Pubdate: Tue, 08 Mar 2016
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2016 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 LAWMAKERS DRAW BATTLE LINES OVER MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION

A scathing Senate report to be released Tuesday says that if 
residents legalize recreational marijuana in Massachusetts this fall, 
the state should promptly temper their vote by outlawing home 
cultivation, imposing a significant tax on the drug, and prohibiting 
some marijuana-infused edible products.

The report by a special Senate committee does not take an official 
stance on the proposed ballot question but warns of legalization's 
dangers. The authors note that it could make it easier for children 
to access the drug and create difficulties for law enforcement 
officers in determining and proving someone is too high to drive.

The bipartisan 118-page analysis comes the same week Governor Charlie 
Baker, Attorney General Maura Healey, and Mayor Martin J. Walsh of 
Boston published a sharply worded opinion column in The Boston Globe 
opposing legalization, and the Legislature's judiciary committee 
heard testimony on the ballot push.

Taken together, the analysis and the opinion column offer the 
clearest outline yet of the messages legalization opponents may use 
and give voters a taste of the debate that could unfold across the state.

Senator Jason M. Lewis, a Winchester Democrat and chairman of the 
Special Senate Committee on Marijuana, said the nine-member 
committee's conclusions include "serious concerns about the prospect 
of legalizing marijuana for recreational use and sale in Massachusetts."

The bipartisan analysis says if Mass. residents legalize recreational 
marijuana, the state should promptly temper their vote.

The proposed law from the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol 
in Massachusetts would legalize recreational marijuana use for those 
21 and older. Proponents say they aim to create a regulated and taxed 
market, removing marijuana sales from the criminal sphere.

The law, if approved by voters, would set a January 2018 deadline to 
commence recreational retail sales. It would create a "Cannabis 
Control Commission," with members appointed by the state treasurer to 
oversee a system of marijuana stores, cultivating facilities, and 
manufacturers of edible products. It would allow adults to grow up to 
12 marijuana plants for personal use per household.

The proposal, backed by the national Marijuana Policy Project, would 
impose a 3.75 percent excise tax on retail marijuana sales, in 
addition to the state's 6.25 percent sales tax - and it would also 
allow cities and towns to levy an additional 2 percent tax that the 
municipalities could keep.

Legislative leaders have repeatedly said lawmakers don't have the 
wherewithal to approve a bill legalizing marijuana themselves. But 
because the pro-legalization group is expected to collect sufficient 
signatures to put the issue directly before voters, legislators have 
spent the past year studying the issue and preparing to respond to 
the referendum.

Lewis said the intent of the committee - which interviewed about 75 
experts and visited Colorado, which allows recreational sales, for 
almost a week - was to anticipate the issues the state would face and 
create a comprehensive set of recommendations to implement should 
voters legalize marijuana on their own.

He said the big-picture goals are common sense: preventing marijuana 
use by people under 21, minimizing adult addiction and black-market 
sales, ensuring a well-regulated marketplace, and making sure the 
marijuana revenue covers the costs of regulating the new industry and 
public education measures.

The report presses for action in areas the ballot question does not 
directly address. Among others: setting a legal driving limit for 
blood levels of THC, the primary psychoactive substance in marijuana; 
mandating that marijuana advertising and product labels warn of 
health risks; gathering data on marijuana issues to measure trends; 
determining how to operate a legal market when marijuana remains 
illegal on the federal level; and raising the legal sales age for 
tobacco from 18 to 21 "so there is a consistent legal age for 
alcohol, tobacco and marijuana."

The report also argues that many of the ballot question's provisions 
are insufficient and calls for changes. Because the initiative 
petition, if approved by voters, would simply create a new law, the 
Legislature could amend it like any other statute.

While the ballot measure calls for people to be able to legally grow 
up to 12 marijuana plants per household, the committee suggests 
Massachusetts prohibit all home growing or, at least, impose a 
temporary moratorium.

The senators noted that home-grown marijuana would not be tested for 
safety or potency and would not be subject to the tracking 
requirements of commercially grown plants. Furthermore, it would be 
extremely difficult to police and could lead to diversion of 
marijuana to the black market, along with a host of other potential troubles.

"What about if it's a multi-family residence?" Lewis asked. "Now 
you've got other people living there that may have to deal with the 
odor. You have issues with children in the household if you're 
growing marijuana."

While the ballot would set the recreational marijuana tax rate, 
including the state sales tax, at no more than 12 percent, the report 
says the total tax should be set much higher, perhaps three times as high.

That's because, according to the committee, the state revenue raised 
by the lower tax rate would not cover the associated direct costs of 
legalization, such as regulating businesses and educating the public. 
But a push for a high tax rate is sure to raise concerns that the 
black market would flourish even after legalization.

If marijuana were legalized, the report recommends that Massachusetts 
prohibit the manufacture and sale of marijuana products that are 
"particularly appealing to youth and may be mistakenly consumed by children."

That's a response to instances of accidental consumption of 
marijuana-infused foods by kids and overconsumption by adults, both 
of which have landed people in the hospital in states where the drug is legal.

But the prohibition could effectively gut a big part of the market. 
Edibles constitute nearly half the legal market and are its 
fastest-growing segment, the report found.

Many of those edibles - including products such as sour gummies and 
chocolate chip cookies - could reasonably be described as 
"particularly appealing to youth" and all could, outside of their 
packaging, be mistakenly consumed by children.

Lewis said the recommendation is not intended to be a poison pill for 
legalization; rather the committee is trying to have "reasonable 
limits on the kinds of products that can be on the market."

Although the report was not yet public Monday, the group pressing 
legalization in Massachusetts, the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana 
Like Alcohol, offered something of a pre-buttal.

"It appears some committee members traveled to Colorado with a bias 
against regulating marijuana" said spokesman Jim Borghesani, "and 
sought information to buttress their positions."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom