Mass. cannabis industry ramps up fight against repealing pot
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios
Cannabis business owners and elected officials are sounding the alarm about a ballot measure that stands to make the legal cannabis market go up in flames.
The big picture: The proposal to repeal cannabis has grown from what some dismissed as a pipe dream to a threat to legal, adult-use cannabis across the country, opponents say.
- The Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts, the campaign behind the ballot question, sees repealing adult-use cannabis sales as the way to prevent children from getting their hands on THC gummies and reduce drugged driving.
Catch up quick: The proposal called "An Act to Restore A Sensible Marijuana Policy," has become a bellwether test over legal cannabis after similar ballot questions in other states fell off.
- The Massachusetts campaign has survived accusations of misleading voters and a legal challenge that failed last week with the Supreme Judicial Court letting the ballot measure proceed.
The latest: A coalition of cannabis business owners, advocates and elected officials are launching a "Stop the Repeal" campaign Thursday against the ballot question.
How it works: The ballot question would bring Massachusetts back to an era where only medical cannabis and medical dispensaries would be legal before the 2016 referendum to allow adult-use cannabis.
- Recreational cannabis would be decriminalized for adults ages 21 and up.
- The proposal would also mean more changes for the Cannabis Control Commission, the state agency that was marred by infighting and red tape before being restructured earlier this year.
Yes, but: That also means shuttering adult-use dispensaries and losing hundreds of millions of dollars in future revenue for police training, public transit, school building and restorative justice efforts.
- The legal market has generated $2 billion dollars in state and local tax revenue, including $183 million from the excise tax and $50 million across local budgets in fiscal 2025.
What they're saying: "Repealing recreational cannabis laws in Massachusetts will not only take us backwards," Ryan Dominguez, the campaign chair, said in a statement.
- "It will negatively impact our communities that are already struggling with budget shortfalls and locally owned small businesses that have invested their life savings into building their legal businesses."
The other side: "The impetus behind the question continues to be the safety of marijuana as a drug consumed by people without regulation," said Wendy Wakeman, a spokesperson for the Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts.
- The legal market, she added, has revealed unintended consequences for public safety, mental health and quality of life.
- Wakeman said that, for her, that includes smelling cannabis on I-93 and other major roads.
The bottom line: The debate over legal cannabis in Massachusetts is going to heat up between now and November.