An alert reader recently received this invitation from a group that’s apparently organizing a ballot initiative to opt our of allowing recreational marijuana in Newton.
There’s no contact info, no names, etc., which strikes me as kind of an odd way to launch what would have to be a public campaign.
Can you blame them for wanting to go anonymous? They will be subjected to the following by a vocal minority
Stupid, intolerant
Their employers will be harrassed
People will protest in front if their home
They will surely find a way to label them racist
This is what politics have become from both sides
+1 on Bugek’s comment.
This level of blind, drunken support from so many millions of people is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Wall Street interests (and Gov. Weld, and Speaker Boehner) who stand to make billions off this market.
Imagine if those millions of weed lovers were actually interested in an issue of true consequence? There would be no wars and Raytheon would be out of business. Minimum wage would be $50. Poverty would be eradicated.
In the meantime, anybody with legitimate public health concerns such as impaired driving, secondhand smoke, and the impacts of long-term use (including mental illness and cancer) are such squares! Let’s expose those narcs!
I hope Michael holds the same disdain for alcohol, just for the sake of consistency!
MMQC, thanks for the clichéd response. I hope for the sake of consistency you support the legalization of trans fats.
If you take my comment to equate to a “disdain” for marijuana then you don’t understand my position.
I’m objecting to the profit-driven machinery that is driving this movement and stands to make billions. And I’m objecting to the lack of protections in place against impaired driving, exposure to second-hand smoke, and the long-term health impacts.
I support the legalization of marijuana, but I’d like to make sure that there are protections in place so some stoned driver doesn’t run over my daughter. And I’d like to make sure that users and the people around them understand the impacts of filling your lungs with carcinogenic smoke, be it from tobacco, marijuana, or a barbecue grill. And I’d like to make sure that users clearly understand the serious, detrimental long-term impacts on their physical and mental health.
so.. for some reason his “exact” home address is relevant here?
.. and so it begins
@Greg Reibman, are you planning on removing the guy’s address, or will you leave it up there? I reported the comment a couple of hours ago. This is pure juvenile stuff.
It’s fair to know what sponsor(s) is/are providing funding to put a question on the ballot. An anonymous petition means something stinks (and it ain’t the pot).
There’s an irony to these “big weed” accusations, in that not a single recreational store has opened in Massachusetts yet. So there aren’t weed billionaires, just weed capitalists who can lose big (the risks are significant — e.g. the market has collapsed in Oregon). On the other hand, there are highly established billion-dollar interests that have spent big to fight Question 4, who have vested interest in continuing to challenge the law on every possible front. So it’s fair to know the money trail going in both directions to make an informed decision.
And what’s this about Bill’s Pizza applying for a recreational marijuana license?
Fuller and the City Council put the voter approved law at risk with their indefensible moratorium. Instead of doing their jobs and implementing the law on time, they left the door open for this kind of nonsense from prohibitionists.
Sigh — when it comes to owning up the sponsors behind this ballot question? Crickets…
Just anonymous ‘concerned citizens’ all, standing up to ‘big weed’. Nothing to see here (ignore any billionaire donor funding behind the curtains, trying to protect its entrenched pharma/liquor/gambling/rehab/enforcement/prison industries…)
Michael and bugek, why shouldn’t Newton’s voters know who is behind a ballot initiative wanting to ban a widely supported law? You approve of voters being kept in the dark? Yet you claim the moral high ground wanting to protect us from evil billionaires and personal attacks. Maybe it’s the evil billionaires who want a ban. Just sayin … You seem really invested.
Marti,
Since just his name is not enough, it seems you also want his employer, wifes name and of course his political affliation.
Unless you are going to show up at his home, why do you need exact home addres?
Way too much liability here, serious lawsuits to the poster if something were to happen to his home
Bugek, your assumptions about what “it seems like I want” are completely unfounded and the consequences you espouse are approaching the absurd.
