Mass State House Smoke Signals J42 By Mike Cann
Is marijuana legalization coming to Massachusetts sooner than November <strong>2016</strong>? Local advocates hope so with two new marijuana reform bills filed with the Mass Legislature as well as a new Marijuana Legalization Committee just established by the new MA Senate President, Stanley Rosenberg. Good news are the house bills; HD3436, An Act to Regulate and Tax the Cannabis Industry sponsored by Rep. David Rogers, Cambridge and HD1502 which aims to help legal medical marijuana patients get access and employment protection among other things. HD1502 is sponsored by Frank Smizik, Brookline. As of press time, it has been confirmed that both bills have been filed, text of the bills has not yet been released, posted to the State House website. Mass Patients Advocacy Alliance which helped write HD1502 has posted a summary of that bill, which most importantly hopes to protect legal patients in need by lifting the arbitrary and cruel caregiver limits that the Mass Dept. of Public Health enacted. MPAA’s Deputy Director, Nichole Snow released this statement to us, “Over the last two years, I have attended wakes and funerals of patients that were waiting for safe access since the passage of the Act for Humanitarian Medical Use of Marijuana of 2012..Through HD 1502, we are asking to expand patient protections through ending employment, residential, and education discriminations. We are also asking to exempt medical marijuana from taxation and to increase the amount of patients that caregivers can serve if they do not have a dispensary open near their homes. The status of the medical marijuana program is a public safety emergency. Patients live in fear of losing their homes or their employment. Some patients continue to receive substandard medication on the black market to treat life threatening illnesses. This makes matters worse by forcing them to be involved in criminal activity or worse; exacerbating an already dire health situation.” “The Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance will continue to ask Representatives to sign on as cosponsors to “An Act to protect patients approved by physicians and certified by the department of public health to access medical marijuana.” “It’s not a tough question. Patients deserve these protections.” “One dispensary is not enough to treat all. We need caregivers serving more than one patient.” Meanwhile the Rep Rogers sponsored bill HD3436 would hope to legalize marijuana for those 21+ with reports that it is a comprehensive bill which would legalize retail outlets and cafes, allow home grow provisions, and even hope to grant blanket amnesty for past marijuana offenses. All good news, right? Yes, but then there’s Senate Leader Rosenberg and Charlie Baker. Rosenberg after announcing his Legalization Committee went on Boston Herald Radio making the case that the Initiative process for marijuana reform is not the preferred way to pass “controversial” laws, that the Legislature could do it better than reformers who passed decrim in 2008, medical marijuana in 2012, with plans for a legalization initiative for <strong>2016</strong>. New Republican Governor Charlie Baker quickly responded that he supported Rosenberg’s move to study legalization but that he was still firmly in opposition to any bill that would hope to legalize cannabis. Rosenberg for all his harping about how this Committee would do better than Initiative process totally left out (as did the Herald interviewers) that reformers have only turned to the Initiative process because after decades of hearings, studies and double talk at the State House, no new laws. If we had waited for the state house to get it perfect? We’d still be talking about decrim, never mind fixing medical and going legal. It’s been decades since any marijuana reform bill in Massachusetts has been allowed to pass Democratic leadership in their various legislative committees to even allow a final vote on the floor. It remains to be seen if Rosenberg will help steer either bill out of Committee should they be introduced in the Senate. If there’s any leadership up there, Baker and Rosenberg will help push HD1502 and finally implement the medical marijuana as intended the first time around before Governor Patrick’s Department of Public Health. destroyed it. In <strong>2016</strong>, expect legalization to be on the ballot on MA and that most local politicians are blowing smoke signals about it until then. J43
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