A special state Senate committee report on this fall’s ballot question about legalizing the recreational use of marijuana won’t be the final word on the subject. But it’s a good place to start.
Recognizing that voters may make pot use legal, the committee provided a sober examination of the issues associated with legalization without taking a stand on whether voters should endorse that shift.
Committee members make clear they have serious concerns about the impact legalization would have on public health, safety and finances. They urge a cautious and deliberate approach to legalization, a process the Legislature has a significant role in shaping. The committee considered the possibilities in Massachusetts and elsewhere. Seventy-five experts appeared before the panel senators spent roughly a week in Colorado, which legalized the sale and use in 2014.
In the past year, an estimated 885,000 Massachusetts residents have used marijuana recreationally, according to the Senate panel, with people under 25 making up almost half. One alarming figure: one in four high school students used marijuana in that time.
Such statistics prompted the committee to recommend priorities for minimizing harms that may accompany legalization: not sanctioning marijuana use by people under 21; minimizing the risk of increased addiction; creating a regulated marketplace and avoiding an underground market for pot sales; generating revenue to pay for state regulation and education. On the revenue side, the report recommends an excise tax of between 5 percent to 15 percent from growers, a sales tax specifically targeting marijuana of 10 percent to 20 percent, and a local option sales tax of up to 5 percent. This would generate more revenue than the ballot question provision for a 3.75 percent excise tax on retail sales (on top of the state’s sales tax), as well as an additional 2 percent local option tax.
The committee’s thoroughness in research is to be commended. The public should not buy into the criticism of the report that activists, such as the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, have leveled. State leaders have a responsibility to see that ballot question does more than simply legalize pot; they also must do what they can to minimize the risks of the potential shift. With their report, the senators have given Massachusetts a solid place to start.