THANK YOU TO NORTH SHORE VOTERS

Thank you North Shore voters for instructing Sen. Berry and Sen.
Thomas McGee, D-Lynn, "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 the prosecution, public
counsel and judicial resources. The cost of current policy to adjust
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 Sen. Berry and Sen. McGee and ask them to follow the
instructions you have given them.

Steven S. Epstein