Adult-use cannabis legalization in Massachusetts remains in jeopardy entering 2026, with a prohibitionist group’s initiative petition representing a potentially devastating blow to the reform movement in the commonwealth – and elsewhere.
When State Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell certified in September the group’s petition, which aims to wipe out licensed adult-use cultivation and dispensary operations, it took Cannabis Business Times’ readers by storm, becoming the most-read article of 2025 for this publication.
This marks the first time since 2022 that an annual article on the states that are most likely to legalize cannabis didn’t top our list for the year. That story landed in the No. 4 spot in 2025.
No state in the nation has reversed course on cannabis legalization after implementing a licensed and regulated program, and the consequence of ending a $1.6-billion market in Massachusetts doesn’t only correlate to consumer access, jobs and tax revenue; removing the East Coast legalization pioneer from the map could dramatically shift years of advocacy work and normalization momentum in surrounding states.
Whether or not those potentially impacted by the proposal for the 2026 ballot took the campaign, the “Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts,” seriously when the story broke in September, the petition is now firmly on the pathway to landing on the November ballot after reaching a signature-gathering threshold last month.
“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,” campaign spokesperson Wendy Wakeman told CBT.
This will remain an attractive storyline in 2026: Absent legislative action, the campaign will need to gather an additional 12,429 signatures between May 6 and July 1 to officially put their question before voters. And the prohibitionist group Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) committed a “multimillion-dollar” effort to back the proposal and others like it.
Meanwhile, taking the No. 2 spot in CBT’s Top 10 articles in 2025 was a piece on Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signing legislation in May to ban THCA and synthetic cannabinoids, as well as prohibit online hemp product sales. This law went into effect on Jan. 1, 2026.
Relatedly, in the No. 3 spot, the U.S. Senate struck a deal to reopen the government in November that included language to ban intoxicating hemp products that have proliferated in the aftermath of the 2018 Farm Bill.
President Donald Trump signed the deal, and businesses involved in hemp-derived cannabinoid products now have until November 2026 to navigate the federal changes to the definition of hemp. But stakeholders are hoping to change Congress’ mind before that time comes.
Don’t miss out on the rest of our Top 10 stories from the year 2025.
