Senators to go to Colorado to explore legal marijuana state

By Matt Murphy
BOSTON — When it comes to understanding marijuana policy and its potential implications for Massachusetts, some senators are willing to go a mile high for their work.

The Special Senate Committee on Marijuana, led by Winchester Democrat Sen. Jason Lewis, plans to travel to Colorado in January when they will spend a week exploring how that state regulates and controls the legal recreational use of marijuana.

Four states and the District of Columbia have legalized the recreational use of marijuana. Proponents behind a ballot question to legalize pot in Massachusetts appeared Wednesday to clear the first major signature hurdle to put the question before voters in 2016.
Senate President Stanley Rosenberg said during an interview on Boston Public Radio on Wednesday that Lewis’ committee, which now has 10 members, would be taking a “field trip to Colorado” to study the public policy impacts of legalizing the recreational use of the drug.
For months, the task force had been a committee of one, but Rosenberg said that once it became clear petitioners were likely to be successful in gathering enough signatures to put the question on the ballot next November more senators stepped up to participate and help with research.
The Amherst Democrat said he still believed it to be highly unlikely the Legislature could vote to legalize marijuana before next year’s election in order to have a greater say in how it’s regulated, citing opposition from Gov. Charlie Baker and House leaders to considering a bill.
Lewis told The Boston Globe that committee members would be meeting with state officials, law enforcement and industry stakeholders in Colorado to look at how the state has regulated home growing and responded to driving under the influence of marijuana and youth consumption.
He also told the newspaper he did not think it would be necessary to sample the product.
Lewis’s special committee plans to issue a report before the end of February with recommendations for the regulation of the pot industry should a ballot question pass in 2016. Massachusetts voters have already voted to legalize medical marijuana and to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana.

The week-long, fact-finding trip will be paid for by the Milbank Memorial Fund, according to the Globe and confirmed by a Lewis aide. The Milbank Memorial Fund is a New York foundation focused on improving public health by connecting policymakers with “the best available evidence and experience,” according to its website.