BALLOT QUESTION WILL ASK VOTERS ABOUT DECRIMINALIZING POT

PEABODY - Voters in Peabody have the chance to let lawmakers know if they
believe possession of marijuana should be decriminalized. A non-binding
question on the Nov. 2 ballot asks voters if they think possession of
marijuana should be a civil, rather than a criminal offense, much like a
traffic ticket. The question is on the ballot in Peabody's Second Essex
senate district and the Third Essex and Middlesex senate districts.

Georgetown attorney Steven Epstein is leading the marijuana
decriminalization effort. Epstein is one of the founders and sits on the
board of directors of the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition.

Epstein said decriminalization of the drug would save the state's police
departments and courts millions of dollars associated with the arrests and
prosecutions of individuals charged with marijuana possession. "It would
also end arbitrary enforcement," said Epstein. He said some police officers
simply toss out small amounts of marijuana when they find it on a person,
while other police officers either arrest the person or issue a criminal
summons.

Similar non-binding ballot questions have passed in every community in
which they have been introduced, Epstein said.

In the past four years, Epstein said ballot questions calling for the
decriminalization of marijuana has passed in over a dozen Massachusetts
House districts and communities.

The question on the ballot in Peabody asks its state senator (Fred Berry)
"to introduce and vote in favor of 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."

Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett has called marijuana a
"gateway drug" that leads to the abuse of harder substances such as cocaine
and heroin. "I'm not in support of the decriminalization of marijuana,"
Blodgett said. "I think that it is a gateway drug that leads to other
drugs, especially among those who use it frequently. Studies show that
young people who smoke (marijuana) on a regular basis do graduate to harder
drugs."

A new, more potent strain of marijuana is being brought into the country
from across the Canadian border, Blodgett said. He said George Festa,
director of the New England High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task
force, told him about it. "This stuff is stronger and more addictive than
the marijuana from a generation ago," Blodgett said. He said the marijuana
has a higher THC level (the active addictive substance in marijuana) and
that some of it is possibly laced with heroin.

Epstein takes exception to the way marijuana has been characterized by
Blodgett and other law enforcement officials.

"Marijuana is no gateway drug, Mr. Blodgett," Epstein said. "It is a
gateway into the criminal justice system, but it is not a gateway to harder
drugs."

"Almost half of Americans over the age of 12 have tried marijuana and no
where near that number have tried cocaine or heroin," Epstein continued. He
said marijuana "is not the insidious, evil weed that prohibitionists would
want you to believe."

The district attorney's office could handle marijuana offenses more
effectively if charges were dismissed and court costs assessed or if
marijuana possession was considered a civil offense, Epstein said. "It
would be a modest way to alleviate the backlog in the court system," he said.

Blodgett said the decriminalization of marijuana would not necessarily free
up the courts. More importantly, he said, it's important to keep marijuana
illegal in order to "protect new generations of kids from the harmful
effects of marijuana."

Epstein said he also doesn't want to see kids using marijuana and added
that his initiative provides that parents or guardians are notified
whenever someone under the age of 18 is caught with marijuana.

The ballot initiative is about more than just letting people get high
without the fear of facing criminal charges, Epstein said. "It's about
individual liberties, that's what the Constitution stands for," he said.