USE OF MARIJUANA A HOT TOPIC, WITH BALLOT QUESTION POSSIBLE

The debate over marijuana is a cloudy one.

It's an illegal drug ... used by presidents.

Heads get high ... cancer patients get hungry.

Most pot smokers don't try heroin ... most heroin addicts tried pot first.

One thing's for certain: This debate is coming to a water cooler near you.

The people behind the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy, a
Boston-based advocacy group, have cleared the first hurdle to reduce
the state's penalty for minor pot possession from a misdemeanor to a
civil infraction.

In their world, walking down North Street with an ounce of marijuana
in your jeans - a sandwich bag full of pot in your pocket - is the
same as speeding on the Turnpike.

The committee secured enough signatures (81,758) on a petition this
past fall to pass it on to state legislators. If politicians don't
make it a law this spring - which they can do but which rarely
happens - the campaign will need 11,099 additional signatures by July
9 to push the referendum onto the November ballot. Then, the voters
of Massachusetts would decide.

The committee's martyrs are youths who get criminal records attached
to their names for life and the $24.3 million it says is wasted by
police each year in busting and booking marijuana offenders.

Berkshire law-enforcement officials are against the campaign and say
that reducing the penalties would foster a blase attitude toward the
drug, one that would tempt more people -- especially children -- to try it.

The state issue also has a local twist: The chairwoman for the
marijuana committee, Whitney Taylor, a 37-year-old Boston resident,
served as campaign director for Judith Knight, the Great Barrington
attorney who lost the 2006 Berkshire County district attorney's race
to David F. Capeless.

The focal point of that race was the arrests of 19 teens and
twentysomethings who were charged during a 2004 drug sting in the
Taconic Lumber parking lot in Great Barrington.

Taylor also was an active member of Concerned Citizens for
Appropriate Justice, the group that galvanized after the arrests and
lobbied Capeless for lenient prosecution during the trials.

A 16-year-veteran of championing drug reform from California to
Maryland, Taylor said Massachusetts voters -- not outdated laws --
should determine the fate of the marijuana debate.

"There's support for this from all walks of life," she said. "The
fact is there would be both a human savings and a fiscal savings.
It's just smart public policy."

Taylor backs up her claim of support with numbers. More than 81,000
registered Massachusetts voters -- nearly 20 percent more than the
required 66,593 -- signed a petition this past fall to move the
ballot question ahead. In all, signatures were collected in 350 of
the state's 351 towns and cities.

Locally, the number of signatures included 831 in Pittsfield, 482 in
North Adams, 161 in Dalton, and four in Alford.

State Rep. William "Smitty" Pignatelli, D-Lenox, said he is strongly
opposed to the idea of decreasing marijuana penalties.

"I believe it would send the wrong message to society," Pignatelli
said. "If you don't want a criminal record, then don't break the law
- -- it's that simple. That's the lesson kids need to understand --
they're jeopardizing financial assistance for higher education."

Pignatelli said he is against mandatory sentences for drug sales near
a school zone and is "sympathetic to kids who make stupid mistakes."
But he said that decriminalizing marijuana would create "an air of
leniency" toward drugs.

"I don't think the attitude of society has changed toward this drug,"
he said. "I would be surprised if the general populace voted this
through. I'm not a big fan of government by referendum anyway, but I
just hope that people understand what yes and no mean."

The current penalties for possession of an ounce or less of marijuana
are a $500 fine and up to six months in jail. Individuals are
arrested and booked, and convicted offenders are entered in the
state's Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) system.

Under the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy's proposed law
change, those caught with an ounce or less would have their marijuana
confiscated, be handed a ticket and face only a $100 fine. Offenders
under age 18 would have to enter a drug-awareness program.

Taylor said the laws against selling the drug and driving under the
influence of it would remain untouched.

According to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana
Laws (NORML), 12 states, including Maine and New York, already have
reduced penalties for marijuana possession.

"This is not decriminalization in the legalizing sense," Taylor said.
"What we're talking about is changing the penalties and putting an
end to a system that stops people from moving forward with their
lives, getting student loans or even jobs."

Harvard economist Jeff Miron conducted a study on the financial costs
of current marijuana enforcement and found that at least $24.3
million is spent each year by police departments across the state in
arrest and booking costs. That does not include $68.5 million spent
in the courts and $13.6 million in jails.

Taylor said this money should be used to add more police officers and
equipment and to fight violent crime.

But local law-enforcement officials point out that not a single
warrant has been issued for marijuana possession. Most marijuana
possession arrests, they say, are "add-on charges" -- meaning they
find marijuana in a car or in a home after another crime has been committed.

Capt. Patrick F. Barry, head of the Pittsfield Police Department's
detective unit, said his officers usually focus on drug dealers.

"The reality is," he said, "if a cop stops a car for speeding or
we're on a domestic-abuse call and we find marijuana, that person
will be arrested and charged. We find a roach, a marijuana pipe, a
bag in someone's car when we do a traffic stop. But we rarely target
marijuana possession.

"I don't want to say it's decriminalized now, but no one is going to
jail for a first-time possession drug charge."

Barry declined to state his opinion on the proposed law change. But
he did say that dealers could play it safe if lower penalties were instituted.

"If you have a guy with (just over) an ounce right now, that's
possession with intent to distribute," he said. "An ounce is 40
joints' worth. That's quantity. If the law was changed, dealers would
make sure they only carried around an ounce or less. It could make it
tougher for us."

