Voters’ approval of medical use of marijuana on Tuesday is already prompting questions about the readiness of beleaguered state health regulators, local communities, and police to oversee the retail outlets where the drug will be sold.
The law, which won majorities in all but two Massachusetts communities, takes effect Jan. 1. But some groups, including the Massachusetts Municipal Association, are calling on the Legislature to delay it. Town officials must draft zoning rules stipulating where the distribution centers may be located — or whether to allow them at all — and police departments are grappling with how to deal with a law that is in direct conflict with federal drug policy and their own training.
Comments
If you follow what's happening in California, people will begin to visit their doctor with complaints of everything from headaches to sore backs.
You want to be the arbiter of who is sick enough? Do you also look at handicap car stickers and secretly think their medical issue isn't important enough for a placard?
Delays cost money too. It may not be popular to all but this was passed by the people and for the people so everyone has to deal with it. This bill will start to reduce crime and bring in much needed tax revenue. Implement now!
Pot classed as medicine cannot be taxed. Clinics are non-profit and cannot be taxed. New legislation should be filed making the pot industry liable for regulation expense.
Why can't they be distributed by prescription in pharmacies, just like all other drugs?
No doubt the Feds would yank the pharmacy's controlled drug license.
salemreader: the feds wouldnt dare. ever hear of the Tenth Amendment?? this is a local matter; the drug is not in interstate commerce ... would be a nice piece of litigation. the conservatives should back it like they rallied to the second amendment lawsuits, no??
Delay implementation? You mean like with the income tax rollback? Don't even think about it. Look at the numbers.
reminds me of Coakley and police response to prior referendum ... HEY other states have somehow managed to implement medical marijuana ... get over yourselves, follow the law. the rest of us comply with laws we may not be excited about. any Commonwealth elected official or bureaucrat who cant follow the law should be ousted.
Mass. is taking the usual baby steps, like Colorado has (in Breckenridge its now legal under two out of three jurisdictions). For most people, nothing in day-to-day life will change, as in Colorado. Now Mass. needs to take the next right step and legalize weed for all adults, like Colorado has: tax it and regulate it, same as alcohol. Its time to make money from it, not waste money prosecuting it.
Representative Jeffrey Sanchez is an arch opponent of medical marijuana. He has prevented any bill from leaving his committee, which is why the referendum route had to be used.