By Ryan McCollum

The recent straw vote of the Springfield Regional Chamber supporting the legalization of marijuana in Massachusetts adds to the anti-prohibition momentum not just in the Bay State, nor the country, but in North America and beyond.

In Canada, new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made marijuana legalization a top priority. In Mexico, the Supreme Court has opened the door to legal adult use. In Uruguay, legislators in 2014 passed the most far-reaching marijuana reform laws in the world.

Adult marijuana use is legal in four states, and the District of Columbia, and has been decriminalized in 16 others. Medical marijuana is legal in 23 states, including all of New England. Marijuana has been legalized, decriminalized, or designated as the lowest police priority in 42 American cities.

There are many compelling social and policy reasons for this sea change.

First, more Americans than ever recognize the hypocrisy of outlawing marijuana while allowing the legal sale of alcohol. By every objective and scientific measure, marijuana is less toxic and less addictive than alcohol and does not contribute to reckless or violent behavior.

Second, the theory of marijuana as a "gateway" to addiction has been thoroughly debunked. Study after study has shown that individuals who suffer from substance use disorder first report the use of cigarettes and alcohol. The current heroin and opiate crisis that has hit Western Massachusetts and our state so hard is directly attributable not to marijuana but to the explosion of opioid prescriptions in the past 15 years.

Third, statistics from Colorado and other marijuana-legal states show no increase in teen use. In fact, the Healthy Kids Colorado survey in 2013, the first full year of legalization, showed past-30-day teen use dropping slightly.

As Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper – a former opponent of marijuana legalization – put it last September, "Most people who were not smoking marijuana before it was legalized still don't."

Fourth, the Pollyannaish notion that keeping marijuana illegal will keep it out of teen hands is blind to reality. There is a thriving illegal marijuana market in Springfield and Massachusetts today. Every market-reduction tactic used by law enforcement agencies over the last 100 years has failed. Obtaining marijuana is as easy today as it has ever been, and illicit dealers who reap rewards from their efforts don't ask for IDs.

More simply, keeping marijuana illegal is an implicit endorsement of the flourishing market dominated by the very gangs and crews that plague Springfield today, never mind the countless lives ruined by involvement in the criminal justice system for simple possession.



Fortunately, Massachusetts voters next November will have a chance to alter the state's failed marijuana policy. A ballot petition signed by more than 100,000 residents proposes to end marijuana prohibition and replace it with a system to regulate marijuana like alcohol.

Key to this initiative is the creation of an oversight agency similar to the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission to establish controls, award licenses, collect taxes and enforce regulations. The new agency would be funded by an excise tax on marijuana sales, meaning no existing state funds would be required.

In addition, the state would collect the existing 6.25-percent sales tax, and municipalities would be allowed to impose a local tax of up to two percent. Using marijuana in public would be prohibited, similar to the state's open-container law for alcohol.

This is the right direction for Massachusetts and Springfield. Instead of gangs, proceeds from sales would benefit legitimate businesses offering safe, inspected products – along with customer age verification.

Growing our entrepreneur base and creating jobs is like killing two birds with one stone; the economy will get a boost while the illicit market will be decimated.

Much needed law enforcement resources would be redirected toward activities that pose actual threats to the public, rather than on enforcement of wrong-headed laws punishing adults for choosing a substance less dangerous than alcohol.

Perhaps most important, Massachusetts would close the books on a policy rooted in hyperbole and hysteria that has ruined lives, burdened courts, filled prisons and fueled profits for violent gangs.

Policy shifts as major as this aren't easy. Decades of reefer-madness messaging are tough to shake off.

Massachusetts voters should not ignore the opportunity before them. We have a chance in November to end the miserable failure of prohibition. Let's join other states and countries to do just that.



Ryan McCollum is a Springfield-based political consultant with RMC Strategies

