Before your uninformed celeb-rag-reading co-worker tries to sell you an urban legend about how it's now legal to smoke blunts in public, here's what really happened on Beacon Hill last week regarding marijuana decriminalization in the Commonwealth.

The Mental Health and Substance Abuse Committee advanced legislation that would lower the maximum penalty for anyone caught holding less than an ounce of trees from up to six months in prison to a shoulder-brushing $250 fine. The proposal (which must pass the House, Senate and maybe the corner office), passed through committee by a margin of 6-1, with the only nay coming from Rep. Brian Wallace (D-South Boston), who rejected the measure on the presumption that marijuana opens doors to more dangerous substances.

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