Politics
Dozens Of Massachusetts Lawmakers Urge Voters To Keep Marijuana Sales Legal By Rejecting Measure On November Ballot
More than 50 Massachusetts state lawmakers are joining together to oppose an initiative on the November ballot to roll back the state’s marijuana legalization law.
House Speaker Ronald Mariano (D) and Senate President Karen Spilka (D) are among the 62 Democrats and Republicans who announced their support for keeping recreational cannabis sales legal in the state on Friday.
“I’m voting no on Question 8 because recriminalizing cannabis would bring back an unsafe and untaxed black market as well as enforcement that has historically been targeted disproportionately at Black and Brown communities,” Sen. Liz Miranda (D) said. “The legalization of cannabis carried the promise to begin to remediate the harm that was caused by prohibition, over-policing, and incarceration for cannabis related offenses—undoing legalization now and shutting down these businesses would only double that harm.”
Sen. Barry Finegold (D) said that he supports Massachusetts’s “400+ legal and regulated cannabis retailers, the people they employ, and $250 million in tax revenue they generate” and that “this is no time to be shutting down businesses and erecting barriers to entrepreneurial investment.”
The legal cannabis industry “protects the public from adulterated, unsafe street cannabis products,” Sen. Will Brownsberger (D) said. “And it reduces the illegal marketing of cannabis and all the attendant violence and criminal justice harms that go along with illicit markets. Going back to prohibition would be a huge mistake.”
Sen. Pat Jehlen (D) said that repealing voter-approved marijuana legalization would “take us back to dominance by the unregulated black market.”
Ryan Dominguez, chair of the Stop the Repeal campaign, said “repealing recreational cannabis laws will not only take us backwards to restrictive policies that promote dangerous, unregulated illicit markets, it would negatively impact our communities that are already struggling with the impacts from serious budget shortfalls, which many of our legislative leaders have seen first hand.
“Losing $2 billion in state and local revenue along with the funding from the Marijuana Regulation Fund will cause further pains on already strained budgets, and impact public health programs and investments in law enforcement and public safety,” he said.
The full list of 62 lawmakers opposing Question 8 is below:
- Speaker Ronald Mariano (D)
- Senate President Karen Spilka (D)
- State Representative Lindsay Sabadosa (D)
- State Representative Patricia Duffy (D)
- State Representative Dawne Shand (D)
- State Representative James Arena-DeRosa (D)
- State Representative Michelle Badger (D)
- State Representative Mike Connolly (D)
- State Representative Lisa Field (D)
- State Representative Dennis Gallagher (D)
- State Representative Carmine Gentile (D)
- State Representative Natalie Higgins (D)
- State Representative Russell Holmes (D)
- State Representative Tara Hong (D)
- State Representative Kristin Kassner (D)
- State Representative Kathleen LaNatra (D)
- State Representative David LeBoeuf (D)
- State Representative Jack Lewis (D)
- State Representative David Linsky (D)
- State Representative Kate Lipper-Garabedian (D)
- State Representative Jay Livingstone (D)
- State Representative Christopher Markey (D)
- State Representative Joseph McKenna (R)
- State Representative John Moran (D)
- State Representative Brian Murray (D)
- State Representative Tram Nguyen (D)
- State Representative James O’Day (D)
- State Representative Steven Ouellette (R)
- State Representative Steven Owens (D)
- State Representative Alice Peisch (D)
- State Representative Angelo Puppolo Jr. (D)
- State Representative David Robertson (D)
- State Representative Jeffrey Roy (D)
- State Representative Alan Silvia (D)
- State Representative Andrew Tarr (D)
- State Representative Erika Uyterhoeven (D)
- State Representative Marcus Vaughn (R)
- State Representative William “Bill” MacGregor (D)
- State Representative James Arciero (D)
- State Representative Samantha Montaño (D)
- State Representative Bud Williams (D)
- State Representative John Mahoney (D)
- State Representative Andy Vargas (D)
- State Representative Christine Barber (D)
- State Representative Hannah Bowen (D)
- State Senator William Brownsberger (D)
- State Senator Paul Feeney (D)
- State Senator Adam Gomez (D)
- State Senator Liz Miranda (D)
- State Senator Julian Cyr (D)
- State Senator Jason Lewis (D)
- State Senator Jacob Oliveira (D)
- State Senator Rebecca Rausch (D)
- State Senator Patricia Jehlen (D)
- State Senator Michael Moore (D)
- State Senator Jo Comerford (D)
- State Senator Dylan Fernandes (D)
- State Senator Barry Finegold (D)
- State Senator Jamie Eldridge (D)
- State Senator Robyn Kennedy (D)
- State Senator Vanna Howard (D)
- State Senator Mike Rush (D)
- State Senator Pavel Payano (D)
“Since voters made it clear ten years ago that they wanted a legal adult-use cannabis market, hundreds of business owners have poured life savings into building legitimate businesses and supporting thousands of jobs,” Sen. Dylan Fernandes (D) said. “We have a responsibility to build on what works, address what needs improvement and continue to protect the public through smart regulation. Reversing course does the opposite and will force people back into an illicit market compromising public health and safety.”
Rep. Jay Livingtonstone (D) said that “voters in 2016 made a clear choice to replace restrictive policies with a safe, regulated cannabis market and that plan has worked.”
