DENVER — Eight state senators are flying into Colorado this week for a primer on life in a state that has already legalized marijuana, in case Massachusetts voters follow suit this November and lawmakers have to decide quickly how to respond.
They’re poised to see a cultivation facility, tour a marijuana dispensary, and pepper top state, municipal, and law-enforcement officials with questions about the implementation of the voter-approved law. The four-day trip is being arranged and paid for by the New York-based Milbank Memorial Fund, which describes itself as a nonpartisan health policy foundation.
While lawmakers regularly travel to educate themselves about issues of public import, the context for the Colorado trip makes it unusual: Beacon Hill leaders have made clear there is not the political interest or will to pass a legalization bill, but they have floated the idea of tinkering with a legalization law, if it garners sufficient signatures to make the statewide ballot and if voters approve it.
Senator Jason M. Lewis, chairman of the special Senate committee on marijuana and leader of the trip, said if voters greenlight the proposal, the Legislature might want to pass laws to address issues the referendum doesn’t substantively address — such as drugged driving — and might also want to change the law itself.
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