ACLU, prosecutors dispute whether sharing marijuana constitutes drug ‘distribution’
Civil liberties activists today challenged prosecutors arguments that sharing a small amount of marijuana among friends constitutes drug distribution.
The Commonwealth is simply wrong to argue that sharing marijuana constitutes criminal distribution, Matthew R. Segal, legal director for the ACLU of Massachusetts, said in a statement. More fundamentally, the Commonwealths argument contradicts the will of the voters who approved marijuana decriminalization in 2008. The voters sought to limit marijuana prosecutions, not to invite creative ways for the Commonwealth to increase them.
The activists warned that someone convicted of distributing marijuana could face up to 2 years in jail for the offense. And they suggested that anyone who shares a marijuana cigarette could be deemed a distributor.
The 2008 ballot referendum decriminalized possession of less than one ounce of marijuana.
http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2012/11/15/aclu-prosecutors-have-claimed-marijuana-distribution-when-people-are-simply-sharing/grDTJ3kmXsiogsVvy1tpGM/story.html