TREAT MARIJUANA THE SAME WAY ALCOHOL IS TREATED UNDER LAW

To the editor:

The revenue crisis at the federal, state and municipal levels grows
more pressing each day. Persons who benefit from government programs
do not want to see those programs reduced. Taxpayers who do not
benefit from those programs do not want to pay more taxes to pay for
all the programs. There is, however, one group that wants to be taxed:
the marijuana users.

Most marijuana users are productive, responsible citizens, that except
for their use of marijuana are otherwise law-abiding citizens.

This past fall over 54 percent of the voters in the 1st, 2nd and 18th
Essex districts favored making possession of marijuana a civil
violation, as we did last century for speeding. The question also
proposed that if the violator is under 18, the police would be
required to hold them until released to a parent or legal guardian or
brought before a judge.

Legislation implementing this policy, and a fine of not less than $100
nor more than $500 for the first violation and doubling the range for
a second or subsequent violation, was at my request filed by Barbara
L'Italien and Bruce Tarr. One version proposes splitting the fine
between the state and the municipality in which the violation occurred.

This is not a radical change in how marijuana possession cases are
actually handled by the courts in Massachusetts. The revoking of the
power of the police to arrest an adult for possessing marijuana
effectively increases the police budget of the state and
municipalities an estimated $24 million, by freeing officers from the
paperwork and court time now required when they make an arrest. The
splitting of the fine will raise a modest amount of revenue and
discourage officers from seizing the marijuana and letting the
violator go with a verbal warning as sometimes happens.

What appears radical, yet I think the best policy, now favored by 41
percent of Americans according to a recent poll, is to treat marijuana
the same way we treat alcohol: regulate it, tax it, and only make it
illegal for children. Such a policy would effectively increase the
criminal justice budget of the state $120.6 million per year and would
yield an estimated $16.9 million in income and sales tax revenue.

STEVEN S. EPSTEIN, ESQ.

A founder and officer of the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition

Georgetown