REDISTRICTING, CUSTODY AMONG BALLOT QUESTIONS

Local Referendums Appear in Many Precincts

For the first time in 20 years, Massachusetts voters Tuesday will have
no statewide ballot question to vote on.

But voters in some districts will be able to weigh in on nonbinding
referendums on whether to take legislative redistricting out of the
hands of lawmakers, decriminalize marijuana possession and require
joint custody of children when parents separate and divorce.

Voters in the 6th and 12th Worcester House districts will vote on an
advisory question on whether they approve making possession of less
than an ounce of marijuana subject to a civil fine of $100.

Another marijuana-related question will appear on the ballot in all
towns but Mendon and Dudley in the Worcester and Norfolk Senate
District represented by Sen. Richard T. Moore, D-Uxbridge.

It asks voters whether seriously ill patients should be allowed to
grow small quantities of marijuana for their medical use.

Both questions - similar versions of which have been passed in
previous elections - are sponsored and supported by members of the
Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition.

Steven S. Epstein, a Georgetown lawyer and spokesman for the
coalition, said Mr. Moore's district was chosen because he is
Senate chairman of the Legislature's Health Care Committee.

"Over half of us have tried marijuana in our lifetime, and we know
it's not as harmful as it may be," he said.

Mr. Moore, who opposes the measure, asserted that medical studies are
at best inconclusive about whether marijuana stems nausea or has other
legitimate medical uses. "And there's the problem of growing it
and controlling that. The police are certainly not going to be
thrilled about it," he said.