I’m still perplexed as to why liquor and beer stores have to be located a certain distance from a church?? I assume the same restriction will be applied to establishments licensed to sell the bewitching weed and other types of marijuana products. But it still baffles me about the relationship between alcohol sales and churches. Another question. Why don’t these distance restrictions apply to grocery stores that sell alcoholic products?? And if not, why do they continue to keep silly laws like this on the book?? And finally, why is it that so many of our arcane laws seem to have been generated by unfounded or irrational fears?
Finally we’re getting somewhere… The optoutnewton.org web site looks very (really very) similar to the Massachusetts Prevention Alliance (mapreventionalliance.org) site. Seems highly unlikely to be coincidence. “MAPA” is a 501c3 led by Heidi Heilman, based in MA. Heidi’s company sells substance abuse course materials to schools… she is also New England director for Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM). Stoking fears about cannabis, and free publicity from taking on ‘big weed’, are good for business.
None of the above is a secret. MAPA and Project SAM are public organizations and Heidi, as president of MAPA, has long been a public figure opposing cannabis legalization. Whatever her level of involvement with OON, I don’t understand why it was such a big deal for some posters to try and hide the affiliation.
Hi I’m the Jacob Foster whose home address was kindly posted by David K. I’ve been involved in the opt out newton. We are not an anonymous group – we’ve had multiple public meetings where people have been welcome to attend. We’ve all been there with name tags. We haven’t posted names and photos of individual members precisely because we’re all private citizens. We’re not lobbyists or government officials. We’re individuals who don’t want to see a minimum of 8 recreational dispensaries opening in our town. We all have lives and don’t want people like David K. accosting is in person. While I’m a minor other people working with us have employers and families they don’t want being dragged into this. I would kindly appreciate if my home address was removed from this comment chain (I do not see why it’s relevant).
Hi Jacob, I agree your personal details should not be in this thread, and I’m hoping Greg, Jerry or someone will be along and can remove that post.
Perhaps this is a good learning experience: You see, anytime someone registers a domain name, the registering contact details are public record (without going into a segue, there are important reasons for this). Since minors cannot enter into legal agreements, the web site should never have been pointed to you — but instead have the contact details of the adult that purchased the domain name optoutnewton.org.
It’d probably be a good idea, too, to have a parent fill out Village14’s contact form (if it hasn’t been done already) to make this request of the site admins for good measure.
@Dulles, you think this should be a good learning experience for Jacob?
Greg Reibman was made aware five days ago that someone’s personal information had been inappropriately posted to this website and he boldly chose to leave it up there.
Then tonight, an admin had to approve Jacob’s first-time comment, so this website is now aware that the home address of a minor had been posted without his knowledge – and yet there it still is, an hour later.
Somebody definitely needs to learn a thing or two, but it sure ain’t Jacob.
@Michael: Exactly how was I “made aware of” this? The first I heard of it was late last night.
I have deleted a comment by David K, written on April 24, 2018 at 5:23 pm that contained the home address of someone else. I’m sorry that this was not done earlier; I learned of this thread just now.
Greg, the first you heard that this individual was a minor may have been last night, but you weren’t aware over the last five days that someone’s personal information had been inappropriately posted to this website?
After the home address was posted by David K on April 24th, just about every comment in this thread was about whether that information should stay or be taken down. Including:
> Michael on April 24, 2018 at 8:53 pm
>@Greg Reibman, are you planning on removing the guy’s address, or will you leave it up there? I reported the comment a couple of hours ago. This is pure juvenile stuff.
Maybe you don’t read the comments on your own posts – fair enough. Although you have posted elsewhere on the site since then.
Anyway, regardless of whether anyone actually goes to this individual’s address to harass him, the family’s sense of security has been unnecessarily violated and that’s a shame.
If you read this, as Dulles says, “perhaps this is a good learning experience” and may I suggest that best practice going forward, not just in terms of basic decency but also in terms of liability, would be to have rules in place prohibiting the listing of any personal information.
