The most notorious cannabis prohibition organization in the U.S. is financing the push to eliminate the licensed and regulated adult-use program in Massachusetts.
Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) Action Inc. contributed $1.55 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 to the Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts Inc., according to a campaign disclosure report filed this week. No other entities contributed funding to the coalition.
The coalition spent $1.44 million of that funding to collect 78,301 valid signatures, which Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin’s office certified last month, moving the group one step closer to landing its petition on the 2026 ballot. The petition proposal would end the state’s $1.6 billion adult-use market, including dispensary, cultivation and manufacturing operations.
The petition, “An Act to Restore a Sensible Marijuana Policy,” would also recriminalize personal cultivation: Adults 21 and older are currently allowed to grow up to six cannabis plants, but no more than 12 plants per household, for personal use in their private residences. However, possessing up to 1 ounce of cannabis or 5 grams of concentrate would remain decriminalized for those 21 and older.
This aligns with SAM polices to discourage cannabis use while also supporting laws that remove criminal sanctions for low-level possession. While SAM is a 501(c)(3) “charitable” organization that promotes science and education through tax-deductible donations, its affiliate, SAM Action, is a 501(c)(4) “social welfare” organization whose funding comes from non-tax-deductible donations, allowing the group to lobby and advocate for “healthy marijuana policies that do not legalize drugs.”
Donors to 501(c)(4) organizations like SAM Action can remain anonymous. According to the group, its funding comes primarily from individuals whose lives have been negatively impacted by drugs.
SAM President and CEO Kevin Sabet co-founded the charitable arm of the organization. Sabet served in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy under the administrations of George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton.
Last month, when President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi to quickly finish the process of reclassifying cannabis from a Schedule I to Schedule III drug, Sabet responded on social media, expressing his disappointment in the president’s decision to loosen restrictions on the plant.
In his response video, Sabet also called attention to SAM Action’s state-by-state effort to end voter-approved legalization laws.
“Now, today, for the first time, I can also announce our multimillion-dollar led support for two grassroots campaigns to end marijuana sales and commercialization in Maine and Massachusetts,” he said. “We still have the power to take back our public health.”
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows approved a similar ballot proposal last month to start circulating and collecting signatures for either the 2026 or 2027 ballot. Maine has a roughly $250 million annual adult-use marketplace.
In both Massachusetts and Maine, there have been complaints that anti-cannabis signature gatherers used deceptive tactics to trick voters into signing their prohibition petitions.
In Massachusetts, the State Ballot Law Commission held a hearing last week to investigate the claims that signature gatherers used deceptive tactics to mislead voters. The prohibition campaign’s legal counsel argued that there is not enough evidence to disqualify the 3,727 signatures needed to drop the campaign below the required threshold at this point in the process.
Now that the state secretary’s office transmitted the cannabis prohibition proposal to the Massachusetts Legislature, state lawmakers have until May 5 to consider enacting the proposal legislatively. If lawmakers don’t act by May 5, then the campaign has until July 1 to collect another 12,429 signatures required to place the question on the November 2026 ballot.
In Maine, Bellows said last week that the circulators are protected by First Amendment rights and are allowed to lie to voters to mislead them into signing a petition to end cannabis dispensary sales.
“You have a right to lie under the First Amendment,” the secretary of state said. “So, I do not have authority to take any enforcement action over the truth of what is being said.”
On Jan. 14, Bellows’ office issued a statement on social media warning voters of the complaints, letting them know that once they sign a petition, their signatures cannot be removed.
“As a reminder, voters must have an opportunity to read the initiative summary and full text of the proposed legislation prior to signing a petition,” according to the office. “We encourage citizens to think about what they’re signing and what it means, why they’re signing it, and to always take the time to read the summary and legislation before signing any petition.”
While Sabet said SAM Action is financially supporting the campaigns in Massachusetts and Maine, campaign finance activity in Maine has not yet been released.
In addition, Arizona prohibitionists recently launched a campaign to roll back their voter-approved cannabis legalization laws. That petition, the “Sensible Marijuana Policy Act for Arizona,” needs to collect 255,949 valid signatures to put a question before voters to end their state’s $1 billion adult-use program.
These three initiatives all aim to repeal what voters already passed.
Massachusetts voters legalized adult-use cannabis with a 53.7% majority in 2016; Maine voters legalized with a 50.3% majority in 2016; and Arizona voters legalized with a 60% supermajority in 2020.
