[420 Girl]

Most voters in Massachusetts are being asked only one question about marijuana on this year’s ballot, but some people in Pembroke will be asked for their opinion on a second marijuana-related question.

Question 4 affects only the district that State Rep.Daniel Webster, R-Pembroke, represents. This question reads “Shall the State Representative from this district be instructed to vote in favor of legislation that would allow seriously ill patients, with their doctor’s written recommendation, to possess and grow small amounts of marijuana for their personal medical use?”

Activists from the Drug Policy Forum of Massachusetts have placed this question in four State Representatives’ districts this year, including the 6th Plymouth District, which includes Hanson, four precincts of Duxbury, precinct 2 of Halifax and Pembroke.

“One of our goals is to do public policy questions in the district of (Congressman) Steve Lynch, and we’ve covered half of his district, and we have some activists based on the South Shore — so for those reasons we picked the 6th Plymouth District of Daniel Webster,” said Scott Mortimer, an activist for DPFMA. “(Webster) is on the judiciary committee, so they are the ones we want to demonstrate to that their constituents support marijuana reform.”
Lynch represents two precincts in Hanson.

The question is a nonbinding Public Policy Question, which allows citizens to place nonbinding policy issues on the ballot in any district by obtaining a predetermined numbers of signatures from individuals registered to vote in that district. According to the DPFMA Web site, Public Policy Questions, known as PPQs, afford voters the opportunity to communicate to their elected officials their opinions on any given policy issue.

Because Question 4 is nonbinding, it’s purpose is only to give elected officials a read on how their constituents feel about a particular subject.

“It’s just people having the ability to tell their reps about an issue,” said Bill Downing, president of the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition. “When your constituency gives you a strong message, you would think they would respond by following their suggestion. I have a feeling often times enough if they don’t, then they will find themselves out of a job. Its a little bit of arm-twisting, I suppose.”

Regardless of how people vote, Webster, who has the deciding voice on the subject, won’t back the proposal.

“I’m against it as proposed,” he said. “The way we need to approach it is different from how it is proposed on this question. I may look at it differently, but to simply have a doctor prescribe and allow patients to use it without appropriately determining how it will be distributed, in my view is going to lead to all kinds of use for illegal activity.”

DPFMA has used the PPQ system over the last seven years to show state officials that the people of Massachusetts are ready for reform.

“I expect it to pass, and I expect it to build up more evidence that Massachusetts is ready for this move,” said Mortimer.

“I think the message is that the people in Pembroke may recognize that marijuana could have some benefit as a prescription drug,” said Webster. “That’s a sign that the debate needs to be continued, and if that’s the case we need to ensure its being used for valid purposes, and the legislature would have to craft it as such in some manner that normal drugs are prescribed.”

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