Some state lawmakers say it’s high time Beacon Hill hashes out a bill to legalize and tax marijuana, or, if left to voters, risk repeating the awkward ballot-to-reality rollout that’s plagued the fledgling medical marijuana industry.
“It’s almost certain to be on the ballot in 2016, I think people are going to vote for it, and I think we have the responsibility to do it right,” said state Sen. Will Brownsberger, chairman of the Legislature’s judiciary committee. “I don’t think it’s wisest to leave it to whoever is writing the ballot question.”
Legalization advocates have been quietly pitching lawmakers on draft legislation ahead of a Jan. 15 deadline, calling to tax the drug and keep it out of the hands of those under 21.
Supporters acknowledge past bills haven’t gained traction, but they argue it now comes against a changing landscape.
Four states, plus Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational marijuana, and activists have vowed to push a 2016 ballot question to Massachusetts voters, who just this month backed eight nonbinding questions to reclassify dope.
The state left approving medical marijuana to voters in 2012, but the Department of Public Health has fumbled implementing it, leaving the state with no dispensaries more than two years later.
“I think we have learned quite a bit from the mistakes of the rollout of medical marijuana, and I would hate to see those lessons be squandered by a poorly worded ballot initiative,” said state Rep. Lori Ehrlich. “It’s already been decriminalized (in 2008) and people are already using it. They’re just keeping an illicit business going.”
Any potential bill would call for putting recreational marijuana use under a different regulating authority, said Bill Downing of the pro-legalization group, Bay State Repeal. Colorado, for example, leaves it to the Department of Revenue.
“Anybody,” Downing said, “but DPH.”
State Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez, chairman of the Committee on Public Health, is resistant to embracing legal recreational use. Gov.-elect Charlie Baker has also said he doesn’t support it.
“We don’t even have control over cigarettes with young kids,” Sanchez said. “That would be a big question for me. How does this impact kids? For me, it’s the gateway issue.”
The expected resistance has advocates simultaneously working on the 2016 ballot push, which Downing estimated would cost at least $2 million.
The Marijuana Policy Project, which bankrolled the Colorado initiative, intends to play a “leading role,” according to Matt Simon, its New England political director.
“If I was a legislator, I would see it that way — that they would have the opportunity to write the law themselves,” Simon said. “And there’s a strong argument that they should seize that opportunity.”
