President Trump is ill advised to expend resources to shutdown state legal marijuana businesses ("Pot plans moving forward despite toughtalk from Trump," Feb. 27). As Jacob Sullum points out in his column: "According to a recent Quinnipiac University survey, 59 percent of Americans think marijuana should be made legal in the United States," while 71 percent "oppose the government enforcing federal laws against marijuana in states that have already legalized medical or recreational marijuana." Among Republicans, only 35 percent favored legalization, but 55 percent opposed federal interference with it." Steven S. Epstein, Georgetown [end]
Massachusetts voters legalized the sale and recreational use of marijuana when they passed Question 4 in November. Folks who work in the cannabis industry, who authored that legislation, want to squeeze as much as they can out of the Bay State market even if it means exploiting minority communities. Oh, they wouldn't describe it that way. The authors of the legislation instead called for regulators to encourage "full participation" in the new industry "by people from communities that have previously been disproportionately harmed by marijuana prohibition and enforcement and to positively impact those communities." [continues 233 words]
City Hall, cops, pols spearhead informational campaign Cops, City Hall and lawmakers are bracing for Thursday's onset of legalized "recreational" marijuana in Massachusetts, determined that if they can't dissuade tokers from lighting up they can at least provide information plus some vigilant law enforcement to try to keep people safe. Bay Staters voted last month to permit adults 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of weed while out in public - 10 ounces at home - while cultivating up to 12 plants per household. Selling pot remains illegal while the Legislature works on regulations to license retailers. [continues 392 words]
Granite State cops are bracing for a potential influx of doped-up drivers and pot-smoking teens - even without a marijuana legalization question on the New Hampshire ballot - as Massachusetts and Maine voters could legalize the herb in November. "You're going to have more instances of drugged driving, and it's going to cost the state more money because of the increase in law enforcement and prosecution," said Dalton, N.H., police Chief John Tholl, who is also a state representative opposed to marijuana legalization. "It's just going to be a burden on the legal system." [continues 325 words]
OK, so maybe the helicopter was a little excessive. It's reasonable to criticize the lengths that authorities went to in an effort to confiscate a single pot plant from an elderly woman in Amherst - though it should be noted that the backyard raid at Peg Holcomb's home was just a small part of a larger marijuana eradication operation. But before sympathizers anoint the 81-year-old Holcomb a great martyr for the marijuana cause, we would simply point out that in Massachusetts there are legal means by which she could obtain marijuana if she really does need it to keep her glaucoma at bay, as she told the Herald. [continues 218 words]
Misleading the public and condescending to grieving parents is one approach to win supporters to your cause, but we can't imagine it's a winning one for the supporters of Question 4. Organizers of the campaign to legalize the recreational use of marijuana sent out a fundraising email last week in which they blurred the lines between general pot use, which the ballot question would legalize, and use of marijuana for medical purposes, which of course is already legal. "If you think people in our state deserve a safer alternative to prescription painkillers, please help end marijuana prohibition on November 8 by donating today," wrote campaign manager Will Luzier, who cites the opioid crisis and deaths from overdoses as an incentive to vote yes. [continues 221 words]
This week Boston City Council President Michelle Wu suggested it ought to be legal for individuals to purchase and consume pot. But if Wu has her way it would be unacceptable for them to take their goodies home from the pot store in a plastic shopping bag. Yes, in the same week that Wu and Councilor Tito Jackson announced their support for a November ballot question that would legalize the recreational use of marijuana, Wu ordered a study into how Boston might reduce the use of plastic shopping bags - including the possibility of an outright ban. [continues 262 words]
'Rush' Not Expected at City's First Facility Today's opening of the city's first pot shop in Downtown Crossing could be a mellow affair, with the owners predicting the dispensary will draw a few dozen customers with medical marijuana cards per day in its initial weeks, before slowly increasing to 90 to 100 daily customers. "We don't expect a rush the way you think about for recreational facilities," said Columbia Care CEO Nicholas Vita, whose nationwide company oversees the Massachusetts facility Patriot Care, at 21 Milk St. [continues 293 words]
