Massachusetts voters who read an independently produced statement about the marijuana legalization ballot question felt better informed about the issue and more confident in their knowledge. But it is likely that few residents were even aware of the so-called “Citizens’ Statement.”Organizers of the Citizens Initiative Review pilot project, which produced the statement, are now pushing for legislation that would make the citizens’ review process a permanent feature of Massachusetts elections and would include the statement in the official state voter guide.
“Realistically, we were limited in what our means were to get it out there,” said State Rep. Jonathan Hecht, D-Watertown, who spearheaded the initiative. “Our hope is to get this established as a regular part of Massachusetts elections.”
Confused about the marijuana ballot question? Committee to draft statement explaining pros, cons
A group of politicians and academics are piloting a program to have a committee of citizens analyze the marijuana ballot question and draft a statement of its pros and cons.The Citizens Initiative Review has existed in Oregon for seven years. The way it works is organizers select a diverse panel of 20 voters. The voters do an in-depth study of a ballot question over four days and hear from supporters, opponents and policy experts. They then produce a statement that includes key findings and statements in support of and opposition to the question.Organizers in Massachusetts chose the ballot question that legalized recreational marijuana as the subject of the pilot program.
Citizens’ committee drafts pro and con arguments for marijuana legalization in Massachusetts
Product safety, the proliferation of a black market, jobs and teen drug use were among the topics considered by the committee.According to John Gastil, professor of communication arts and sciences at Pennsylvania State University who has studied Oregon’s initiative, around half of Oregon’s voters are familiar with that state’s Citizens’ Statement because it appears in the official voter guide.Without that, knowledge of the Massachusetts statement was limited to being posted on a website, sent out by some lawmakers through emails and covered by the press. Hecht acknowledged that it was “not very widely (read) because it wasn’t made available through any official channels.”
Peter Levine, associate dean at the Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University and one of the initiative organizers, said the pilot program had a very small budget, so it was limited in the outreach it could do. “We certainty didn’t get 50 percent of Massachusetts citizens to read the report. You could do that by putting it in the voter guide,” Levine said.Legislation that Hecht sponsored with Rep. Brad Hill, R-Ipswich, and Sen. Jason Lewis, D-Winchester, would make the Citizens Initiative Review a regular feature of Massachusetts statewide elections. The bill would create a commission to oversee the initiative, and the statement would be printed in the official voters’ guide.
The bill could get a boost from research by Gastil, who studied Massachusetts’ pilot program and concluded that it had a positive impact. In an online survey where respondents were shown the Citizens’ Statement, 77 percent said it was very or somewhat helpful in deciding how to vote on the ballot question. Those who read the statement reported a slight increase in knowledge about the proposed marijuana policy, and they had more confidence in that knowledge.”The statement they produced for voters … increased their knowledge on the issue,” Gastil said. “It’s not just that they learned more facts. It’s that they became more confident in the accurate factual information they could have guessed at, like can you sell marijuana that you cultivate at your home.”
Gastil’s study also found that the panelists themselves were highly satisfied with the process and felt they learned enough to make an informed decision.George Kerxhalli, a panelist from Worcester, said the panel represented a good cross-section of Massachusetts residents. He said he came away feeling like he was “really taking part in something that would make a difference in the future in the Massachusetts legislation.”
credit:masslive.com
