While society obviously — obviously to us — has the right to regulate our relationship to marijuana (just as it does our relationship with water or milk or wine) to be rational and decent such regulation must take at least these two things into account:

First, responsible adults have a default right to consume anything they choose, only provided that in so doing they do not interfere with the rights of others. Second, like medical treatments, public policies that inflict far more damage than the condition they are supposed to remedy make no sense.

Current regulation of marijuana fails both of these points egregiously. In particular, no matter what you believe about the evils of marijuana, those evils do not remotely approach the costs and consequences of destroying 700,000 families a year.

More specifically, MASSCANN campaigns for the legalization of hemp agriculture, expanding medical marijuana programs, and moving towards regulation of the herb. The drug war armory of mandatory minimums, asset forfeiture, license confiscation, urine testing, and so on has been going on for far too long.

Our core position is the regulation of cultivation, ownership, and distribution of Cannabis among adults is best approached in legality. The goal is getting this plant into a regulated market and keeping people out of jail. The education of cultural opinion will progress society towards compassion and add tax revenue to rebuild a broken infrastructure.

In 1992 we and our friends and allies gathered 14,000 signatures for a petition supporting the creation of a marijuana therapeutic research program. In 1997 the same group helped organize a successful campaign to allow medical necessity as a defense for marijuana possession. In 1999 we gathered more than 20,000 signatures for a petition on the decriminalization of marijuana. In 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2010 we placed cannabis reform questions on the ballot in State Senate and State Representative Districts. All were approved. We have brought lawsuits against municipal authorities to assure the right of assembly for those urging for drug policy reform and gather and distribute news of local events — lectures, research, actions, outrages — of interest to the decrim community. Each year we organize the world’s second largest rally for marijuana decriminalization” (High Times): The Freedom Rally, usually held on Boston Common in the third week of September.

If these activities seem worthwhile to you, please join us. Please also consider subscribing to our Events and Announcements list.

Please free to leave suggestions or comments or to get in touch with us for any reason. If you need to reach us by phone, our message machine is at 781-944-2266. The Blue Snails find us more often than not at MassCann, P.O. Box 211, Reading, MA 01867-0366.