WESTERN MASS. LEGISLATORS FILE MARIJUANA REFORM BILLS

In the November election, voters in a number of Massachusetts
districts sent a message that they're ready to see dramatic changes
in the commonwealth's marijuana laws.

In nine legislative districts around the state (including the 1st
Franklin and 3rd Hampshire districts), a majority of voters approved
public policy questions calling for marijuana to be taxed and
regulated by the government, in the same way alcohol is. In addition,
voters in nine districts (including, locally, the 1st Hampden)
approved public policy questions calling for medical marijuana to be
available to patients on a doctor's recommendation.

While public policy questions are non-binding, they are an important
way for constituents to voice their priorities to their
representatives; indeed, the wording of PPQs specifically asks
voters, "Shall the state representative from this district be
instructed to vote in favor of" whatever policy is being suggested.

While legislators don't have to follow that directive, they certainly
can't deny that voters have made their wishes clear.

And now it appears that legislators may, indeed, have the opportunity
to turn into law the very measures voters supported on the November
ballot. State Rep. Ellen Story, a Democrat who represents the 3rd
Hampshire district, has filed a bill called the "Cannabis Regulation
and Taxation Act." The proposed law would legalize possession and
cultivation of marijuana for personal use by adults, and would create
a state Cannabis Control Authority to regulate its legal sale and taxation.

The bill has its genesis in earlier efforts by Northampton attorney
Dick Evans, a longtime advocate for marijuana policy reform who has
previously brought the proposal to the Legislature under a law that
allows citizens to file bills without a legislator's sponsorship.

In addition, state Sen. Stan Rosenberg (a Democrat from the
Hampshire-Franklin district) and Rep. Frank Smizik, a Brookline
Democrat, have filed in their respective chambers bills to legalize
and regulate the medical use of marijuana with the approval of a physician.

It remains to be seen, of course, if either bill ever makes it to the
floor for a vote. Evans' previous legalization bills have died
without reaching a vote, as have earlier medical marijuana bills
filed by Smizik.

But advocates hope the proposals are ideas whose time has come. "As
the Commonwealth faces a two-billion-dollar budget deficit, the
legislature cannot afford to continue the unjust, unwise and
unreasonable prohibition of cannabis to adults, nor ignore the
savings, revenue and jobs that would come from regulating and taxing
the commercial cannabis industry, including hemp," Steven Epstein, a
spokesman for marijuana reform group MassCann, said in a statement
about Story's bill. "Massachusetts should lead the nation to finally
ending 'reefer madness.'