Marijuana legalization campaign begins in Massachusetts

[Redfairen]

Advocates of marijuana legalization, emboldened by successes with ballot questions in Colorado and Washington state, are laying the groundwork for a similar battle in Massachusetts in the next presidential election year.

“In 2016, Massachusetts will find itself in the crosshairs for cannabis reform,” said Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of NORML, a national group in favor of the legalization of marijuana.

Massachusetts voters passed measures that decriminalized possession of small amounts of the drug in 2008 and allowed its use for medical purposes in 2012 — both with more than 63 percent support. Buoyed by such results, advocates have launched a similar effort to both get a question calling for the drug’s legalization on the 2016 ballot and to raise enough money for victory.

But some critics and lawmakers caution that passage is far from guaranteed. Despite its liberal reputation, Massachusetts, analysts say, has a strong traditional strain that will make legalized marijuana a tough sell.

http://mobile.boston.com/art/35/news/local/massachusetts/2014/01/13/advocates-marijuana-legalization-turn-attention-massachusetts/MrAdSmnUclODSIk2BrmuQK/story

[MADem]

1. I support this measure--I don't know if a lot of my "rides to the polls" will though.

They're mostly party line Dems, older citizens, very straight laced.

Never too soon to start working on 'em, I guess!

[Chan790]

3. Find the interviews from a few years ago with Larry Hagman.

He talked a lot about being that same kind of older, straight-laced person until he got cancer and MMJ was basically the greatest thing ever as it took away all the side effects of nuclear medicine (both chemo and radiation therapies) and restored his ability to have a life outside of "cancer patient".

I'm pretty sure the keys to turning around those voters are in there, especially if they're of an age where they or people they know are entering that stage of life were cancer is suddenly common.

[MADem]

6. Yeah--he's a good one; a lot of my seat warmers were still very active during the

Dallas/Dynasty era and watched/liked those shows, and they all remember I Dream of Jeannie. I think that's the way to go--also a few of 'em have grandkids that got busted for weed, but they usually don't like to talk about that in a group. We're talking an age range of eighty and up, mostly; given up driving or never did because the (dead) husband did it all the time. I do have a personal story as well; an in-law whose final days were eased by the stuff, so I can go there with a "home grown" (pardon bad pun) tale, as it were..!

The best way to reach these folks, I've found, is conversation--everyone likes a nice chat, particularly those who are alone for days at a time. A phone call or a chit-chat on the way to the doctor's office or the grocery store (I offer rides on odd occasion, maybe I'll start stepping it up a bit) might move the vote a bit in my small universe--I think we're all gonna have to do that, a lot of talk-talk-talk. I hope NORML and other advocacy groups take out some doggone ads. And I hope like hell they're good, too!

[Politicalboi]

2. We need to push legalization for 2014

It would bring more people out to vote, and we could possibly take the house back. We need legalization NOW, not in 2 years.

[Chan790]

4. That would make no difference in MA.

They, like CT, have no swing districts. It would merely act to boost "yes" turnout in districts we already control or would otherwise easily win and boost "no" turnout in the conservative-heavy districts. (In CT, it would most-likely lose Democrats a Congressional seat...we win CT-5 despite the demographic-trend and voter-registration favoring the GOP because they're that beaten--they have neither candidates to run, accomplishments to run-on or anything to serve as motivation to get out voters. Put pot on the ballot and you've just given the GOP something to run on.)

If we were going to do that, it makes more sense to target a local elections year. Win local elections and you control everything.

We should never be putting these things on the ballot in Presidential or House voting years in liberal states where there are no districts to swing, always targeting the low-turnout local years. That's that last bastion of hope in these areas for conservatives...they can/do manage to hold close to 50% in local elections even in the bluest states.

If you could turn out an extra 5000-10000 voters for legal weed in 2015 or 2017...you can destroy the entire local bench of the GOP and win a lot of school boards, selectperson seats and mayoral races.

[tridim]

5. The "tradition" of Cannabis in this country is that of LEGAL, effective, natural medicine.

Prohibition is not a tradition, it's a huge mistake.