A new study shows marijuana poisoning in young children has risen 150 percent in Colorado since the substance was legalized in 2014 - a frightening statistic that has opponents of the Bay State legal marijuana ballot initiative warning that the same could happen in Massachusetts. "The edible products for the marijuana industry are a huge part of the profit and growth model," said Rep. Hannah Kane, of the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy Massachusetts' steering committee. "Children are highly susceptible to these products." [continues 213 words]
WASHINGTON - The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 put marijuana in the category of the nation's most dangerous drugs, along with LSD, heroin and mescaline. That law might soon change. Suspense is mounting after the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration missed its self-imposed June 30 deadline to decide whether to reschedule the drug and recognize its potential therapeutic value. Twenty-six states already have legalized its medical use. In 2011, Christine Gregoire, the former Democratic governor of Washington state, and Republican Lincoln Chafee, then the governor of Rhode Island, filed a 106-page petition with the DEA, arguing that the categorization of marijuana was "fundamentally wrong and should be changed." With the Obama administration adopting a policy to "just look the other way" in states with recreational marijuana, Gregoire said it would be hard for the DEA to justify keeping marijuana on the Schedule 1 list. [continues 56 words]
State Study Shows Path to Addiction At least two out of every three people who fatally overdosed in 2014 had been given an opioid prescription in the years prior, according to new state data, which officials say underscores the long-held theory that even legally prescribed painkillers can help push people toward a deadly addiction. "It certainly confirms what we believe," Marylou Sudders, the state's health and human services secretary, told the Herald yesterday. "It is significant, which is why we said we need to really focus on prescribing patterns, in getting drugs off the street - legal and illegal. ... Frankly we need to accelerate those efforts." [continues 350 words]
This week the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is scheduled to announce an increase in the number of prescriptions doctors can write for Suboxone from 100 to 275 a year. Congress is considering legislation that would make further increases in the availability of the drug, used to treat addictions to heroin and other opioids. While the effectiveness of Suboxone (generically called buprenorphine) as a heroin treatment can be argued, there is no debate about it being a major problem for those of us who run correctional facilities. At the Norfolk County Correctional Center in Dedham, Suboxone is public enemy No. 1 when it comes to inmates trying to smuggle in contraband. [continues 293 words]
The state's highest court in its latest ruling took it upon itself to actually rewrite the title and the summary that will inform voters about the impact of a ballot question to legalize the sale of recreational marijuana in this state. Now, silly us, but you'd think if something needed that much rewriting to adequately explain it, well then maybe it shouldn't be on the ballot at all - that maybe something so flawed at the petition-signing stage should have to start from scratch. [continues 253 words]
Don't like the message? Well, for the folks behind a campaign to legalize the recreational use of marijuana the answer is just to shoot the messenger. The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol has filed a petty complaint with state campaign finance regulators, alleging that Walpole Police Chief John Carmichael violated state rules by appearing at an event sponsored by a group opposed to the pro-pot ballot question, in uniform and during work hours. The group alleges Carmichael broke the rules by engaging in political advocacy. And had he shown up at the June 23 event and explicitly called on voters to reject the November ballot question, maybe they'd have an argument. [continues 176 words]
State Supreme Court Mulls Marijuana Bill The state's highest court is mulling whether the proposal to legalize marijuana for recreational use should go up in smoke after a group of concerned voters said the language of the ballot measure is too vague to be constitutional - and opens the door to all kinds of hyper-potent pot products. "The voters were significantly misled when they were told that this was going to legalize marijuana," said John Scheft, an attorney representing the voters. "It's going to do much more, and wouldn't a fundamental question of any voter be: What are you asking me to legalize?" [continues 368 words]
