Politics
Top Marijuana Advocacy Group Urges Collaboration With Industry Amid Rise Of ‘Neo-Prohibitionist Movement’
A leading marijuana reform advocacy organization is circulating an open letter to the cannabis industry, stressing that the two pillars of the community “need each other” at a time when a “resurgent and well-funded neo-prohibitionist movement” is on the rise.
“Neither industry nor advocacy will succeed alone,” the letter from Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) Executive Director Adam Smith says.
While some industries concoct seemingly grassroots campaigns to create the appearance of credibility, that “fake grass” is “inorganic, doesn’t grow, nourishes nothing, and is made of mostly forever plastics and noxious chemicals,” Smith wrote.
But it’s a different story for the cannabis reform movement.
“Cannabis advocacy is not astroturf. It wasn’t created by an industry. In fact, just the opposite,” Smith said, referring to the fact that the movement’s successes created the opportunity for the legal marijuana industry to later emerge. “Cannabis policy reform is a movement. And like every fight for justice, ours was born out of suffering: the suffering of people whose liberty, children, homes, education, or lives were stolen from them in the name of the war on drugs.”
“The suffering of those desperate for medicine for themselves or to help a loved one to eat, ease pain, or calm seizures,” he said. It rose against a drug war machine that has fueled government overreach, mass incarceration, discrimination, and inequity for nearly a century. All based on lies told about a plant.”
There’s been some tension between the advocacy and industry sides of the cannabis movement in recent years, especially as philanthropic support for grassroots organizations has dried up as a majority of states have moved to legalize marijuana for medical or adult use. It’s an issue that a former MPP executive, Matthew Schweich, routinely discussed as the group fought against the changing policy and financial dynamics.
Smith is hoping that his letter will restart the conversation and impress upon the industry that there are mutual benefits to working more closely together in the pursuit of reform.
“Industry and advocacy are fighting for the same big goal; not just to end cannabis prohibition, but to end it well,” Smith told Marijuana Moment on Wednesday. “Patients and consumers need safe, dependable access, which requires an economically stable industry that is rationally regulated, reasonably taxed, and operating within a normalized commercial environment.”
“But the cannabis issue is about more than dollars and cents, and industry won’t get there alone. Independent advocacy has been and remains an indispensable force for reform,” he said. “We may not agree or collaborate on everything, but we can do a much better job of big picture strategic coordination, and we have to start now.”
Because prohibition persists, however, he emphasized in the letter that the associated “suffering, injustice, and inequity” of criminalization also linger. And that has imperiled the movement that advocates and stakeholders have worked for years to build. If the industry fails, “we fail together,” he wrote.
“A strong industry creates jobs, generates tax revenues, and revitalizes local economies. These arguments were, and still are, powerful incentives for reform. But they cannot finish the job of ending prohibition. They don’t speak to the deeper issues that first brought this movement together, nor can they speak with authority to address the concerns, including public health and safety, that many lawmakers and their constituents have about cannabis.”
Smith also pointed out that the prohibitionist group Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) and its allies are actively “backing legislation, and soon ballot initiatives, to roll back our progress state by state.” That includes a possible 2026 ballot measure in Massachusetts to recriminalize recreational marijuana sales.
Prohibitionists “also know that the normal incentives of any industry, reducing costs and maximizing profits, can undercut an industry’s credibility with lawmakers and the public on these threshold issues,” he said. “Their strategy is to force legislators into a false choice between your profit motives and their claim to the mantle of public health. They want you isolated in that fight.”
“But independent advocacy requires resources. And resources have been scarce. At the Marijuana Policy Project, we have led the fight to secure 29 medical and adult-use laws, both through legislatures and ballot initiatives. We have helped ensure good faith implementation of those laws and defended them when opponents have tried to roll them back.”
Smith noted that MPP is actively working to advance adult-use legalization in Louisiana, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, and it has a “list of priorities that overlap with the industry’s across multiple legal and medical states.”
“Cannabis advocacy organizations do not work for the industry, and it’s true that we will not always align or collaborate on every issue. But our independence is a feature, not a bug,” he said. “It’s what gives us credibility and increases our power over time. Anyone who wants to see sensible and lasting normalization in cannabis needs that independent power working at full strength.”
There’s a “real urgency” to develop a “deeper, coordinated conversation between the leaders of industry at every level and the institutions of independent advocacy about how we move forward together,” the letter states.
“That means renewed financial support, yes. But it also means better strategic alignment across our common goals and shared purpose as we confront our common challenges. Neither industry nor advocacy will succeed alone,” he said. “And maybe you didn’t even realize it was happening. So it wasn’t your responsibility to step up. But now you know. So now it is.”