@Michael: It’s a little presumptuous to assume that anyone reads every comment here. And I have to wonder why you addressed your request to remove it only to me. This is an all-volunteer, community blog with multiple moderators.
Thanks @Bruce Henderson!!
@Michael, this is a good learning experience for OON’s leadership. First, that registering a domain name is a legal contract. It should’ve been done by an adult. Second, domain name administrator contact details are public record, it takes 2 seconds to look them up (read your domain name registration contract). There are good and necessary reasons for this. You don’t enter someone’s contact details into a public record and expect them to remain private.
Third, I shouldn’t have to point out how bad this all looks — it looks like you’re using a minor to shield the identities of the organizers. It looks like OON advocates blew off this thread when you all had the chance to say something positive about its origin and backers. No matter how unpleasant a job it may be, a local movement needs community leaders who are willing to step forward and be transparent. In the absence of facts people do their own research and come to their own conclusions (see Heidi Heilman connection — though I can see why, given Heidi’s history and interests, you’d like to bury that relationship).
Website registries are publically available as is most stuff on the web and V14 is a public blog. Some is stuff more easily attainable than others. Addresses are some of the easiest. In addition, don’t put it out there if you don’t want anyone to find it – particularly minors.
Outrage over MJ use and availability is just being recycled from when it was first scheduled as the same class narcotic as crack coccaine and heroin (opioids.) Its already as easily available as addresses on the web just like the other two. Main difference is overdose on crack or opioids and die.
Opt Out Newton is an ad hoc grassroots group of 40+ Newton residents who support legalization of recreational and medical marijuana, but would like to let Newton voters vote on whether or not they want to have retail recreational stores and bars in Newton. The referendum passed in 2016 and state law provides a path for each town and city to “opt out” of recreational retail sales if they want, and we think Newton should have the option to decide if we want to opt out or not. We are trying to gain 6000 petition signatures in order to get this referendum on the November ballot. You can find out more and learn how to sign the petition at http://optoutnewton.org/
In answer to some of the questions here, we are not affiliated in any way with any other organization anywhere. Full stop. We have a raised a grand total of $62, which is being used to pay for the website and hosting, which was designed by a volunteer who is a high school student. We would appreciate it if somebody would take down his name and address from this thread, as he is already getting hate mail from trolls. He’s a kid, for crying out loud! He isn’t pushing for criminalization (nor is anyone else) — he just doesn’t want to pass by pot stores on his way to school.
Greg, you were the author of the thread lamenting the anonymity of the group, and then mirabile dictu David K listed this infividual’s name and address – not an unexpected outcome.
I addressed my comment to you as the author, but point taken that V14 is a volunteer community. I wish that my flagging of the comment containing the address had been taken seriously by whichever volunteer read it.
IMHO I will say that anyone looking for scientific evidence of how marijuana can cloud the judgment of otherwise intelligent individuals, need look no further than this thread.
“…he just doesn’t want to pass by pot stores on his way home from school.”
I assume the kid is okay passing by liquor stores? These prohibitionists crack me up!
I’m a little confused by the stance of OON. The group is Newton residents who support legalization of recreational and medical marijuana, yet they want Newton residents to have to go to other cities to buy it?
And…..”he just doesn’t want to pass by pot stores on his way to school.” So he is cool with kids in other communities passing by pot stores en route to school, but not here in Newton?
Either the group is being dishonest about actually having a pro-marijuana stance or they just think Newton is too good to house the stores.
@MMQC– Of course they are being dishonest about supporting legalization. This is the latest tactic prohibitionists are using around the State. They claim to support cannabis legalization at the same time as they’re trying to ban it.
