“Shall the state representative from this district be instructed to introduce and vote in favor of legislation making possession of marijuana a civil violation, like a traffic ticket instead of a criminal offense, and requiring the police to hold a person under 18 who is cited for possession until the person is released to a parent or legal guardian or brought before a judge?”
According to Associated Press figures released shortly after the election, 61.53% of the voters from those 19 House districts voted yes on the referendum question, while 38.44% voted no. According to the official election results published in the Return of Votes for Massachusetts State Election 2002, out of 227,377 total votes cast, 48.99% (111,387) of the voters responding voted yes, 31.71% (72,092) voted no, and 19.31% (43,898) left their ballots blank. Filtering out the blank ballots, 60.71% of the voters responding yes or no voted yes while 39.29% voted no—figures in line with the AP’s results (61.53%-38.44%). Taken together, these results show that in these 19 House districts, voters believed that marijuana possession should be regarded as a civil violation instead of a criminal violation by a 3-to-2 margin.
Now I think I can understand why, they're stoned.