There's no easy way to convict someone of being stoned while behind the wheel, and recent high-court decisions tied with patchwork sobriety tests have made things even tougher for state prosecutors. And it could be very difficult to prove that David Njuguna was high, as prosecutors say he was when he crashed into a state police cruiser in Charlton in March, killing trooper Thomas L. Clardy. Any defense attorney in the state would rather handle an OUI marijuana than a standard drunken driving case. Even before pot smokers are pulled over, they have more protections than someone who had one too many beers. [continues 358 words]
More drugs, more problems - it's as simple as that. If you legalize something, there's going to be more of it around. In the case of drugs, any drugs, that availability means more and more losers stumbling around stoned out of their minds, slackjawed enough to hurt innocent people, maybe even themselves, as a result. Innocent people, in this case, like trooper Thomas Clardy, his widow and their six now-fatherless children, ages 4 to 17. I'm pessimistic about the chances of stopping this marijuana-legalization question on the ballot in November. But if the voters are paying any attention whatsoever, this horrific crime in Charlton should certainly be a major issue for Big THC to have to defend. [continues 525 words]
Some local doctors are calling for more scientific evidence to back marijuana's medicinal value, and say close oversight is needed for pot dispensaries and prescribers to ensure that it does not get into the wrong hands. "I think there's a good place and time for use of marijuana," said Dr. Katherine Gergen Barnett, a doctor at Boston Medical Center who specializes in integrative medicine. "But we haven't as a society and as a medical institution done enough to oversee how people are getting prescribed marijuana." [continues 221 words]
A Webster man was driving high on medical marijuana he had just bought at a Brookline dispensary when his car careened off the Massachusetts Turnpike, slamming into the back of a parked state police SUV and killing trooper Thomas L. Clardy, authorities said yesterday. David Njuguna "had an active THC level in his blood at the time of the collision," prosecutor Jeff Travers said after the 30-year-old pleaded not guilty in Worcester Superior Court to numerous charges in the March 16 crash, including manslaughter, motor vehicle homicide by negligence and motor vehicle homicide while operating under the influence of drugs. [continues 484 words]
Gov. Charlie Baker yesterday decried the "proliferation" of pot use and called on authorities to prosecute to the "fullest" extent of the law a Webster man accused of being high in a crash that killed a state trooper, sparking a renewed focus on the state's marijuana laws amid a heated debate on legalization. Police said David Njuguna was driving "impaired" after visiting a medical marijuana dispensary in Brookline and had a half-burnt marijuana cigarette in his car when he slammed into trooper Thomas L. Clardy's SUV in mid-March, killing the veteran officer. [continues 299 words]
Marijuana shouldn't be more regulated than alcohol ("Legalization battle bound for state's highest court," April 29). The states of Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and Colorado have moved to end marijuana prohibition and legalize and regulate pot just as we do alcohol. After almost 50 years of enduring an incredibly harmful and ineffective war on marijuana, the people of these states have finally and rightly concluded that there is no rational or humane reason to criminalize and outlaw the purchase or sale of marijuana. [continues 88 words]
The anti-marijuana legalization committee headed by Gov. Charlie Baker, Mayor Martin J. Walsh and House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo is publicly urging legalization backers to come clean about the high potency of the drugs the measure would legalize - and acknowledge that the marijuana industry depends on these high-octane pot products to make a profit. The Campaign for a Safe and Healthy Massachusetts cites claims in a legal challenge - currently pending before the state's highest court - - alleging that the marijuana legalization ballot measure is based on misleading information about the potency of the drugs it would legalize. [continues 239 words]
The former drug-addicted chemist who got high at work nearly every day for eight years handled more than 500 cases in Suffolk County alone - and up to 1,500 total were processed at the Amherst lab during her time there - according to officials sorting through the fallout of the state's latest drug lab scandal. The case count in Suffolk likely represents only a fraction of those district attorneys across the state are now scrambling to identify in the wake of a damning attorney general's report on the misconduct of ex-chemist Sonja Farak. [continues 361 words]
