

Utilizing this function, Mass Cann and its affiliates have focused
their attentions specifically on areas that harbor known pockets of
resistance. Those pockets of resistance, according to Steven Epstein,
one of Mass Cann' s founders and its treasurer, include the 15th
Suffolk House, the Middlesex Norfolk Senate, the 2nd and 3rd Plymouth
House, the 7th and 8th Essex, the 3rd Middlesex, the 13th Norfolk,
and the 13th and 18th Worcester districts. These districts were
chosen because they presented the opportunity to get the signatures
needed in one day, in some cases had activists on the ground willing
to do the legwork, and also represent contested seats in most cases.
For example, they chose the 15th Suffolk House District because that
seat is held by Jeffrey Sanchez, says Epstein. Sanchez is chair of
the Public Health Committee that killed, for the ninth legislative
session in a row, legislation that would make Massachusetts' existing
medical marijuana law, which requires a federally approved source,
effective by allowing patients to possess and grow marijuana for
medical purposes and provide for caregivers, he explains.

The Middlesex Norfolk Senate District, an area represented by Cynthia
Creem, is another key district.

According to Epstein, Creem will "have to pass upon any legalization
proposal" due to her standing as chair of the Judiciary Committee.

Epstein indicates that three more districts, the 1st and 2nd
Worcester and the 2nd Franklin, would have also been presented with
questions if the person collecting signatures in those areas, Steven
Drury, had not been arrested for trespassing when Gardner Stop & Shop
Assistant manager Scott Dill called the authorities.

Mass Cann and the rest of the organizations supporting the PPQs hope
that by polling these areas of the state they can engage further
discussion of the legalization issue among citizens and candidates
statewide, obtain a mega poll to show state politicians what voters
believe is the best policy, and persuade representatives to heed the people.

"They [state politicians] ignored the people on decriminalization
questions run from 2000 to 2006, which proved by November 2004 that
without a doubt 63 percent plus of the people wanted marijuana
possession decriminalized," states Epstein. "Had they heeded the will
of the people in 2005, approximately 12,000 fewer residents of
Massachusetts would have a criminal record for one and only one
offense, possessing marijuana."