Politics
Anti-Marijuana Ballot Campaigns In Maine And Massachusetts Accused Of ‘Fraudulent’ And ‘Misleading’ Petitioning Tactics
Campaigns that are working to put measures to roll back marijuana legalization on the ballot in two states are facing accusations of “fraudulent” and “misleading” signature gathering tactics—and not for the first time.
Now, however, new social media posts from both states appear to show signature collectors for each measure arguing that people who support legal cannabis access should sign the petitions in order to advance or protect marijuana reform.
A video posted to Reddit of a signature gatherer for the Massachusetts proposal—which would repeal state laws allowing the regulated commercial sales of recreational marijuana while maintaining legal possession and continuing the medical cannabis system—shows the man collecting signatures outside a supermarket next to a sign that says “keep cannabis legal.”
When confronted by a marijuana reform supporter who recorded the petitioner’s interactions with voters, he appeared to be trying to convince them that it is important to qualify the anti-cannabis measure for the ballot in order to then defeat it.
“This is what we’re fighting against right here. That’s why we vote no,” he said. “If we can get this to the ballot right here, we vote no.”
The person who captured the video pointed out that Massachusetts voters already approved marijuana legalization years ago, and that the only way it could be imminently repealed is if the new ballot measure qualified for the November election. If the initiative does not get enough signatures to go before voters, the state’s laws will remain the same.
“It’s my job,” the petitioner insisted, however. “I know what I’m talking about.”
“It’s a group of rich folks from out of state that want to basically take marijuana to when it was a medical marijuana card,” he said. “We don’t want that to happen.”
Proof of the fraudulent signature folks at it again
byu/MA121Alpha inbostontrees
The same man also appears to also be gathering signatures for a separate measure in Maine that would similarly repeal laws allowing regulated adult-use marijuana sales and home cultivation rights for adults while keeping possession legal and adding new testing requirements for medical cannabis.
A Reddit post shows photos of the man and a colleague sitting at a table with what appears to be the same “keep cannabis legal sign” from the Massachusetts video. In one photo, he is using one hand to hold up a flyer that says “Maine Cannabis Reform” and the other hand to flip off the camera.
The person who posted the photos said in a comment that the petitioners “told me that ‘a bunch of billionaires are trying to make recreational cannabis illegal in Maine’ so they’re up here to help keep it legal,” they said. “After showing a variety of confusing images on their phones, they asked me to sign to have it ‘added to the ballot so that I can vote No in November.'”
The Reddit posted went on to say, “They were hired by those ‘billionaires.'”
Anti-cannabis petitioners misleading voters
byu/cheeesymike inportlandme
Wendy Wakeman, a spokesperson for the Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts, which is behind the initiative in that state, told Marijuana Moment that she would have a “formal statement later today on how we’ll address this.”
A staffer for the prohibitionist organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), whose affiliated group SAM Action is largely funding the anti-cannabis ballot campaigns in both states, declined to comment for this story when reached by Marijuana Moment.
Maine State Rep. David Boyer (R) warned voters in a Facebook post about petitioners circulating the legalization rollback measure in conjunction with the state’s elections this week.
“Cannabis legalization repeal petition is out. DECLINE TO SIGN,” Boyer, who led the fight to pass cannabis legalization at the ballot about 10 years ago when he was a staffer for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), said. “They have been reported to lie about what the petition does, saying things like it’s about testing.”
The campaigns in both states have previously been accused of misleading petitioning tactics.
In Massachusetts, some voters reported that the campaign used fake cover letters for other ballot measures on unrelated issues like affordable housing and same-day voter registration. Legal cannabis supporters filed a formal complaint about the prohibitionist effort’s tactics, but the State Ballot Law Commission rejected the challenge.
Under state law, Massachusetts ballot campaigns must turn in signatures in two waves. After the first submission, the legislature gets a chance to enact proposed ballot measures after organizers submit an initial round of petitions. Lawmakers last month declined to act on the anti-marijuana measure, however, and now organizers need to submit additional 12,429 certified signatures by July 1 to make the November ballot.
The measure is also facing a legal challenge from cannabis industry operatives who say it contains “impermissibly unrelated subjects,” and that the state attorney general’s official summary is “misleading and deficient.” The state Supreme Judicial Court heard oral arguments on the litigation challenging the anti-marijuana initiative last month.
In Maine, Boyer, the state lawmaker, previously posted a recording of a petitioner appearing to significantly misrepresent what the anti-cannabis proposal would accomplish.
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D) told lawmakers at a hearing in January that she would tell the cannabis campaign’s organizers that her department had received a significant number of complaints about its petition circulators’ behavior.
Organizers behind that initiative failed to meet a signature submission deadline to qualify for the November ballot this year, and the measure could now appear on the ballot in 2027 if they collect enough valid petitions.
Separately, marijuana opponents had filed a similar legalization rollback initiative in Arizona, but that effort was scrapped after the local campaign leader said he has “adjusted my viewpoints on the threat to kids” posed by the legal marijuana industry.
Sean Noble, president of the political strategy firm American Encore, told local media that while he launched the campaign due to concerns about marketing of cannabis to children, he has come to realize that marijuana businesses in Arizona have “not done some of the things that I thought they were doing.”
“I went into it with a pretty profound belief that it was happening,” Noble said. “I was kind of relying on things that I had seen or read from other people.”
“I don’t think that they’re specifically marketing gummies and candies and that kind of thing the way that I was led to believe that they were doing,” he said. “Maybe they’re doing that in other states. But it’s not happening here in Arizona.”