@MMQC I, like many other Newton residents, was in favor of prop 4. in 2016. What I did not know is that the State Cannabis Commission would add regulations compelling towns (like Newton) to allow a set number of marijuana establishments (8 in the case of Newton). That seems exceptional and not what I (or I think other Newton residents) thought they were getting. In Colorado for example (hardly some “prohibitionist” state) towns had to opt in not opt out. Some of the locations under consideration (like the one potentially replacing the south pacific Chinese restaurant at 4 corners) is on my route to school. The correlation between legal recreational marijuana and an increase in car accidents (from driving while high) is well documented: https://www.denverpost.com/2018/03/25/colorado-auto-deaths-marijuana-use/
I’m a junior operator and driving is new to me. When I’m driving myself and my sister to school I don’t want to contend with high drivers on beacon street.
If Newton were to opt out it wouldn’t be “prohibition” Newton residents would be able to have marijuana delivered to their homes, buy medical marijuana in Newton, or buy recreational Marijuana in other towns – heck you could grow it yourself! Furthermore, I think at the very least the Newton electorate has a right to decide whether we actually want 8 or more marijuana establishments in our town. Maybe the answer is that most Newton residents want these establishments in our town – that’s fine, I just want it to be decided at the ballot box instead of the comments section of village 14.
And as for other communities – there are other communities that might want marijuana establishments in their town (maybe Newton is one of them sign our petition so we can vote on it this November). For example, 23% of Newton residents are minors compared to 12% of residents in Somerville. That means Newton has more families and more young drivers. Somerville might be much more enthusiastic about Marijuana Establishments. in their town. Either way, I think it’s entirely fair for our community to decide whether or not we want 8+ marijuana establishments in our town.
“…I just want it to be decided at the ballot box instead of the comments section of village 14.”
@Jacob Foster– Maybe you missed it Jacob, but this debate was in fact decided at the ballot box already in November 2016, when people voted in favor of the initiative called “THE CAMPAIGN TO REGULATE MARIJUANA LIKE ALCOHOL.” The intent of the initiative seems pretty clear to me. I’m curious, do you support banning alcohol in Newton?
Since someone brought up the concerns about “driving while high”
A Newton Realtor was killed this week(in Medford) by a teenager driving while on drugs. Highly unlikely it was weed, have no idea how it affects driving.
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2018/04/30/medford-suv-crash-teen-driver-charged-newton-realtor-judy-moses-killed/
Thanks @Jennifer!!
I understand OON has no formal (monetary) affiliations. But it also didn’t spring up fully formed out of nowhere. Clearly OON doesn’t want to be transparent about its origins, and people can make of that what they may.
re: the 8 establishments thing (because it keeps getting brought up). That’s a *cap*. It’s like saying Newton will have nothing but liquor stores and bars unless the city bans all liquor licenses. It’s a page out of this playbook: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oycBIQ_aT78
Its astonishing how history continues to repeat itself with little knowledge ever truly gleaned from past struggles leading generations to fight similar battles with the same tired tropes but generally different rhetoric – a self perpetuating loop. Less than a century ago the battle was over the sale of alcohol.
Those who supported the legalization of recreational marijuana in MA did so with the realization that if the ballot passed MJ would be sold in stores. Newton voters were among those who voted yes. The number of places to purchase MJ and their retail location is totally beside the point.
Jacob, as you pointed out, you’re a minor who is new to driving but you do drive you and your sisters to school. Distracted driving is more of a danger to new drivers than experienced ones including conversations, changing music and using phones. Defensive driving training includes keeping eyes on the road not on the scenery. Driving itself is dangerous and a huge responsibility and there’s always the chance that an accident might happen for a multitude of reasons. Driving while high is still illegal just like driving while drunk or on other drugs but of course happens anyway.
Have you driven down Walnut Street in Newtonville? Did you notice Garden Remedies? Most don’t.
I wonder if the Jennifer commenting here is the same Jennifer who created a Facebook account yesterday with the userpic being a stock image of a flower. She posted something on the “Newton, MA – What’s Happenin'” Facebook group and it was concern trolling asking if anyone felt uneasy about marijuana stores opening in Newton. Most of the responses didn’t share her concern.