WASHINGTON - The battle over legalizing recreational marijuana in Massachusetts will land before the state's highest court in June - when opponents will argue that the petition to put it on the ballot was misleading. Challengers to the proposed November state ballot question will ask the justices of the Supreme Judicial Court to throw out the more than 100,000 signatures collected to certify the ballot measure. "The voters who signed the petition to put the measure on the ballot weren't told what the legislation would do," said John Scheft, an attorney representing a group of registered voters who filed a complaint last week challenging the measure. [continues 339 words]
Mayor: Pro-Marijuana People Must Explain Its Importance Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh responded to criticism from a pro-marijuana legalization group that called him a "hypocrite" for opposing pot legalization while supporting measures they say promote easier access to alcohol - such as keeping bars open later and granting more liquor licenses - by challenging the group to make its case for legalization. "I am not going to get into name calling, they can call me whatever they want," Walsh said. "What I would like to ask them to do ... is to explain to the people of Massachusetts why it's important to legalize marijuana. I think that would be a good start for the campaign." [continues 240 words]
Pot advocates have apparently decided that they can insult their way to victory in November. And so they choose One Boston Day - a day aimed at encouraging random acts of kindness, a day when Gov. Charlie Baker and Mayor Marty Walsh would be laying wreaths in memory of the Boston Marathon bombing victims - to insult and disparage both men. Leaders of the marijuana campaign gathered in front of the State House with a poster of Walsh and Baker and a cartoon bubble saying, "Our health policy: Drink more alcohol!" [continues 108 words]
Advocates for legalizing pot invoked "Reefer Madness" to mock opposition by top elected leaders - prompting Mayor Martin J. Walsh to fire back there is nothing funny about a detox ward. Walsh, Gov. Charlie Baker and House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo joined forces yesterday in a public appeal yesterday against legalizing marijuana, warning, "We've learned from the recent experience of other states - legal marijuana leads to higher rates of addiction, lower academic success, and significant health consequences for our kids." Bill Downing of Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition countered, "Unfortunately, our governor and the mayor of Boston suffer from a mental disorder, it's called 'Reefer Madness.' " He was referring to the much-lampooned 1930s film that depicts dire consequences for marijuana use. [continues 311 words]
An Associated Industries of Massachusetts spokesman says, "Employers have worked pretty hard over the past several decades to create safe workplaces, and that includes creating drug-free workplaces," ("Biz not buzzed over legal pot," March 29). In fact, however, too many employers have worked hard to discriminate against citizens who choose to use the extremely popular - and God-given - plant cannabis, or pot. If employees may use alcohol after work, there is no reason to prohibit cannabis. That pot is safer than alcohol is one reason Colorado voters ended cannabis prohibition, and one of many reasons why Massachusetts voters will likely legalize the plant. - - Stan White, Dillon, Colo. [end]
Along with most Massachusetts businesses, I too am against the legalization of marijuana in Massachusetts ("Biz not buzzed over legal pot," March 29). While legalization would lead to growth for certain businesses and in the state's overall wealth, it would have a poor effect on people's lives and the state overall. Marijuana legalization would lead to negative effects to the people who sell it, buy it and use it as well. Backers of legalization say pot should be regulated like alcohol. However, there are already severe impacts on health due to alcohol, including the societal cost of addiction. This state should be about more than money and business. We should be about protecting people's health as well. - - Haddeel Albaiz, Cambridge [end]
