World | Wed Jun 8, 2016 10:35am EDT

Opponents say Massachusetts pot initiative text is hazy on food

BOSTON | BY SCOTT MALONE

A ballot initiative that would allow Massachusetts voters to legalize recreational marijuana use is fatally flawed because it does not explicitly say it would also legalize the sale of food containing the drug, opponents argued on Wednesday.

Opponents of the measure, which was submitted by the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, told the state's Supreme Judicial Court that a summary of the petition produced by the state attorney general's office and used to gather supporters' signatures was not specific enough.

"The voters were significantly misled when they were told that this was going to legalize marijuana," said John Scheft, the attorney for the 59 voters who filed a lawsuit challenging the measure. "What people are being asked to legalize is marijuana, hashish, marijuana concentrates and also food products."

Massachusetts is one of a half-dozen U.S. states, including California and Maine, where voters may have a chance this fall to follow Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Oregon in legalizing recreational use of the drug by adults aged 21 and over.

Representing the state attorney general's office, Robert Toone argued that it would have been impossible for the summary of the initiative to mention all of the possible products that could be infused with Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the ingredient that causes the drug's effects. The summary instead refers to "marijuana products."

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]