The contours of the marijuana legalization debate have filled out on Beacon Hill and opponents have scored some powerful allies. Will the presence of those heavy hitters make a difference on the slow march toward legalization?

Attorney General Maura Healey has joined House Speaker Robert DeLeo, Gov. Charlie Baker, and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh in opposing marijuana legalization. Healey buttresses her case by noting the downsides of legalization in Colorado and Washington.In those states, drug traffickers understand the laws of supply and demand very well: They use legal weed as a source to traffic the drug elsewhere and to undersell the government approved product. Colorado levies a 30 percent tax on marijuana (about three times the tax on beer); Washington 25 percent (roughly twice the beer levy).

Other opponents like Walsh argue that marijuana is a “gateway drug.”  The Lowell Sun agrees.  Like climate change deniers, marijuana opponents may have to meet up with science at some point. Maia Szalavitz, Time magazine’s neuroscience reporter, cited a 1999 National Academy of Sciences/Institute of Medicine study that found, ”There is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs.” The National Institute on Drug Abuse explains, “Most people who use marijuana do not go on to use other, ‘harder’ substances.”

Meanwhile, DeLeo’s opposition effectively dooms the legalization and taxation measure proposed by Rep. David Rogers, a Cambridge Democrat, and Sen. Pat Jehlen, a Somerville Democrat. Although Senate President Stan Rosenberg has not come down on either side, he has adopted a position more in keeping with the spirit of lawmaking: He would prefer that legislators deal with the issue before voters do.

A ballot initiative is the de facto nuclear option for any issue that the Legislature declines to debate, much less put to a vote. Most observers believe that if the question makes it to the ballot it will almost certainly pass. For evidence of how Beacon Hill’s abdication on important issues of the day can contribute to mucking up policy, look no further than the medical marijuana regulation debacle.

Marijuana legalization advocates won’t have trouble getting the signatures that could put the question before voters in a presidential election year. But they will have to be on their A-game. More petitions get disqualified on technicalities than make it to the ballot. In 2013, 33 initiative petitions landed in the attorney general’s office. Four made it to the 2014 ballot. Advocates for marijuana legalization can be sure Healey will be watching the process very closely.

–GABRIELLE GURLEY

BEACON HILL

David Bernstein profiles for Boston magazine Beacon Hill’s odd couple: old-school, press wary House Speaker Robert DeLeo (who fittingly wouldn’t talk to him for the article) and Senate President Stan Rosenberg, who has vowed to open things up in state government (and sat down with Bernstein for an hourlong interview).

Never mind Hillary Clinton’s private server in her basement. Obtaining email records held by public agencies in Massachusetts is no picnic either, reports the Globe.

OLYMPICS

Reversing course after weeks of being pounded with negative news and falling support in polls, Boston 2024 organizers now say they want a statewide referendum in 2016 and would go forward with the bid only if the Games receive majority support statewide and among Boston voters. A Globe editorial says it’s important that a ballot question include wording asking about the potential use of public funds. Major politicians are now on board with a vote, State House News reports. When it comes to ballot questions, the Globe reports that the golden rule usually, but not always applies: Those with the gold (in the form of campaign spending) usually rule the day.

It may be difficult for Boston 2024 to secure all the main venues needed for the Games before a 2016 vote.

BOSTON MARATHON BOMBING

Jurors heard testimony yesterday about the Tsarnaev brothers’ visits to a New Hampshire gun range.

MUNICIPAL MATTERS

The Quincy Housing Authority is considering a ban on smoking in the nearly 1,600 public housing units and the properties it oversees.

Boston officials say they will work to rectify an important detail as development projects continue to bring more cars into the city’s core: They have no idea how many parking spaces there are in the city.

The Saugus Board of Selectman voided the contract of recently installed Town Manager Sean Fitzgerald and replaced him with Scott Crabtree, who had been ousted by the previous board. The move came one week after the town voted to recall the four selectmen who voted out Crabtree, the Item reports.

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

Google executives hold meetings with White House officials about once a week, even during the height of a government antitrust probe of the Internet giant.

Mitt Romney, discussing the widening rift between the US and Israel, told Fox News, “Hell hath no fury like Obama scorned.” And he should know.

ELECTIONS

In the Herald, Jennifer Braceras calls Ted Cruz the conservative answer to Barack Obama, a Harvard Law School-educated big thinker with an immigrant father “who consistently impresses the intellectual elite.” The Globe’s Scot Lehigh is decidedly less taken with the Texas Republican who threw his hat in the presidential ring yesterday, characterizing him in terms much closer to the “wacko birds” label John McCain once applied (and later apologized for) to Cruz and fellow GOP senator Rand Paul.

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

A state board granted a $3.25 million tax credit to Amazon for its planned 1 million square foot distribution warehouse in an industrial park at the Fall River-Freetown line.

All the winter storms have not been such a gut punch to the state’s economy after all, says a new study released yesterday.

Peter Stefan, a Worcester funeral director, sits down with the Telegram & Gazette to discuss the book he is writing about his decision to bury Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev when no one else would.

Kraft Foods and Heinz Inc. agree to merge in a blockbuster deal, the New York Times reports.

Matt Damon is producing a movie starring Casey Affleck that is currently being shot on the North Shore, the Salem News reports.

Separate lawsuits filed by two telecoms challenge the FCC on net neutrality.

PHILANTHROPY/NONPROFITS

Oh, snap. All those helpful volunteers from corporate do-gooding outings to needy nonprofits? They’re not always so helpful, reports the Globe’s Sacha Pfeiffer.

EDUCATION

State education commissioner Mitchell Chester calls for a state takeover of the Holyoke school system, State House News reports. CommonWealth teed up the possible takeover last month.

The Salem school system offers its new superintendent, Margarita Ruiz, a contract for $180,300 a year, the Salem News reports.

Wyoming is a rare red state that likes Common Core, Governing reports.

HEALTH CARE

Middlesex County ranked second among the state’s healthiest places to live on a variety of measures from availability of health care to length of life, trailing only Nantucket County in a national study released Wednesday. Suffolk County ranked 13th out of the 14 counties with Hampden County ranked last.

TRANSPORTATION

Boston will install protected bicycle lanes along a short stretch of Commonwealth Avenue, a victory for riding advocates who have been pushing for more bike-friendly planning. City Councilor Michael Flaherty, however, is not happy, pointing to the loss of parking spaces the plan will force.

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

A federal judge has put on hold a $68 million lawsuit by the owners of a proposed power plant against Brockton officials who refuse to license it while the two sides try to work out an agreement.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Remorseless serial killer Gary Lee Sampson, awaiting retrial on whether he will receive a death penalty sentence after its initial imposition was thrown out by a federal judge, is proving to be anything but a model prisoner, the Herald reports.

Authorities are now looking into the possible connection of New York real estate heir Robert Durst to the unsolved 1972 disappearance in Vermont of a Middlebury College student.

A report looking at the FBI’s performance since 9/11 says the agency has to dramatically improve its intelligence capabilities and hire more linguists to deal with evolving terror threats.

MEDIA

Carriage News, a newspaper that targeted the Boston taxi industry, shuts down, blaming Uber and Lyft.