Anti-cannabis petitioners in Massachusetts are upbeat about their chances of landing an initiative on the November 2026 ballot that aims to repeal the state’s adult-use cannabis program.
The Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts, the political committee behind the proposal, has been up against the signature-gathering clock since State Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell certified their petition for circulation in early September.
The coalition had until Nov. 19 to collect at least 74,574 signatures for local election officials to review to ensure they’re from registered voters. This local vetting process must take place two weeks before a Dec. 3 deadline to file the signatures with Secretary of State William Galvin’s office for the final count.
“The committee is confident it has submitted enough signatures to put the question on the ballot,” group spokesperson Wendy Wakeman told Cannabis Business Times on Wednesday.
Wakeman also told CBT last month that the signature-gathering phase was “going well” and “on track.”
Wakeman’s optimism comes after the Massachusetts Cannabis Business Association (MCBA) accused the committee of committing organized voter fraud through “tricking” voters into signing the petition using deceptive tactics, such as fake cover sheets for unrelated ballot petitions, deployed by out-of-state signature crews.
“These out-of-state crews go from state to state collecting signatures, and clearly they’re having trouble here in Massachusetts finding people who want to repeal our highly effective cannabis laws and kill our successful cannabis industry,” MCBA President and CEO David O’Brien said Oct. 31. “This is voter fraud that people should report to their local town hall.”
Wakeman told MJBizDaily earlier this month that the committee did not support misrepresenting the petition “in any way at all,” and that photos of signature gatherers whom the MCBA and other pro-cannabis entities accused of the deceptive tactics were volunteers not affiliated with the campaign.
Instead, the committee’s paid signature gatherers “are trained in what the petition is asking, and the training does not include hyperbolic bloviating,” Wakeman said.
The committee’s proposal, “An Act to Restore a Sensible Marijuana Policy,” would undo the cannabis legalization measure that Massachusetts voters passed with a 54% majority in the 2016 election by repealing chapters 94G (regulations) and 64N (taxes) of the state’s General Laws, which govern the possession, use, distribution, cultivation and taxation of marijuana not medically prescribed.
Included in chapter 94G is the state’s allowance for adults 21 years and older to home-cultivate up to six cannabis plants for personal use, but no more than 12 plants per household.
In other words, those 21 years and older would no longer be able to grow at home, and they would no longer have access to tested cannabis products at licensed dispensaries in the commonwealth without a medical recommendation under the committee’s proposal.
Since licensed adult-use dispensaries first opened in December 2018 in Massachusetts, customers 21 and older have purchased more than $8.6 billion of cannabis and cannabis products, providing nearly $1.5 billion in excise and sales tax revenue to the state, according to the Cannabis Control Commission. The state’s licensed cannabis market also supports 27,000-some industry workers, according to Vangst.
The coalition to terminate Massachusetts’ adult-use marketplace is spearheaded by parents, doctors, mental health professionals and educators concerned with the negative effects of cannabis use, particularly on children and young adults, Wakeman told CBT last month.
“The quality of life, the impact that the growth of marijuana use has had on the quality of life, the increase in DUI stops, the increase in child poisonings and in pet poisonings, there’s a group that coalesces around the idea that we moved too far too fast with marijuana legalization and that it’s not working well for Massachusetts,” she said.
Specifically on the quality-of-life impacts, a university survey released earlier this month in Ohio revealed that adults in the Buckeye State believe cannabis dispensaries have a positive impact. Overall, 47% of the survey’s respondents supported cannabis dispensaries in their communities, 28% opposed them, and 24% were indifferent.
While the proposed initiative in Massachusetts would undo adult-use legalization in the commonwealth, it would continue the state’s medical cannabis program. Also, possessing up to 1 ounce of cannabis or 5 grams of concentrate would remain decriminalized for those 21 and older, while possessing 1 to 2 ounces would be punishable only by a civil penalty under the proposal.
The move to backtrack on legalization in Massachusetts comes at a time when Americans’ support for cannabis legalization is at a six-year low of 64%, according to a Gallup survey of 1,000 adults conducted last month.
This decrease in support comes after an all-time high of 70% of Americans favored legalization in 2023.
