More pot madness
Supporters of marijuana legalization are preparing an actual get-out-of-jail free card for individuals who were duly convicted of drug crimes, which would surely stretch the understanding of voters who approved Question 4 back in November. This idea ought to be dead on arrival on Beacon Hill.
The amnesty effort is part of a wave of overreach that began after Massachusetts voters agreed to legalize the sale and recreational use of marijuana. Some Boston city councilors, for example, want pot shop licenses not just to go to communities affected by the illegal drug trade — but to be set aside for those poor souls who engaged in it.
Now we have a push to change state law to ensure that some individuals who are behind bars for marijuana offenses get sprung — and that those with certain convictions can get their records wiped clean.
“We have to look at releasing folks who are in jail for marijuana crimes that are no longer crimes,” Horace Small, executive director of the Union of Minority Neighborhoods, told the Herald’s Hillary Chabot. Small is working with Sen. James Eldridge (D-Acton), the ACLU and others on the legislation, as Beacon Hill considers a package of broader criminal justice reforms.
But even Eldridge acknowledged that the number of individuals who might benefit from a change of this nature would be small.
Consider, for starters, that Massachusetts decriminalized the possession of an ounce or less of marijuana in 2008. If an individual is behind bars today then it’s for having far more than a couple of joints in the ashtray.
In fact, the odds are decent that said individual was jailed as the result of conviction on multiple drug offenses — or facing more serious charges, that were pleaded down to possession.
And we wonder, who would do the required vetting to make sure only the really good drug offenders get sprung? Small, after all, insists the approach wouldn’t apply “to someone working for a cartel or something.” That will surely come as a relief to all those drug dealers who get their product from Amazon or at the big-box drug club.
Retroactive relief for folks who spent time in jail for marijuana possession seems simple enough. In reality it’s just another withdrawal from Beacon Hill’s bank of nutty ideas.