NO on Question 4

“I urge caution. My recommendation has been that they should go slowly and probably wait a couple of years, and let’s make sure … that there isn’t a dramatic increase in teenage usage, that there isn’t a significant increase in, you know, abuse like while driving. We don’t see it yet but the data is not perfect. And we don’t have enough data yet to make that decision.” - Gov. John W. Hickenlooper Jr., D-Colorado, on his advice for Massachusetts and four other states voting on whether to legalize marijuana for adult recreational use

Passage of Question 4 to legalize marijuana for recreational use by adults will strike Massachusetts - Maine, California, Arizona and Nevada also have similar ballot questions - like a tsunami.​

In Colorado, the industry has surged into a billion-dollar business, and would do so here if voters approve Question 4. Growers as well as retailers would spring up well beyond levels seen with medical marijuana, approved here four years ago. (Possession of small amounts was effectively downgraded to the level of a speeding ticket eight years ago.)

After all, it’s a significant business opportunity. And because marijuana is illegal under federal and adjacent state laws, it can’t legally be transported across state lines – consequently the cannabis industry would start up as a self-contained economic hothouse within Massachusetts. It would be high times and hard cash, because as in Colorado, federal money-laundering and reporting requirements would leave banks and credit card companies chary of doing business with marijuana operations. We would see marijuana tourism, at least until neighboring states caught up. A cannabis culture would evolve, complete with its own promotions. Communities could prohibit commercial operations through a townwide vote, but every adult would have the right to grow up to six marijuana plants in their residences - 12 plants for a couple - which in itself would create the potential for a significant underground market: Those 12 plants could generate $60,000 in cash. And it won’t kill the existing underground, either. Sales from your friendly neighborhood dope dealer won’t be taxed at 10- to 12-percent like the state-regulated product. Nor do those dealers have the overhead required for staffing and running a bricks and mortar business.

Once marijuana is legalized, there will be no turning back. Question 4 includes controls that mirror and go further than the control of alcoholic beverages, but bars, restaurants serving alcohol and liquor stores dot the landscape.

As unexpectedly developed in Colorado - Alaska, Oregon and Washington have also made the move - we would see a big market for edibles containing THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. THC candies, pastries and drinks, often contain much higher THC levels than plants, which themselves have higher concentrations than what boomers were smoking decades ago.

Critical issues concern THC's impact on developing brains right into people’s early 20s, potentially impacting attention, memory and problem solving, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Ingesting THC during pregnancy can impair fetal brain development and THC can be found in breast milk, according to NIDA. The agency also points to data suggesting that 30 percent of marijuana users may have “some degree” of addiction and that users younger than 18 are four to seven times more likely to develop the habit.

A potential method for testing saliva for THC may allow roadside DUI tests, but there is no reliable test or intoxication standard for impaired driving. Blood test results in cited accident figures can be unreliable; unlike alcohol, THC remains in the body for a month. This issue hits close to home. State Trooper Thomas Clardy of Hudson was killed in March when a driver charged with driving while high on marijuana crossed three lanes of the Mass Pike and smashed into Trooper Clardy’s cruiser at high speed. His widow has spoken against Question 4's passage.

The Colorado governor’s sentiments, in a 60 Minutes interview last Sunday, are no surprise – he’s said as much before. Two weeks ago, Janice B. Yost, founding president and CEO of the Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts, cited Mr. Hickenlooper’s caution as part of a panel discussion of supporters and opponents – she was opposed – during a forum sponsored by the Telegram & Gazette and The Item at Nashoba Regional High School. As she expressed it, why not wait until more is understood? Why not, indeed.

This second paragraph of this editorial has been corrected.