Lt. Joseph McDyer, a state police officer and head of the Berkshire
County Drug Task Force, said he is against the marijuana proposal and
doesn't believe it would help police departments.

"It wouldn't free us up at all," he said. "All marijuana possession
charges result from other police work. All these (marijuana
committee) people want to do is get high. They don't see the
tragedies. There's a small segment of society that will move on from
alcohol to marijuana to prescription drugs and harder drugs."

McDyer said tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, the psychoactive substance in
marijuana) "is a dangerous drug, and we're now seeing pot with higher
THC levels than ever before."

According to a study cited by the National Institute on Drug Abuse,
THC increases heart rates, and the risk of a heart attack more than
quadruples in the first hour after smoking marijuana. A Yale
University study also found that 50 percent of healthy volunteers
given THC showed symptoms of psychosis.

Conversely, the drug has medicinal purposes, and 12 states have
adopted legislation or initiatives that permit marijuana use for the
treatment of nausea and anorexia associated with cancer and AIDS and
for neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis and epilepsy.

Although Massachusetts passed legislation recognizing marijuana's
medicinal value, the drug has never been legal for those purposes in the state.

Capeless said changing the current marijuana penalties would be a
setback to the advances made in the war on drugs. He said the
justification of saving police dollars is "a ludicrous claim."

"The public needs to understand that we have a very fair and
responsible statute right now with regards to possession of
marijuana," Capeless said. "On a first offense, we recommend that the
matter be dismissed and the person placed on probation."

Taylor said drug interdiction is much different in Berkshire County
from what it is in urban areas such as Springfield, Worcester and
Boston, "where they are targeting specific groups."

"They do go after possession in a tough way, and these people are
getting (put into the Criminal Offender Record Information system)," she said.

Capeless said roughly 4 percent of the cases that go through his
office each year deal with marijuana possession.

In 2005, 183 of the 271 total marijuana possession charges involved
other criminal charges. In 2006, it was 174 of the 262 total charges,
and in 2007 (through Dec. 1), it was 108 of 184.

"I think that shows that marijuana is directly associated with other
criminal activity," Capeless said. "This proposal is a very dangerous
initial step toward decriminalization. Good, positive work is being
done to fight illegal drug use."

Capeless, vice president of the Massachusetts District Attorney's
Association, said district attorneys from across the state recently
gathered and talked about the voter initiative.

"We've discussed this, and we're unanimously against it," he said.
"We will be actively involved in sending out a clear message."

Michael, a Pittsfield resident who asked that his last name not be
used and who signed the marijuana petition last fall, said he expects
the issue to generate heated debates. He believes there's a
generational divide between those who favor marijuana
decriminalization and those who don't.

"Outside of the actual 'smoking,' I've never really seen anything
harmful about marijuana," he said. "A lot of people smoke marijuana.
And a lot of people drink, too. I just don't see a big difference."

NORML reports that more people are smoking marijuana today than ever
before. At least 100 million Americans (33 percent) have tried pot,
with 25 million people consuming it at least once a year and 15
million using it in the past month.

In 1970, there were an estimated 188,682 arrests on marijuana-related
charges. Last year, there were more than 830,000.

This millennia-old mystical plant has been causing a ruckus for
decades. It was during the counterculture revolution of the 1960s
that marijuana, aka Cannabis sativa, saw a rise in recreational use.

It's been studied by the Nixon administration, used at concerts to
heighten the musical experience, and glorified -- and vilified -- on
television and in movies.

In his book, "Hemp: Lifeline to the Future," Chris Conrad lists seven
presidents as cannabis users, including George Washington and Thomas
Jefferson. They weren't alone. Who can forget former President
Clinton's famous "I did not inhale" quote?

The pot debate apparently won't end anytime soon, or perhaps, even with a vote.

Taylor said she believes Massachusetts is ready for a change in the laws.

"(Twelve) states have decriminalized this, and none of the problems
have come to fruition," she said. "It's still going to be illegal.
We're taking the penalty and making it a civil offense. Let's not
punish people for the rest of their lives."

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MARIJUANA FACTS

# Drug use in the United States wasn't defined as a federal crime
until 1914, under the Harrison Act.

# By 1937, 23 states had outlawed marijuana. That year, the federal
government passed the Marihuana Tax Act, which made nonmedical use of
the drug illegal.

# At least 7,500 people are arrested for marijuana possession in
Massachusetts each year.

# Twelve states have reduced the penalties for marijuana possession,
starting with Oregon in 1973. The other states are Alaska,
California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, New York,
Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio.

# Massachusetts ballot questions have varied in importance over the
years, including repealing Prohibition, eliminating income tax,
outlawing capital punishment, and enacting campaign finance reform.

# Laws passed by states and cities to decriminalize marijuana do not
result in the drug being legal. The federal government regulates
marijuana through the Interstate Commerce Clause of the U.S.
Constitution. Under the Supremacy Clause, any state law in conflict
with a federal law is not valid. Federal agents don't normally spend
time on small possession charges, though, unless they involve
crossing state and national borders.

# The Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy collected signatures
for its Massachusetts marijuana ballot referendum in 350 of the
state's 351 cities and towns. The only town that failed to register a
signature was Berkshire County's Mount Washington, with a population of 146.

Sources: Time Magazine, the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy,
the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, Eagle
news services.