There are actually two ballot questions proposed by two opposing groups... one is well funded and wants to regulate and tax marijuana like alcohol and restrict personal growing, the other says to treat it like any other thing for sale and just prohibit sale to minors.
Here is an excerpt from an article published 9-15 of this year:
Attorney General Maura Healey's approval of competing
ballot questions to legalize recreational
marijuana in Massachusetts has set the stage for two dueling activist groups to begin gathering voter signatures.
The two groups take different approaches to legalization and seem disinclined to work together.
"It's just a friendly competition," said Steven Epstein, a spokesman for Bay State Repeal.
"We have cordial relations, for the most part, with the Bay State Repeal guys," said Matt Simon, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group that helped create and fund the local ballot committee, The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol.
As
previously reported, the groups submitted dueling questions on legalization.
The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol wants to substantially regulate and tax marijuana, with state and local taxes of up to 12 percent. Bay State Repeal wants to legalize it without new restrictions or taxes beyond the 6.25 percent state sales tax.
Activists with the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol argue that their approach, which would set up a new commission to oversee retail marijuana stores and would restrict the amount of marijuana a person could possess or grow, would result in the responsible use of marijuana.
Activists with Bay State Repeal believe marijuana sales should be treated the same as sales of any other product, and the only restrictions should be prohibiting sales to minors.
The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol is better funded and has more powerful backing, including from those within the marijuana industry, than Bay State Repeal. The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol raised $30,000 by the end of 2014, compared to just $3,000 by Bay State Repeal.
Now that both sides have
gotten their petitions certified by Healey, supporters of each measure must collect 64,750 signatures from voters by November 2015. Potentially, both questions could go on the November 2016 ballot.
Full article:
http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/09/competing_marijuana_legalizati.html
RS
