http://wcvb.com/news/politics/Out-of-state-cash-shaping-Massachusetts-ballot-...
Responding to WCVB & New England Center for Investigative Reporting- Peter Lewis MA Medical Marijuana Question 3 expose featuring video from our youtube.
Medical Marijuana not a grassroots movement?
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I
am the treasurer and a former president of the Massachusetts
Cannabis Reform Coalition, otherwise known as MASS CANN, a state
affiliate of NORML. For 24 years MASS CANN/NORML has worked toward more
moral and reasonable cannabis policies in Massachusetts, including the
medicinal application of cannabis.
Your article, “Out-of-state
cash
shaping Massachusetts ballot measure prospects” accurately points out
that the funding for Q3 comes primarily from out-of-state sources, but
is not accurate when it states that, “An
out-of-state billionaire and deep-pocketed interest groups have hijacked the ballot measure process in Massachusetts.” http://necir-bu.org/investigations/out-of-state-cash-shaping-massachusetts-ballot-measure-prospects/
$1m
is not enough to change Massachusetts voters’
minds about any political issue. If medical marijuana was an unpopular
proposal, it would take much more than $1m. to have it pass a ballot
initiative. $1m is just barely enough to run a campaign. Also, the money
would not have come to Massachusetts without
strong evidence an initiative would pass.
It
would be more accurate to write that out-of-state
funding is enabling a grassroots effort for over 20 years by ordinary
citizens, like those who comprise our membership. These funders have
been courted by the Committee for Compassionate Medicine, Mass.
Patients’ Alliance, the Drug Policy Foundation of Mass.
(DPFMA) and MASS CANN/NORML. They are not uninvited hijackers. Quite the
opposite.
There
is a long, rich history of citizen efforts on behalf of the provision
of medicinal cannabis. I was one of two operations managers for the
Massachusetts Coalition
for Medicinal Cannabis (MC2)
and managed a team of volunteer petitioners who, in 1990, gathered over
13,000 signatures in support of a Cambridge City Council home-rule
petition supporting medicinal marijuana. MC2 kick started a chain of events that culminated in:
• The December 1991 passage of the “Cannabis Therapeutic Research Act”,
• Our Commonwealth’s very open request to the federal government for either access to, or permission to grow, marijuana, and
•
Passage of the “Joe Hutchins Act: A medical necessity defense for the
possession of marijuana”, which was signed by Governor Weld in August
1996.
In addition, in support of medical cannabis MASS CANN activists have:
• Lectured and published writings on many aspects of medical cannabis for many years
•
Spoken repeatedly on request at Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs, Harvard
University, Clark University, MIT, Babson College, Wellesley High School
and dozens of other venues
across the state
• Done about 100 radio shows and a couple of dozen television shows
• Participated in about twenty debates and
· Worked with DPFMA to
run 11 medicinal marijuana public policy questions on local ballots in every demography in Massachusetts.
Those
11 public policy questions asked actual voters while they were actually
voting whether the support medicinal use of cannabis or not. They have
all passed with
an average of 69.55% of voters voting in support of medical cannabis.
District
|
Yes
|
No
|
Y/N%*
|
#
|
YR
|
Current Incumbent
2009-2010 |
Fourth Barnstable
|
14,315
|
8,804
|
62%
|
2000
|
Sarah K. Peake (D)
|
|
Third Berkshire
|
10,909
|
4,173
|
72%
|
2004
|
||
First Middlesex
|
15,677
|
5,423
|
74%
|
2008
|
||
Twenty-First Middlesex
|
14,154
|
5,915
|
71%
|
2008
|
Charles A. Murphy (D),
|
|
Twenty-Fourth Middlesex
|
14,551
|
4,705
|
76%
|
2004
|
||
Sixth Norfolk
|
10,791
|
4,506
|
71%
|
2004
|
||
Seventh Norfolk
|
8,386
|
4,820
|
64%
|
2006
|
||
Thirteenth Norfolk
|
16,372
|
6,125
|
73%
|
2008
|
Lida E. Harkins (D)
|
|
Sixth Plymouth
|
15,267
|
6,155
|
71%
|
2008
|
||
Seventh Plymouth
|
13,784
|
5,902
|
70%
|
2004
|
||
Fourteenth Worcester**
|
6,717
|
4,197
|
61%
|
2002
|
The
money may come from out-of-state, but the effort to get Q3 on the
ballot was driven by us Massachusetts 99%ers and support of the effort
is very strong among voters
already. As I wrote before, rather than hijacking, these funders are
enabling a populist effort.
On
the other hand, there are clear explanations why the opposition to Q3
is so bereft of funding. Their only supporters, as you mention in your
article are, “A
loose coalition of substance abuse educators and counselors…”. Unlike us
volunteer activists substance “abuse” educators and counselors have a
professional, financial interest in maintaining reefer madness hysteria.
These people, with vested financial interests,
seem to be our only citizen organized opposition.
Bill Downing, Treasurer
MASS CANN/NORML
(781) 944-CANN (2266)
POB 211, Reading, MA 01867-0311
Nice post!
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