State Bill Proposes Relaxing Restrictions on Marijuana Use

Massachusetts may be the first state to remove penalties for possession of marijuana if a bill now pending before the state legislature passes.

The bill, sponsored by State Senator Jack H. Backman (D-Brookline), received a unanimous report out of the Joint Legislative Committee last week. Actually a compromise worked out from several other more radical reform bills, the Backman proposal could come up for debate in the state senate within two weeks.

If the bill is enacted, it would for two experimental years suspend all penalties for the possession of marijuana and for its profitless sale in quantities of one ounce or less. Sellers of larger quantities or those making a profit from sales would remain liable to prosecution.

Roswitha M. Winsor, co-chairman of Committee for a Sane Drug Policy, said yesterday that while the bill would substantially loosen marijuana laws, it is still "in some ways ridiculously conservative."

Federal Laws Still Apply

Even if Massachusetts laws were relaxed, Federal laws would still apply, Winsor said. But she expressed hope that Federal investigators would continue "to have better things to do than pursue marijuana users."

"The bill would not in any way legalize marijuana," she commented. "What it would do would be to say to the police, 'we want you to spend your time doing things other than looking for marijuana."

Winsor said she thinks the bill stands only a small chance of passage in this, a non-election year. She expressed fears that next year legislators will be afraid to vote for marijuana reform.

Lester Grinspoon, associate clinical professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, said yesterday that passage of the bill would give researchers a unique opportunity to interview marijuana smokers without worrying about protecting the drug users.

He said also that he felt the bill does not go far enough.