Local voters OK with legal pot usage

Nearly six out of every 10 voters in the Eighth Essex legislative district backed a dramatic expansion to legal access to marijuana in Tuesday?s election.Local voters joined those in more than a dozen other state districts supporting legal access and advocates plan to use the results to press lawmakers to loosen restrictions on the drug.The Eighth Essex district includes Marblehead and Swampscott and two bordering precincts in East Lynn and is represented by Democrat Lori Ehrlich.Strictly an advisory query, Question 4 asked Eighth Essex voters “Shall the state representative from this district be instructed to vote in favor of legislation that would allow the state to regulate the taxation, cultivation and sale of marijuana to adults?”That question was considered by 15,985 district voters and 9,378 affirmed the idea while 6,607 rejected it, a percentage of 58.6 to 41.4.With 1,366 votes cast in East Lynn?s Diamond District, precinct 4 of ward 3 and precinct 4 of ward 4, the measure was defeated 722-644 or 53 percent to 47, but voters in Swampscott and Marblehead backed legalization by large and similar margins.In Marblehead 5,185 out of 9,184 voters affirmed the measure, a percentage of 56 to 44 and in Swampscott, 3,471 voters out of 6,079 voted yes or 57 percent to 43.Salem was also among the cities and towns statewide to back full and legal use of marijuana.Advocates had placed 18 advisory questions on Tuesday?s ballot to get a sense whether voters would support another overhaul of marijuana laws in the Bay State.Nine of the questions supported the use of marijuana for medical reasons while another nine backed legalizing the drug outright, allowing the state to regulate and tax it.Voters across the state responded to the questions with a resounding “yes.” Support ranged from 54 percent in some districts to up to 70 percent in others, according to a review of campaign returns by The Associated Press.In the state?s largest district, the 1st Middlesex and Norfolk senate district encompassing Newton, Brookline and parts of Wellesley, 63 percent of voters backed full legalization of the drug.Other cities and towns that backed full legalization included: Hudson, Maynard, Stow, Dover, Needham, Falmouth, Nantucket, Deerfield, Amherst, Lincoln, Sudbury and Wayland.Supporters of the questions say voters are ahead of lawmakers in their growing acceptance of marijuana.?This shows lawmakers that if they want to pursue this through the legislative process rather than with a ballot initiative, there is popular support,” said Mike Meno of the Washington DC-based Marijuana Policy Project.That group supported a 2008 ballot initiative overwhelming backed by Massachusetts voters which decriminalized the possession of an ounce of less of the drug. The law instituted a $100 civil fine instead. Meno said his group is pushing bills in the Massachusetts Legislature that would allow the medical use of marijuana under a doctor?s supervision.Other advocates, including Steven Epstein of Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition, have said the goal of the advisory questions was to see if voters are ready to make marijuana a legal product that can be purchased and taxed, like alcohol.It?s unclear how soon a question about marijuana restrictions could get on a statewide ballot.State law prohibits advocates from placing a question on the ballot for two election cycles if it is “substantially the same petition” as an earlier petition. If a question proposing full legalization or expanded medical marijuana use is deemed substantially the same as the question decriminalizing marijuana, then the earliest a question could make the ballot is 2014. If not, a question could be placed on the 2012 ballot.In California, a high-profile ballot question that would have allowed possession of marijuana for personal use was defeated Tuesday, 54 to 46 percent.Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone opposes loosening the law. He said the marijuana available today is far more pot