Will marijuana be legal in Massachusetts by 2016?
Having won decriminalization and the legalization of marijuana for medical use through the use of the ballot, activists are now planning to put a full legalization referendum before Massachusetts voters during the next presidential election, in 2016.
"We won't have to have it on the ballot again after we've finally repealed the prohibition," said William Downing, who has been involved in marijuana activism since 1989 and is the treasurer of a newly registered ballot committee called Bay State Repeal.
Last November, as Massachusetts approved medical marijuana, voters in Washington and Colorado fully legalized and regulated the drug. Both opponents and proponents said they will be watching how the new policy fares in those states to make their case to voters in 2016.
Downing said Massachusetts was the first state in the nation to restrict marijuana, prohibiting doctors from prescribing it in 1913, well before it was outlawed federally in 1937. Downing also sees parallels between the legal marijuana movement and the people who successfully repealed alcohol prohibition, which unlike marijuana, was enshrined in a constitutional amendment.
http://www.lowellsun.com/breakingnews/ci_24477271/will-marijuana-be-legal-massachusetts-by-2016
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