“Adult-use retail sales of cannabis reached over $8 billion in Massachusetts and the state has collected $1.58 billion and local governments collected $300 million in revenue,” he said. “This funding has supported public health programs, investments in communities, law enforcement and public safety, as well as regulatory oversight.”
The lawmakers represent the latest high-profile endorsements for the campaign to defeat Question 8—which would repeal laws allowing the regulated commercial sales of recreational cannabis and home cultivation while maintaining legal possession and continuing the medical marijuana system.
U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ed Markey (D-MA) both recently told Marijuana Moment that they will be voting against the anti-cannabis measure.
“We could make improvements in the operations but legalizing cannabis is better than continuing an unregulated, underground market,” Warren said. “So I’m opposed to the repeal. I’m voting no on the ballot to repeal.”
Markey, for his part, said the state’s marijuana legalization law that voters approved in 2016 continues to enjoy “overwhelming support.”
“We’ve had debate,” he said. “The voters are satisfied at this moment with the experience that the state has had with it… I support keeping it on the books and overwhelmingly so do the people of Massachusetts.”
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) also recently urged voters to reject the measure, saying that “keeping marijuana legal in Massachusetts is both economic justice and racial justice policy.”
Gov. Maura Healey (D) similarly said recently that she opposes the anti-cannabis initiative, saying that “we’ve got to keep recreational marijuana here in Massachusetts.”
“It’s an important industry, the cannabis industry,” the governor said. “And I hope the voters keep cannabis.”
Boston’s mayor also said she is voting against the initiative to roll back marijuana legalization.
Meanwhile, a recent poll released shows that most Massachusetts voters oppose the ballot measure to roll back marijuana legalization.
The survey, published by CommonWealth Beacon and conducted by MassINC Polling Group (MPG), shows that 61 percent of likely voters oppose the initiative. Just 27 percent of respondents said they favor the anti-cannabis ballot measure, while 11 percent are undecided and 1 percent responded that they would prefer not to state their opinion.
A separate poll released last month by The University of New Hampshire, showed that nearly three-quarters (71 percent) of respondents planned to vote against the anti-cannabis measure, while just 24 percent planned to support it.
Another survey released in August found that Massachusetts voters opposed the marijuana legalization repeal measure, 55 percent to 33 percent.
Competing campaigns working to pass and defeat the legalization rollback have launched a series of ads trying to convince voters of their respective positions.
The prohibitionist campaign’s ads focus on the dangers of marijuana-impaired driving, while the campaign seeking to keep cannabis sales legal is highlighting the public health and safety harms of sending consumers back to the unregulated market.
The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission, which regulates the legal industry, announced last month that the state has surpassed $10 billion in adult-use cannabis purchases since the market launched in 2018.
CCC Chair Chris Harding told Marijuana Moment that he can’t comment directly on the initiative and that the commission does not take positions on pending ballot questions or legislation, but he said that, in general, “repeal of the adult-use industry could eliminate thousands of jobs, hundreds of businesses and billions in tax revenue.”
Meanwhile, a top labor union—the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Massachusetts State Council—is urging voters to reject the cannabis legalization rollback initiative.
While the latest survey results provide some comfort to cannabis reform supporters, advocates are not resting.
A coalition of Massachusetts marijuana business leaders, healthcare professionals and other advocates have launched a campaign to defeat the measure.
The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) recently issued a warning that passage of the legalization rollback measure would have “disastrous political and economic consequences for legal cannabis markets everywhere.”
“Even a too-close victory would spook markets and incentivize a rash of similar initiatives in states around the country, each costing millions to try and defeat,” the group said.
After the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Office determined that organizers for the anti-cannabis proposal had turned in enough valid signatures to put the measure before voters, a marijuana reform advocate filed an objection with the State Ballot Law Commission claiming that various signatures were not genuine, obtained through fraudulent means or were not “signed substantially as registered.”
The body rejected the challenge to the legal marijuana rollback measure, however, clearing it to go before voters to decide.
In June, the campaign behind the anti-legalization ballot measure fired a signature gatherer it says was shown appearing to engage in “wholly unacceptable” conduct in a recent video.
As Marijuana Moment reported, a man petitioning for the Massachusetts initiative as well as a similar anti-cannabis proposal in Maine was depicted in recent social media posts seeming to argue that voters who support legal marijuana access should sign the petitions in order to advance or protect reform.
The campaign later said it has “zero tolerance for any circulation tactics that would mislead petition signers.”
“The identified canvasser was immediately terminated, in coordination with our vendor, upon being made aware of the alleged conduct,” the group said. “The conduct apparent in the video would be wholly unacceptable and does not reflect how this campaign operates. We demand honesty, transparency and professionalism from everyone associated with our effort.”
A video posted to Reddit of the signature gatherer shows the man collecting signatures outside a retail store in Massachusetts 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 did not get enough signatures to go before voters, the state’s laws would remain the same.
The same man also appeared 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 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 about the petitioner’s conduct when reached by Marijuana Moment.
The campaigns 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 during the first round of petitioning. Legal cannabis supporters filed an earlier formal complaint about the prohibitionist effort’s tactics, but the State Ballot Law Commission rejected the challenge.
The measure also faced a legal challenge from cannabis industry operatives who argued 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 but it ultimately ruled against the lawsuit.
The governor of Massachusetts last month filed legislation proposing to increase military veterans’ access to medical marijuana by allowing them to receive patient cards without having to get a doctor’s recommendation.
