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Mass District Attorneys Still Fighting Question 2


For a group that struts around condemning pot smokers, the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association (MDAA) is one wacky bunch of lazy bureaucrats.

The State House News Service (SHNS) today delivered an expected whopper: Governor Deval Patrick, Attorney General Martha Coakley, and their incompetent minions can’t, or, more accurately, are unwilling to, accommodate policy adjustments required by the passage of Question 2.

Here we have a typical scenario in which government officials condescend to reporters (and, ultimately, to the public) as if we have no clue about the difficulty of their jobs. They’re basically claiming that people don’t understand the logistics required to get a damn thing done around here.

“There are very, very significant implementation problems,” MDAA Executive Director Geline Williams told the SHNS about marijuana decriminalization. Added Berkshire County District Attorney David Capeless: “There are some very serious issues which aren’t necessarily going to get resolved.”

This reaction would be understandable if their attitude was that, despite obstacles, officials are working hard to move from criminal to civil penalties. After all, they are required to set up counseling for youth offenders, and to train police officers not to cuff and stuff pot smokers caught with less than one ounce.

But, instead, district attorneys are essentially saying that since they don’t approve of Question 2, they’ll drag their feet as long as possible. Their message: We should leave flawed legislation in tact for their convenience.

“It seems to me that the district attorneys are still campaigning,” says Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy (CSMP) Organizer Whitney Taylor. “They continue to use ‘The sky is going to fall’ rhetoric, which is clearly untrue. We wrote this [law] to fit into the current system. It can be implemented as is.”

We know that – in the lead up to this past election – district attorneys refused to consult authorities in the dozen states that have already adopted similar laws. But now it’s time to sponge the spilled milk and do some research. I’ll make it easy for them – here’s a web site with resources.   

Surely, Commonwealth officials are not suggesting that the Massachusetts courts and legal system are less sophisticated than those in Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.  

Lastly, it’s time for some legislators to find enough courage to champion this measure. In addition to the fact that it’s no longer a political liability (65 percent of voters showed that they tolerate marijuana), this would be a sweet chance for a representative to prove that he or she can organize within this tragically flawed bureaucracy.

This law is supposed to hit the books 30 days from tomorrow, when the Governor’s Council finally certifies the November 4 election results. If someone – or, better yet, all of us – don’t step up soon and express some outrage we’re sure to see the will of voters be shamelessly disregarded.

  • Zack Black said:

    Chris Faraone for state rep or Governor.

    "For a group that struts around condemning pot smokers, the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association (MDAA) is one wacky bunch of lazy bureaucrats."

    Or you could keep writing a column I want to read and force these hacks to do the right thing. Thank you for speaking for the 65% of voters, 1,900,000+ people that cared enough to vote YES on Question 2. Many of us, especially the under 40 crowd and working class (which the hacks are not usually a part of) have either been screwed (like myself for 1 medical joint, barring me from employment, bringing up issues with my professional licenses) or know folks that it has happened to. It's a waste of time and money. Martha Coakley, Deval Patrick, you should be ashamed of yourselves playing this game. There's a bigger change coming, even bigger than this Question 2 victory that I pushed to bring to my state and predicted would win.

    Martha and Deval, we will remember. We'll remember that when the jobs got sent away, the banks collapsed and stole our life savings from us that you kept wasting our time, money, energy, youth, public good will, blocking the youth and minority communities you pretend to care about but really don't, from getting decent jobs over 1 joint.

    Wacky and lazy hack politicians, paid by corporations to screw over the people that vote them in.

    The MA state Democratic party is not compassionate, they are not decent, they are not logical, they are hacks and many of them are have again and again been proven to be crooks too. It's expected. But yes lazy wacky dolts, too. At their best.

    Don't vote for the hacks. Vote them out and run against them. I'm working on finding a candidate to run against the Democrat that won't follow the will of his people and support this. Enough is enough.

    December 3, 2008 6:50 AM
  • kim said:

    there are other issues to work on, like the growing crack problem, the increasing problem with prescription drug abuse, from the dr.'s office to the streets, maybe they havent noticed the real drug problems, or maybe they're aren't issues.Now who's high????

    December 9, 2008 9:42 PM
  • stabill said:

    we voted and put the f*ing propostion into effect. they need to shut the f* up and get on more with more serious issues such as unprecedented unemployment, wall st crooksters stealing BILLIONS of dollars, and all of the other f*ing problems this state faces. the last thing patrick and coakley need to worry about is who is smoking weed and who is not.

    December 21, 2008 2:24 PM

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