Pubdate: Wed, 29 Sep 2010
Source: Metrowest Daily News (MA)
Copyright: 2010 MetroWest Daily News
Contact:  http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/619
Cited: Proposition 19 http://yeson19.com/
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/find?272 (Proposition 19)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?420 (Cannabis - Popular)

MARIJUANA LAW IN HANDS OF VOTERS

Next month, California voters will consider the biggest change in 
drug policy since Congress made marijuana possession a criminal 
offense in 1937. Proposition 19, if passed, will not just legalize 
marijuana possession, it will empower municipalities to regulate and 
tax it. The state Legislature won't be able to stop it. Any community 
looking to avoid a property tax hike could open up its own cannabis 
revenue stream.

Marijuana would still be against federal law, which would put the 
Obama administration in a quandary: Should they send an army of 
federal agents to enforce a law state and local police won't, or turn 
their backs and let Californians choose their own intoxicants?

That conflict is not without precedent. Back in the 1920s, New York 
gave up on Prohibition before the rest of the country. While 
manufacturing and distribution of alcohol remained against federal 
law, it was legal under New York law. The feds mostly looked the 
other way and New Yorkers kept drinking, which is one reason the 
Prohibition-era crime wars were waged in Chicago and not New York.

Proposition 19 is no sure thing in California. Its opponents include 
the usual - establishment politicians, law enforcement and some 
religious groups - and the unexpected. Some entrepreneurs who have 
profited from the state's medical marijuana industry oppose it, and 
major funding for the opposition campaign is coming from California 
beer and liquor distributors. Meanwhile, some Massachusetts voters 
will have their own say on the Bay State's marijuana policy. Question 
5 on the Nov. 2 ballot in Wayland, Sudbury and Lincoln will ask 
voters' opinions on whether the Legislature should consider 
legalizing and regulating marijuana like it now regulates liquor. 
Similar questions will face voters in several other state House and 
Senate districts across the state, including Wellesley, Hudson, Stow, 
Newton, Maynard and Medfield. Voters in other districts will be asked 
to weigh in on legalizing medical marijuana.

Those questions are all non-binding, of course, and if past history 
holds, even the legislators in those districts will ignore the 
results. The Massachusetts Legislature has for many years refused to 
even discuss marijuana policy. Two years ago, voters took the issue 
out of the Legislature's hands, approving the decriminalizing of 
marijuana. Question 2 passed with 65 percent of the vote.

If California leads the way, we wouldn't be surprised to see a 
binding legalization measure on the Massachusetts ballot in 2012.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake