Baker, Walsh, DeLeo lead campaign against legal pot
Governor Charlie Baker, Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh and House Speaker Robert DeLeo are leading an organized charge against the legalization of marijuana.
Republican Gov. Charlie Baker has joined forces with Democrats House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Boston Mayor Martin Walsh to mount an organized opposition to legalizing marijuana in Massachusetts.
The three top elected officials have previously expressed their opposition to legalizing adult use of marijuana, but their alignment with a new campaign formalizes their roles in working to defeat the proposal, which was well-received in a recent public opinion poll.
A statewide survey of 497 registered voters conducted earlier this month by the Western New England University Polling Institute found that 57 percent of voters favor marijuana legalization while 35 percent are opposed. Seven percent said they were undecided.
The Campaign for a Safe and Healthy Massachusetts will combine the political might of Baker, DeLeo and Walsh to try and stop the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, which is behind the ballot question that would legalize the use of marijuana by adults 21 and older and make it available through a regulated retail industry.
In announcing the campaign, "concerns about the health risks to young people and of allowing the billion-dollar marijuana industry into Massachusetts" were cited as being among the leading reasons the officials are opposing marijuana legalization.
"We will join healthcare professionals, law enforcement, educators and family advocates to educate the public about the risks associated with this dangerous proposal and the serious adverse consequences facing states who have adopted similar laws," Baker said in a statement.
The campaign's steering committee includes Sen. Jason Lewis, Sen. Vinny deMacedo, Rep. Paul Donato, Rep. Hannah Kane, Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe, former Baker campaign manager and senior advisor Jim Conroy, Walsh political advisor David Stone, and Corey Welford, former chief of staff to both former Attorney General Martha Coakley and current Attorney General Maura Healey.
Lewis is chair of the Special Senate Committee on Marijuana and led a delegation of senators to Colorado earlier this year to study the implementation of legal cannabis there. That committee released a report stocked with warnings about legalization and laying out recommended alterations to the ballot initiative language, if it is approved by voters.
The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol responded Thursday and said the continued prohibition of marijuana is more dangerous than making the substance legally available through a regulated system.
"Our campaign will not allow our opponents to claim the high road on matters of public health and safety. The truth is that the greatest danger associated with marijuana is its illegal status," Communications Director Jim Borghesani said in a statement. "Our opponents seem to prefer that criminals control the marijuana market and sell untested, unlabeled products to people of any age."
In its own statement, the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy Massachusetts said the proposed ballot question "is written by and for the corporate interests that have profited from legalization across the country" and warned that legalizing cannabis use in Massachusetts would erode progress made in the fight against the state's opioid abuse epidemic.
"As we face a substance addiction crisis of epic proportions, I oppose measures that make it easier to introduce young people to drug use," DeLeo said in the statement.
Borghesani rejected the notion that marijuana use can be equated with opioid misuse or abuse.
"The blurring of lines between drugs in this country is a pattern that started with Richard Nixon more than four decades ago. And it has caused more harm than good," Borghesani said in the statement. "We need to be honest with our kids -- heroin kills, marijuana does not. There is no more evidence that using marijuana leads to heroin than there is that riding a tricycle leads to joining the Hells Angels."
Campaign for a Safe and Healthy Massachusetts organizers said the campaign seeks to be a vehicle for health care providers, community leaders, addiction recovery advocates, educators, business groups and first responders to share their opinions on marijuana and make the case that legal marijuana would be detrimental to Massachusetts.
The proposed ballot initiative would impose a 3.75 percent state excise tax on retail marijuana sales, allow adults 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of marijuana in public, and establish a Cannabis Control Commission to oversee the new industry.
Marijuana advocates have had marked success taking marijuana reform efforts directly to the voters. Possession of less than an ounce of pot was decriminalized by voters in 2008 and four years later voters handily approved the medical use of marijuana. In both years, organized opposition to the ballot measures was almost non-existent.
According to the Western New England University Polling Institute survey, 64 percent of Democrats, 55 percent of unenrolled voters and 35 percent of Republicans support legalization. Men were more likely to be in favor of legalization, with 64 percent saying they would vote to legalize pot compared to 51 percent support among women.
Support for legalization is strongest, the WNE Polling Institute said, in Western Massachusetts (64 percent) and the Boston area (60 percent). The North and South Shores, and Central Massachusetts saw the lowest levels of support, at 55 and 43 percent respectively.
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