Pubdate: Wed, 22 Feb 2006
Source: Boston Weekly Dig (MA)
Copyright: 2006 Boston Weekly Dig
Contact:  http://www.weeklydig.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1515
Author:  Chris Faraone
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?420 (Cannabis - Popular)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

WEED BILL ONE STEP CLOSER TO GETTING SMOKED BY LEGISLATORS

Before your uninformed celeb-rag-reading co-worker tries to sell you 
an urban legend about how it's now legal to smoke blunts in public, 
here's what really happened on Beacon Hill last week regarding 
marijuana decriminalization in the Commonwealth.

The Mental Health and Substance  Abuse Committee advanced legislation 
that would lower the maximum penalty for  anyone caught holding less 
than an ounce of trees from up to six months in  prison to a 
shoulder-brushing $250 fine. The proposal (which must pass 
the  House, Senate and maybe the corner office), passed through 
committee by a margin  of 6-1, with the only nay coming from Rep. 
Brian Wallace (D-South Boston), who  rejected the measure on the 
presumption that marijuana opens doors to more  dangerous substances.

Proponents of the bill  claim that current penalties are too tough, 
and that juveniles who get caught  with marijuana suffer unfair 
repercussions when applying for colleges and jobs.  Marijuana Policy 
Project legislative analyst Jonas Singer released a statement, 
gloating, "This is a huge victory and a major step toward making 
Massachusetts  the 13th state to remove criminal penalties for 
marijuana possession and embrace  sensible marijuana policy."

But while  committee members and marijuana advocates cited 
research-including a 2002 Boston  University economics department 
estimate that Massachusetts taxpayers would save  more than $24 
million a year by decriminalizing marijuana- both Governor Mitt 
Romney and embattled gubernatorial hopeful Attorney General Thomas 
Reilly  released eerily similar statements criticizing the measure.

"It is important that we continue to send a message to young  people 
that drugs are bad for you," Romney's Director of Communications 
Eric  Fehrnstrom wrote.

And Reilly, in an almost  ridiculous display of how unhip he is to 
marijuana culture, released a statement  that evidenced his inability 
to do so much as accurately reproduce simple  colloquialisms 
regarding substance abuse.

"That's the wrong message to send to our kids," he said. "We have  to 
keep them out of drugs."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom