Individuals under 21 years of age would be prevented from possessing, purchasing or selling recreational marijuana under a draft initiative petition released Friday by the group behind a 2016 ballot effort.

The backers, under the banner of Bay State Repeal, said they hoped for an informal review of the draft by Attorney General Maura Healey's office that might detect any "legal problems" that might keep the question off the ballot next year.

The first deadline in the 2016 ballot process is Aug. 5, 2015. Ten voters must provide to the attorney general's office a petition with their signatures by that date, along with the law they're proposing.

Healey, who has expressed her opposition to marijuana legalization, is charged with reviewing proposed initiative petitions to ensure they meet constitutional requirements.

"Over the course of weeks and months, we'll be receiving these proposed initiative petitions and we'll engage in review and dialogue with proponents of petitions, to work with them so that the language not only passes constitutional muster, but also so that it's clear to the voters," Healey told reporters on Friday.

Bay State Repeal touted the lengthy, 28-section petition's focus on preventing minors from obtaining marijuana as a "central feature" of the effort. Providing marijuana to minors would lead to fines and potential time in prison.

Steve Epstein, an attorney with Bay State Repeal, told the News Service that the draft proposal does not require licensing of marijuana sellers. The draft calls for a fine of up to $3,000 and/or up to two years in jail for providing marijuana to minors and, for a second offense, up to a $5,000 fine and/or up to five years in prison.

Marijuana sellers would have to demand proof of age when a person enters the "sales room," and minors would be banned from marijuana cultivation sites, according to Bay State Repeal. Marijuana sellers with more than five employees would have to create a "secret shopper" program to ensure minors aren't obtaining the substance.

"We want marijuana to be sold in storefront establishments where minors aren't allowed," Epstein said in a statement.

Senate President Stanley Rosenberg, who this session charged Sen. Jason Lewis with researching marijuana legalization, last week declined to state his own position on the idea, but said he senses "no appetite" among state lawmakers to address the issue.

"There's been conversations and there seems to be no appetite in the Legislature to take up ... recreational marijuana, so you should expect to see it on the ballot in 2016," Rosenberg (D-Amherst) said.

House Speaker Robert DeLeo on Monday predicted a potential victory for legalization proponents, citing the "overwhelming vote with medical marijuana."

"Probably at the end of the day I'm going to guess that there right now are probably more supporters of this than not-supporters," DeLeo said.

The speaker, along with Gov. Charlie Baker and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, has expressed opposition to full marijuana legalization.

DeLeo also expressed doubt about whether the House would support a Boston City Council proposal to fund substance abuse treatment through a new tax on alcoholic beverages sold in the city.

Voters in 2008 passed a ballot law decriminalizing possession of up-to-an-ounce of marijuana and then in 2012 passed a ballot law authorizing a medical marijuana industry in Massachusetts that's still getting off the ground in the wake of numerous regulatory stumbles.

Epstein said former Attorney General Martha Coakley opposed the 2008 decriminalization law but certified it as ballot eligible.

He said he did not have any concerns about getting a fair review of his group's proposal from Healey. "They're professionals," he said, referring to Coakley and Healey, who worked under Coakley prior to her election.

The draft petition was sent to Healey's office Friday morning.

"We're going to wait to hear back from her," said Epstein.

Healey said Friday she has supported decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana and medical marijuana, but she reiterated that she does not support full legalization of recreational marijuana.

"I have concerns about its impact, particularly on young people, the health and well-being of young people," she said.

Healey said in March part of her opposition is also based on her conversations with attorneys general from Washington and Colorado, where voters passed marijuana legalization referendums in 2012.

Law enforcement officials in those states, Healey said, have not seen a drop in drug trafficking and saw people from out of state purchase "vast amounts" of the drug to traffic it.

Her opposition to full legalization will not affect how her office reviews the petition, Healey said on Friday.

"We have an important responsibility as set out in the constitution, actually, to engage in that kind of review process," she said. "We do it in the normal course and we continue to do that for this petition...or any other petitions that come before my office."

Bay State Repeal's first draft of their initiative petition is available here.