Poll: 62 Percent of Mass. Firms Oppose Ballot Measure Employers are sounding the alarm about a proposed November state ballot question that calls for legalization and regulation of recreational marijuana in Massachusetts, coming out heavily against it in a newly released survey. Of 180 Bay State employers who responded to the survey question posed by Associated Industries of Massachusetts - the state's largest employer group - 62 percent opposed the ballot measure. Thirty-eight percent said they're in favor. The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol's referendum will be on the Nov. 1 statewide ballot and is widely expected to pass - prompting the state Senate to prepare to draft regulations in advance. The measure would legalize marijuana for adults 21 years and older, and license, regulate and tax its production and distribution in a manner similar to alcohol. [continues 179 words]
The state senators who traveled to Colorado on a marijuana field trip were the butt of some jokes (including in this space). But the special Senate committee has produced some helpful research. Normalizing the cultivation, sale and use of marijuana in Massachusetts would, of course, still be in conflict with federal law. That's the first knock against the campaign to get a legalization question on the November ballot, but it's certainly not the last. As the senators discovered, a mile-high stack of legal complications would proceed from a vote in favor of legalization. [continues 282 words]
Massachusetts could soon join the ranks of states that have eliminated laws requiring automatic suspension of driver's licenses for individuals convicted of drug crimes, provided the crime is unrelated to driving. But there is a kink in the works, one that has even the chief justice of the state's highest court concerned. Of course no one wants to go easy on criminals involved in the drug trade. But getting to work, to school, dropping the kid off at day care or getting to the probation office - all activities required of a person actually trying to stay on the straight and narrow - become more difficult when an individual isn't permitted to drive. [continues 199 words]
Lawmakers and Gov. Charlie Baker will have a devil of a time negotiating a final bill to address the state's opiate addiction crisis, given that there are now three competing bills that contemplate varying levels of government intervention. One idea they shouldn't waste time with is the Senate proposal to require schools to screen kids as young as 12 about their drug use. As we noted back in October, there is scant evidence to support the claim that having school officials interview adolescents about their drug use would reduce opiate addiction - which should be the goal of any bill. But it would add to the burden of local school districts. [continues 188 words]
A man who was busted for hiding heroin in his prosthetic leg has sparked the latest battle between judges and prosecutors - two powerful factions who are fighting over mandatory minimum sentences. Imran Laltaprasad was convicted of possession with intent to distribute heroin and two counts of possession with intent to distribute cocaine in July. He hid the heroin in his artificial leg. He had been convicted of the same offenses in the past. Under state law, sentencing should have been easy. The mandatory minimum sentence for the crimes is 3 1/2 years. Prosecutors asked for concurrent sentences of 3 1/2 to five years in state prison. [continues 388 words]
Contrary to the Herald editorial, it wouldn'=C2=80=C2=99t hurt Massachuse tts state senators to visit Colorado and sample legal marijuana ("=C2=80=C2=9CRethink this road trip,"=C2=80=C2=9D Dec. 7). The legislato rs would learn that marijuana is not nearly as dangerous (or exciting) as federal government propaganda suggests. Marijuana prohibition is indefensible. If the goal is to subsidize violent drug cartels, marijuana prohibition is a grand success. The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. And the criminalization of Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis has no scientific basis. In sum, the war on marijuana consumers is a failed cultural inquisition, not an evidence-based public health campaign =2E Robert Sharpe, policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy, Washington, D.C. [end]
While I agree that the upcoming trip by state legislators to Colorado to explore the impact of marijuana legalization is likely unnecessary, I don't think the Herald should be so quick to highlight the alleged shortcomings of legalization there ("Rethink this road trip," Dec. 7). Teen use has not risen at a faster rate in Colorado when compared to states that have not yet legalized. A Colorado survey showed that, if anything, teen use of marijuana went down in 2013, the first year of legalization. Furthermore, it is not Massachusetts' problem if our border states have increased enforcement costs assuming the commonwealth legalizes marijuana in 2016. If these states want to cling to the misguided and unrealistic policy that is pot prohibition, let them pay for it. - - Eric Casey, Marlboro [end]
