Politics
Top Marijuana Advocacy Group Raises Alarm About Initiative To Roll Back Legalization In Massachusetts
One of the nation’s leading marijuana reform organizations says it would be “disastrous” for the cannabis industry is an initiative to roll back Massachusetts’s legalization law that is on that state’s November ballot is approved by voters.
“If you haven’t been paying attention to what’s going on in the Bay State, it’s time to start,” Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) Executive Director Adam J. Smith said in an alert to supporters. “A loss in Massachusetts would have disastrous political and economic consequences for legal cannabis markets everywhere, and 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.”
Last month, state officials issued a final determination that the initiative—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—will appear on ballot this fall.
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.
“Now, ten years into Massachusetts’ legal cannabis market, we are faced for the first time in history with the question… Will supporters of legal cannabis markets—in Massachusetts and elsewhere—stand up to defend them?” MPP’s Smith wrote in the new alert. :They had better, because victory is not a sure thing, and the risk is existential.”
He pointed to recent polling showing that the anti-marijuana initiative is trailing by just a single-digit margin, and that the gap “narrows to within the margin of error once respondents hear arguments in favor of recriminalization.”
“Legal cannabis is responsible for more than 20,000 jobs in the state. The legal cannabis that people are using, unlike the illicit market, is tested and properly labeled. Cannabis arrests and their associated costs—personal, economic, and in law enforcement—are down nearly 90%, and youth cannabis use is down 25% since the state legalized adult-use cannabis.”
“The case needs to be made that ending the regulated market would lead to an explosion in the illicit market, reversing those gains and exponentially increasing the number of easy access points for kids,” MPP’s alert said.
The prohibitionist organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana, whose affiliated group SAM Action is largely funding the anti-cannabis ballot campaign, has tens of millions of dollars in its war chest, Smith said, pointing to its most recent federal reporting form.
On the other side of the debate, a coalition of Massachusetts marijuana business leaders, healthcare professionals and other advocates have launched a campaign to defeat the measure.
“Question 8 could pass if the ‘No on 8’ Campaign lacks the resources to get its message out, broadly and consistently, from here to the election,” Smith said.
MPP is asking industry operatives and supporters to donate to the No on 8 Campaign to “help us fight back and protect legalization progress.”
“Whether you’re an industry member, an allied business, an advocate for the plant or for rational public policy or personal freedom—and wherever you are in the country—the Massachusetts ballot initiative is your fight,” he said. “It’s our fight.”
The group is also selling t-shirts that say “Vote No On Question 8” to support the effort.
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 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.”
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.
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 a formal complaint about the prohibitionist effort’s tactics, but the State Ballot Law Commission rejected the challenge.
The measure 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 challenge.
