Pubdate: Wed, 03 Jun 2015
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2015 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Joshua Miller

STATE SENATE PRESIDENT OPEN TO LEGALIZING MARIJUANA

Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg sounds a lot like a man who 
supports the legalization of marijuana for recreational use.

The Amherst Democrat expressed concern Tuesday about an 
activist-written legalization referendum, anticipated on the 2016 
ballot. But speaking on WGBH-FM's "Boston Public Radio," he appeared 
to be on board with the concept of legalization and struck a 
libertarian note on a hot-button issue.

Show cohost Jim Braude asked Rosenberg if he is going to vote for the 
expected initiative to legalize marijuana.

"I'll see the draft, and then I'll decide," Rosenberg said.

"Are you, conceptually - do you agree with the -" Braude pressed.

"I think people should be allowed to do what they're going to do 
unless they are going to hurt somebody else," Rosenberg replied.

"I come from the Happy Valley. The People's Republic of Amherst. As 
Amherst goes, so goes Cambridge," he continued in a lighthearted 
back-and-forth with cohost Margery Eagan, referring to the town and 
city often seen as the state's most liberal. Asked if Rosenberg now 
supports legalization, which would make him the highest-profile state 
elected official to do so, spokesman Pete Wilson replied carefully.

"Yesterday he said he doesn't have a position on it, one way or the 
other," Wilson said by telephone.

And his position Tuesday?

"It's the same as it was yesterday," Wilson said, without explaining 
the apparent discrepancy.

Strong majorities of Massachusetts voters approved measures that 
decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana in 2008 and 
allowed its use for medical purposes in 2012. Activists have spent 
years laying the groundwork for a 2016 legalization question.

Rosenberg has repeatedly said that if the state is moving toward 
legalization, it would be better for the Legislature to do it 
carefully and thoughtfully than for activists to change the law, 
perhaps not so carefully and thoughtfully.

And he has staked out a libertarian view of the drug's legalization before.

On the radio, Rosenberg also reiterated support for a nonbinding 2016 
ballot question on the legalization of marijuana but acknowledged 
that the proposal is "getting no traction." He said the option would 
allow voters to express their will and then, if it passed, let the 
Legislature carefully craft a legalization measure.

Rosenberg said he worried that an activist-crafted ballot question 
could be poorly worded and end up being unworkable if it became law. 
He mentioned the state's troubled implementation of the 2012 
voter-approved medical marijuana law as a referendum that did not 
work out as planned.

Still, he said he expects activists to gather the signatures needed 
to get a binding legalization question on the ballot next year, and 
he believes it is going to pass.

Governor Charlie Baker, Attorney General Maura Healey, Mayor Martin 
J. Walsh of Boston, top prosecutors, and other public officials 
oppose legalization. In a story published in the Globe this week, 
Walsh said he would "absolutely" be willing to take the lead in 
opposing a referendum in 17 months.

Speaker Robert A. DeLeo has expressed opposition to and deep 
discomfort with the idea of legalization and, more or less, 
deep-sixed a legislative push to legalize.

Rosenberg also voiced support for a push to modernize the state's 
public records law, seen as among the weakest in the United States.

"We're out of step with the national trend on this," he said.

Legislators have filed bills that would update the law and give it 
some teeth, including providing lawyer' fees to requesters who, 
according to a court, were wrongfully kept from getting public records.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom