Marijuana Has Rocked the West Coast, And Now New England Is the Next Frontier for Reform

New England may be the next frontier for reforming the nation's marijuana laws.

Maine and Rhode Island are moving toward creating a dispensary system for medical marijuana, and Massachusetts decriminalized marijuana in 2008. In Connecticut and Vermont, incoming governors are expected to be much more sympathetic to similar moves than their predecessors were. New Hampshire's legislature passed a medical-marijuana bill this year, but its upper house failed to override a veto by Gov. John Lynch.

In contrast, the other Northeastern states are moving much more slowly. New Jersey's new medical-marijuana law is the most restrictive in the nation, as it limits patients to four state-licensed clinics. Maryland and Washington, DC, are expected to pass or implement similar policies next year. And New York, despite its liberal reputation, continues to have the most petty pot busts in the country.

"The East Coast is going to be a little slow," says Neill Franklin, head of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. "New England is the area to watch."

Last October, a Gallup poll found that 47 percent of Northeasterners supported legalization, the second highest regional level in the nation after the West's 58 percent. More than 60 percent of liberals and people under 30 backed it, but only around 30 percent of Republicans, conservatives, and people over 65 did.

New England

In Massachusetts, where voters in 2008 reduced the penalty for marijuana possession to a $100 fine, "the prospects are so bright we've got to wear shades," says Bill Downing of MASS CANN, the state affiliate of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Last November, voters in nine legislative districts endorsed "public policy questions" advising their representatives to support legal, taxed, and regulated cannabis sales. The questions that specified regulations similar to those for alcohol all won more than 60 percent. Nine districts also endorsed legalizing medical marijuana, with a high of 72 percent in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston. The medical referenda were put on the ballot in districts where the 2008 decriminalization initiative, Question 2, did not do well, Downing says.

Whether this will translate into legislation is another story. Bills to legalize medical marijuana will be refiled in the state legislature next year, but a measure to put regular marijuana sales under regulations similar to those for alcohol and tobacco doesn't have a sponsor, says Downing. Still, he predicts that Massachusetts "will be the first state in the U.S. to legalize marijuana"--although if it paralleled the Bay State's liquor laws, you couldn't buy any on Sundays.

Whitney Taylor of the Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union, which is backing the medical-marijuana bill, is less optimistic. Public policy questions, she says, "have a wonderful history of passing by great margins and a very poor history of influencing legislators. I've had legislators look me in the eye and say, 'I don't care.'" Lawmakers will also very likely face a campaign by the state's prosecutors to restrict or dismantle the decriminalization law, she adds.

"The Question 2 battle is not over," she warns.

Rhode Island, meanwhile, is on its way to becoming the first East Coast state with medical-marijuana dispensaries. The state government has licensed four "compassion centers," and patients who don't want to go through that system can still grow their own, says Caren Woodson, government affairs director of Americans for Safe Access. She praises the state for having "managed to figure out how to evolve the law while focusing on patient individuality."

With Gov. Donald Carcieri, who vetoed the medical-marijuana bill, now out of office, the stage may be set for "a serious legislative push" starting with decrim and eventually full legalization, says Paul Armentano of NORML.