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. [continues 227 words]
I'm sure that Barnstable County Sheriff James M. Cummings means well ("Cops: Legal pot 'makes no sense'," Nov. 16). However, the cannabis (marijuana) "gateway theory" was discredited over a decade ago, and even the prohibitionist federal government stopped making that claim. Cannabis is no more likely to lead to heroin addiction than beer or milk. The prohibition of cannabis, on the other hand, has been associated with increased hard-drug addiction rates - by, among other things, putting cannabis users in contact with people who may also sell hard drugs including heroin. Caging responsible adults who choose to use the relatively safe cannabis is what "makes no sense." - - Stan White, Dillon, Colo. [end]
Undermines State's Opioid Crackdown Several Bay State sheriffs are blasting an ongoing push to legalize marijuana amid a raging opiate epidemic - accusing some lawmakers and those behind pot legalization ballot initiatives of undercutting Gov. Charlie Baker's bipartisan opioid crackdown. "It makes no sense," said Barnstable County Sheriff James M. Cummings. "We're here fighting opiates and now we're going to legalize another mindaltering substance?" Baker is set to testify in support of his legislation on Beacon Hill today. The bill, which would limit prescriptions and give doctors the ability to send patients to addiction treatment, has high-profile backers like Mayor Martin J. Walsh and eight of the state's sheriffs. [continues 369 words]
The continued criminalization of marijuana and other drugs has not worked ("Ohio snuffs out Big Pot's risky push for legalization," Nov. 9). Those punitive policies, over many years, have led to serious consequences including mandatory sentencing, expensive prison overcrowding and a lack of judicial discretion. And it has entrenched the underground business of delivering and selling illegal drugs. It is common knowledge that cigarettes kill more people in the U.S. than any other drug. And alcohol use destroys more lives and destabilizes society to a far greater extent than marijuana and other drugs. The United States should apply the far more rational policies we use to control cigarettes and alcohol use to all potential addiction problems, rather than continuing the failed "War on Drugs." - - Tom Larkin, Bedford The writer is a licensed psychologist. [end]
One of the most surprising results from last week's state elections was Ohio voters voting overwhelmingly against Big Pot. By a nearly 2-to-1 margin, they defeated a ballot measure that would have permitted the legalization of marijuana in the Buckeye State. Misleadingly named Responsible-Ohio, the measure would have allowed the commercial production, retail sale and personal use of marijuana. Yet despite Big Pot's $25 million cash infusion into the effort, voters rejected the spin that marijuana legalization is safe or in the best interests of citizens. [continues 626 words]
WASHINGTON - As U.S. Sen. Rand Paul's presidential campaign goes to pot, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders stands to roll up some of his supporters - marijuana advocates and weed purveyors. Sanders, the first presidential candidate to support marijuana legalization, got a bump from the nation's largest pot advocacy group yesterday. The Marijuana Policy Project boosted Sanders' voter guide report card score from a "B" to an "A" after the Democratic Socialist said he'd vote for Nevada's pot legalization initiative if he lived in the state. [continues 334 words]
Lobel: Medical Marijuana Saved Me From Addiction Boston sportscasting icon Bob Lobel is one of the hundreds of patients in Massachusetts who say they have found an effective substitute for opioids by using medicinal marijuana. The 71-year-old longtime television reporter and anchor has dealt with chronic pain for years, the result of numerous surgeries: He's had two knee replacements, two rotator cuff surgeries, four back surgeries and, in separate accidents, fractured the tops of both femurs. "That was brutal," Lobel told the Herald, referencing the femur breaks. The constant pain left him taking a variety of opioids. [continues 1311 words]
The state Senate has taken reasonable steps to smooth the path for ex-cons who are making the transition back to life in the community. But senators left a few loose ends that the House should tie up. The bill that passed unanimously in the Senate on Thursday repeals the state law that imposes an automatic license suspension on individuals who are convicted of drug crimes, even if the crime had nothing to do with operating a motor vehicle. Critics of the law have argued the automatic suspension - and the high cost of license reinstatement - is an unreasonable obstacle to individuals trying to get their lives back together. Thirty-four other states have repealed their own versions of the law. [continues 176 words]
