Pubdate: Mon, 07 Dec 2015 Source: Boston Herald (MA) Copyright: 2015 The Boston Herald, Inc Contact: http://news.bostonherald.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/53 Note: Prints only very short LTEs. RETHINK THIS ROAD TRIP It is highly unlikely that the Legislature will vote to "legalize" the recreational use of marijuana in Massachusetts anytime soon. Come January lawmakers will have six months to wrap up the work of this session and they struggle to get their acts together even on far less controversial bills. But that won't stop a group of state senators from embarking on a week-long field trip to Colorado in January, to research that state's experience with legalizing the recreational use of pot. Members of the Special Senate Committee on Marijuana (yes, really) are perhaps anticipating the day when Massachusetts voters act on their own to authorize recreational marijuana use. Voters already legalized the use of marijuana for "medical" purposes, of course, and the implementation of that referendum was an utter disaster. Lawmakers might very well need to step in and clean up the mess if full legalization reaches the ballot in November, and passes. But a trip to the Mile-High City isn't necessary when 20 minutes of Googling would glean some basic facts on the "Colorado experience." Yes, Colorado has experienced a drop in marijuana arrests since legalization. Big surprise there. Make something legal and it becomes trickier to arrest people for it. Colorado is also getting slightly richer, collecting more than $77 million in marijuana tax revenue since 2014. Beyond that, well, if they're so inclined senators can read about the pending lawsuits against Colorado from neighboring states that claim they are paying the price for increased marijuana trafficking and usage. Or peruse the reports that suggest an increase in marijuana use by Colorado teens. Really, the only reason we can think of for senators to go to Colorado in person is to sample the product. They insist they have no such plans, so they ought to just stay home. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom