The Marijuana Policy Project in Massachusetts is drafting legislation which would prohibit state and municipal employees from cooperating with federal authorities in any crackdown on the legal cannabis industry, according to Boston University’s Daily Free Press.
According to Jim Borghesani, the Massachusetts spokesman for the MPP, “The Refusal of Complicity Act” would ensure the state maintains solidarity in curbing the legal cannabis industry in the state.
“So if there’s a scenario – it might be that the federal government decides they are going to charge a legal operator with a crime – no local police agency would be able to participate in that operation in any way whatsoever.” – Borghesani, to the Daily Free Press
MPP Massachusetts Political Director Will Luzier indicated that the legislation may include a section preventing the state from engaging in civil enforcement – which allows law enforcement to seize and sell land used for cannabis cultivation and commerce even if the owner has not been convicted of any crime.
The measure, a move to counteract any federal enforcement on the state’s voter-approved cannabis legalization policy, would need to be adopted by state lawmakers and introduced in the legislature. If approved, it would make Massachusetts a cannabis “sanctuary state.”