MARIJUANA VOTE REQUIRES FOLLOW-THROUGH

Thank you North Shore voters for instructing Mr. Berry and Mr. McGee
to introduce and vote for legislation making possession of
marijuana a civil violation, like a traffic ticket instead of a
criminal offense, and requiring police to hold a person under 18
cited for possession until the person is released to a parent or
legal guardian or brought before a judge. Your yes vote is a call
for a return to the common law of arrest when the offense is
marijuana possession, which by only the greatest stretch of the
imagination can be considered by itself to be a breach of the peace.
If enacted by the Legislature, it will conserve first responders
time. The proposed policy also conserves prosecutorial, public
counsel and judicial resources. The cost of current policy to just
first-responder budgets is estimated at over $24 million a year.

It gives back to cities and towns, as with traffic tickets in
general, one half of the fines collected on citations issued in the
town. During the campaign you heard from thunderers, as
conservative icon William F. Buckley calls them, who said we must
stay the course and continue to criminally prosecute some 12,000 or
more people each year in order to show societal disapproval or else
marijuana use will increase and become more available. Well, it is
clear that current law reduces neither supply nor demand. Anyone who
wants marijuana can get it.

Close to 50 percent of you have tried marijuana at least once in your
lifetimes. Most of you never tried any other illicit drug. Almost all
are of you are good people. Some of you are politicians.

Please call Mr. Berry and Mr. McGee and ask them to follow the
instructions you have given them.

Steven S. Epstein, Esq. Treasurer Massachusetts Cannabis Reform
Coalition/NORML A state affiliate of the National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana Laws