Ballot questions would permit recreational use of marijuana

Massachusetts voters could get a chance to decide whether to legalize the recreational use of marijuana if any of several proposed pro-pot questions filed with the state attorney general's office Wednesday reach the 2016 ballot.

A group called The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol submitted an initiative petition on Wednesday that would allow adults 21 years of age and older to possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana and also grow a "limited" amount of the plant in their homes.

A Cannabis plant is pictured at the ''Weed the People'' event as enthusiasts gather to celebrate the legalization of the recreational use of marijuana in Portland, Oregon July 3, 2015. Reuters/Steve Dipaola

Two marijuana advocacy groups on Wednesday are set to submit proposed ballot initiatives that would allow Massachusetts voters to decide whether to legalize recreational pot smoking in the state.

The initiatives could become part of a wave of similar measures put before voters in a half-dozen U.S. states in 2016 as pro-marijuana groups follow a strategy that has already legalized the drug in four states plus the District of Columbia.

A statewide ballot initiative to regulate marijuana like alcohol in Massachusetts will be filed today at 1 p.m. ET with the office of state Attorney General Maura Healy. The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (CRMLA) will hold a media availability outside of the office immediately prior to submitting the measure inside.

“Next year, voters will have the opportunity to end the failed policy of prohibition and replace it with a more sensible system,” said campaign director Will Luzier, a former assistant attorney general who previously served as executive director of the Massachusetts Interagency Council on Substance Abuse and Prevention. “Marijuana is significantly less harmful than alcohol, and our laws should reflect that.”

Massachusetts recently opened its first medical marijuana dispensaries.

Two groups will file petitions for ballot measures Wednesday that would legalize marijuana for recreational adult use in Massachusetts, likely setting the stage for a fierce battle at the November 2016 ballot box.

But there’s another slow-burning conflict.

The groups’ efforts represent two fundamentally different philosophies on legalization. One would create a new regulation, taxation, and bureaucratic regimen for marijuana with similarities to the way alcohol is overseen in Massachusetts. The other is more focused on individual liberty, avoiding heavy regulation or any special taxes on the substance.

Two groups will file petitions for ballot measures Wednesday that would legalize marijuana for recreational adult use in Massachusetts, likely setting the stage for a fierce battle at the November 2016 ballot box.

But there’s another slow-burning conflict.

The Boston Zoning Board of Appeals has given conditional approval to open a medical marijuana dispensary on Milk Street.

The city finally offered a conditional approval during a hearing on Aug. 4. The hearing on the request, submitted by Patriot Care Corp., had been delayed twice before in June and again in July.

The facility must be maintained as a medical marijuana facility. Patriot Care has also offered to donate the front access to the ground floor to a yet-to-be-determined non-profit.

BOSTON - Representatives from the company seeking to open medical marijuana dispensaries in downtown Boston and Greenfield are slated to appear before a zoning board on Tuesday.

Boston's Zoning Board of Appeals is tasked with determining whether Patriot Care Corp. should be granted a conditional use license to open a dispensary at 21 Milk St.

Patriot Care also wants to open a dispensary in Lowell, at 70 Industrial Ave. East. In Greenfield, the dispensary would be located at 7 Legion Ave.

NORTHAMPTON — Local and state officials got a firsthand look this past week at the bounty of cannabis that will serve state-registered patients at medical marijuana dispensaries in Northampton and Brookline later this year.

Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg, D-Amherst, and state Sen. Karen E. Spilka, D-Ashland, toured New England Treatment Access’ cultivation and production center in Franklin last Friday, while Northampton Mayor David J. Narkewicz made a similar visit Tuesday.

The facility is the source of all medical cannabis products that will be available to patients at NETA’s planned Northampton and Brookline dispensaries, which are slated to open later this year.

If you happen to see a robot on the side of the road this summer, don’t be afraid to pick him up. That’s just hitchBOT, a friendly hitch-hiking robot trying to make his (her? its?) way from Boston to San Francisco.

Designed by Canadian researchers, hitchBOT is part art project, part social experiment. Can robots trust humans? Or, perhaps more importantly, can drivers trust hitchBOT?

If you see hitchBOT along the side of the road or outside a coffee shop, you’re free to take him with you. He just wants to see the country — from Times Square to the Grand Canyon, and everywhere in between. HitchBOT can’t move on his own, so once you get tired of dragging him around, feel free to pass him off to a friend or stranger. Or just leave him out in a public place.

BROCKTON (CBS) – After years of delays and controversy, the first medical marijuana dispensary in Massachusetts opened for business just a month ago in Salem, with a long line of patients waiting to make their first purchase. But get this. The website for the Alternative Therapies Dispensary says it is “sold out” of medicine for the time being. The next marijuana dispensary set to open is in Brockton. We took a closer look Friday, and found business ready to bloom.