Marijuana-Legalization Ballot Initiative to Be Filed Today in Massachusetts

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A highly anticipated statewide ballot initiative to regulate marijuana like alcohol in Massachusetts will be filed today at 1 p.m. ET with the office of state Attorney General Maura Healy, according to a press release issued by the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (CRMLA).

Following the attorney general’s review, CRMLA will be required to collect 64,750 Massachusetts-voter signatures during a nine-week period from September to November. The petition would then move on to the Massachusetts Legislature. If the legislature does not adopt the measure, CRMLA will need collect 10,792 signatures in June 2016 in order to secure a place for the initiative on the November 2016 ballot.

“Next year, voters will have the opportunity to end the failed policy of prohibition and replace it with a more sensible system,” campaign director Will Luzier, a former assistant attorney general who previously served as executive director of the Massachusetts Interagency Council on Substance Abuse and Prevention, commented in the release. “Marijuana is significantly less harmful than alcohol, and our laws should reflect that.”

Recent polls indicate that voter support is substantial enough to pass the initiative, should it make it to the ballot. According to a poll conducted earlier this year by Suffolk University and the Boston Herald, 53 percent of Massachusetts voters favor legalization, while 37 percent oppose it. Ten percent remain undecided.

CRMLA offered a summary of what the proposed initiative would do. It would:

  • allow adults 21 and older to possess up to one ounce of marijuana and grow a limited number of marijuana plants in their homes, similar to home-brewing;
  • create a tightly regulated system of licensed marijuana retail outlets, cultivation facilities, product manufacturing facilities, and testing facilities, which will be overseen by a commission similar to the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission (ABCC);
  • provide local governments with the authority to regulate and limit the number of marijuana establishments in their city or town; and
  • create a 3.75% state excise tax on retail marijuana sales (in addition to the standard state sales tax) and allow local governments to establish an additional local sales tax of up to 2%. [Medical marijuana will NOT be subject to these additional taxes.]
  • “The primary objective of this initiative is to actually start controlling marijuana in Massachusetts,” Luzier said. “Marijuana should be produced and sold by legitimate, taxpaying businesses, not gangs and cartels. The much-needed tax revenue it will generate is just a bonus.”


    Feature photo adapted from: © Raya | Dreamstime.com - Blue Map Of USA. 3d Photo

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