The Marijuana Policy Project reports that as of March 22, now 18-year-old Mitchell Lawrence, from Great Barrington, Mass., has been in jail for a full year – half of his two-year sentence for possession of a single joint.

That’s right, prosecutor David Capeless last year sent 17-year-old Lawrence to the pokey for selling $20 worth of pot to an undercover police officer using Massachusetts’ drug-free zone law, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of two years flat time. (As with many smaller towns around the country, the parameters of Great Barrington’s DFZ encompasses nearly the entire town.)

On the anniversary of Lawrence’s incarceration, MPP announced it will pursue placing a statewide pot decrim initiative on Massachusetts’ November 2008 general election ballot.

This article appears in March 23 • 2007.

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