FOUR DISTRICTS VOTE YES ON MARIJUANA BALLOT QUESTIONS

Since 2000, Massachusetts voters have yet to see a ballot question
they dislike on easing restrictions on marijuana, and Tuesday's
election proved no exception in four local state representatives' districts.

Residents approved nonbinding measures urging their legislators to
support medical marijuana in state Rep. Jennifer Callahan's district
and in the district occupied until earlier this year by Rep. Richard
Ross.

Voters backed measures calling for state Rep. Kate Hogan, D-Stow, and
Tom Conroy, D-Wayland, to support marijuana's full legalization,
regulation and taxation.

Advocates have sponsored such measures in legislative districts since
2000, including 18 this year. To date, voters have approved all 63
public policy questions, according to the advocacy groups.

The Drug Policy Forum of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Cannabis
Reform Coalition, the state chapter of the National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana Laws, put up this year's measures.

Scott Mortimer, a volunteer for the Drug Policy Forum, said the ballot
questions demonstrate public support for reforming marijuana laws and
serve as a grassroots organizing and public education tool.

"We're polling a giant portion of the population," said Bill Downing,
director of MassCann. "We're not calling them on the phone and asking
them questions - they're actually going into a ballot box and voting."

Mortimer's group backs legislation to allow medical patients to grow,
possess and buy marijuana if recommended by a doctor. Downing's
organization supports a bill to legalize and allow state regulation
and taxing of marijuana production, sales and distribution.

But after years of inaction on both measures, Downing said, a
coalition of marijuana reform groups are weighing their next step.
District ballot questions can play a role in trying to secure money
needed to run a statewide ballot campaign for legalizing marijuana,
either for medical reasons or in general.

"One of the major purposes of running these public policy questions is
to have the most accurate public polling that we can have," Downing
said. "The reason for that is so that we can take those numbers to
moneyed sources and say, look...if you want to win, you can do it here
in Massachusetts."

The groups see potentially strong support for such a campaign after
state voters strongly backed a 2008 ballot question that made
possession of less than an ounce of marijuana a civil offense, rather
than a criminal one.

Reform advocates generally argue that regulating and taxing marijuana
would bring in revenue, stem illegal drug trade and violence, and stop
punishing otherwise law-abiding users.

Massachusetts law enforcement groups said they had not taken positions
on specific ballot questions, which varied by legislative district,
but have major concerns with legalization in general.

Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone called the idea of outright
legalization "extremely alarming" and said marijuana users are more
likely to be hurt or injure others in car crashes.

"With young people using and abusing alcohol and other legal drugs at
troubling rates, to add another element to this already dangerous
equation would be extremely detrimental, irresponsible and hazardous
to our community as a whole," Leone said in a written statement.

But Leone said he is open to medical marijuana if there is clear
evidence its benefits cannot be obtained any other way, and if proper
regulation ensures the system is not abused.

Local voters favored legalization measures by wide
margins.

In the 18th Worcester District, where Republican Ryan Fattman defeated
Callahan this week, 62 percent of voters approved the medical
marijuana measure. The district includes Bellingham, Blackstone and
Uxbridge.

Sixty percent of voters favored the same question in the 9th Norfolk
District, which includes Precinct 1 in Millis.

In the 13th Middlesex District, 62 percent of voters supported a
ballot question on legalizing, regulating and taxing marijuana.
Conroy's district includes Sudbury and Wayland.

Hudson voters were among the 54 percent who approved a similar
legalization question in the 3rd Middlesex District, which Hogan serves.