WASHINGTON - Don Winslow, novelist and conscientious objector to America's longest "war," was skeptical when he was in Washington on a recent Sunday morning. This was shortly after news broke about the escape, from one of Mexico's "maximum security" prisons, of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, head of the Sinaloa drug cartel. Guzman reportedly escaped through a 5-foot-tall tunnel almost a mile long and built solely for his escape. Asked about this, Winslow, his fork poised over an omelet, dryly said he thinks Guzman might actually have driven away from the prison's front gate in a Lincoln Town Car. What might seem like cynicism could be Winslow's realism. Fourteen years ago, Guzman escaped from another "maximum security" prison simply by hiding in a laundry cart. With exquisite understatement, The Wall Street Journal reports that his recent escape raised "new concerns about corruption in Mexican law enforcement." [continues 605 words]
A state lawmaker opposed to legalizing marijuana vowed to fight pro-pot ballot initiatives expected to be filed today, saying she'll join others taking on state Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg, who backs legalizing pot and already has an advance copy of one of the questions. "We all see what opioids do. I don't think we should be adding fuel to the already raging drug issues in Massachusetts," said state Rep. Colleen M. Garry (D-Dracut), who joins high-profile pols such as Gov. Charlie Baker, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo and Hub Mayor Martin J. Walsh in opposing marijuana legalization. [continues 278 words]
Federal authorities are cracking down on new designer drugs like N-Bomb, also known as "Legal LSD," hoping legislation aimed at making the synthetic hallucinogen illegal to possess in the Bay State will prevent more teen overdose deaths. "There's no such thing as a safe synthetic drug. One dose can kill you," DEA spokesman Anthony Pettigrew said of N-Bomb, a synthetic drug gaining popularity among teens that can appear in a variety of forms. "Anytime someone uses any synthetic drug, including N-Bomb, they're playing Russian roulette." [continues 445 words]
No one expects the Herald to endorse the repeal of marijuana prohibition and its replacement with a legal framework in which adults may responsibly cultivate the plant and engage in commercial activities ("The fine print on marijuana," April 20). So the polemic was expected. The Herald doubts the proposal will eliminate a black market, based upon the experience in other states. But in those cases legalization has entailed both excessive taxes and compliance costs. The Herald also complains that there is no "pot tax" in the draft law. Its silence on that topic means that sales would be subject to the 6.25 percent sales tax (though under some circumstances it may fall within one or more of the exemptions to that tax). Suppression of the black market may require imposing a lower excise tax, perhaps, a fixed-rate tax per unit similar to Massachusetts ' current tax on alcoholic beverages, collected by producers, surprisingly among the lowest in the nation. Marvin Cable, Northampton [end]
Speaking of complicated ballot questions (see above) we now have our first look at the effort to legalize the sale and use of marijuana for recreational purposes in Massachusetts and it is, to put it mildly, laughable. The draft law is exhaustive in its scope, stretches to 27 pages - and is all the proof we need that an issue like this should never be dropped in voters' laps. The group Bay State Repeal has submitted a draft of the initiative to Attorney General Maura Healey, a first step in qualifying the question for the ballot in 2016 (if lawmakers don't act first, which it appears they won't). And frankly we'd be surprised if it didn't take a whole team of assistant attorneys general months to sort through, ahem, the weeds. [continues 192 words]
The Herald's editorial misses completely the racially biased way that marijuana laws have been enforced in this country ("Snuff out pot law," March 24). That's not to mention that there is a lack of empirical evidence to show that smoking marijuana is harmful, much less harmful enough to lead to the massive numbers of related arrests in this country. In general, white people aren't harassed about marijuana anywhere near as much as black people. A study by the American Civil Liberties Union found that black people are 3.7 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than whites, even though usage rates are comparable between the races. Marijuana arrests skyrocketed over the last 20 years. There were nearly 900,000 marijuana arrests in 2010; that's 300,000 more than for all violent crimes put together. [continues 67 words]
