Pubdate: Thu, 28 Oct 2004
Source: Peabody-Lynnfield Weekly News (MA)
Copyright: 2004 Suburban Publishing Corporation
Contact:  http://weeklynews.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3555
Author: Adam Swift
Cited: Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition http://www.MassCann.org
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

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. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake