Another Massachusetts elected official is telling her constituents to oppose an anti-cannabis ballot measure that would wipe out the state’s adult-use industry.
U.S. House Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., became the first member of the commonwealth’s delegation in Washington to join the “No on 8: Stop the Repeal Campaign,” a committee that launched in June to defeat the ballot question.
Pressley, the first Black woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts in 2018, is a national leader on criminal justice reform.
“Cannabis legalization and regulation is positive for small businesses, local communities and restorative justice. And keeping marijuana legal in Massachusetts is both economic justice and racial justice policy,” she said on Oct. 6.
“With Black, Hispanic and other marginalized communities disproportionately ravaged by the war on drugs, legalizing adult-use cannabis in Massachusetts was designed in part to begin addressing that legacy, through social equity programs, economic opportunities and investments in communities harmed by prohibition,” Pressley said. “Repealing legal adult use would undo this progress and have devastating impacts on the livelihoods of those who have invested their life savings into their businesses, communities and supporting thousands of jobs. We must vote No on 8.”
Pressley’s Stop the Repeal endorsement comes two days after Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey also urged the commonwealth’s voters to oppose the ballot measure while discussing various issues with Boston-based WCVB TV’s “On the Record.”
“I’d vote no,” Healey said. “We’ve got to keep recreational marijuana here in Massachusetts. It’s an important industry, the cannabis industry, and I hope the voters keep cannabis.”
The proposed statute, “An Act to Restore Sensible Marijuana Policy,” which will appear as Question 8 on the statewide ballot on Nov. 3, 2026, would repeal the state’s adult-use cannabis laws, which lawmakers enacted after voters backed a legalization measure with a 54% majority in the 2016 election.
The Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts Inc., the political committee behind the 2026 repeal measure, is now asking voters to undo their decision from 10 years ago and outlaw adult-use dispensary sales and other licensed and regulated activities, including cultivation, manufacturing and lab testing that have allowed adults 21 years and older to access products under strict oversight of the state’s Cannabis Control Commission.
The coalition is financially backed by the prohibitionist group Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) Action Inc., which has contributed $3.5 million to the initiative, after its latest $305,000 contribution on Sept. 29.
The prohibition proposal would also end roughly $1.7 billion in adult-use tax revenues that the state has collected since December 2018, force some 27,000 industry workers out of employment, and prohibit those 21 and older from growing up to six plants at home for personal use.
Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts spokesperson Wendy Wakeman told Cannabis Business Times in October 2025 that the group behind the initiative “coalesces around the idea that we moved too far too fast with marijuana legalization, and that it’s not working well for Massachusetts.”
But that opinion remains unpopular in Massachusetts, according to multiple polls.
Sixty-one percent of likely voters plan to oppose Question 8, while 27% plan to support the measure, according to a CommonWealth Beacon/MassINC Polling Group survey conducted Sept. 14-22.
Meanwhile, a Bay State Poll of likely voters that the University of New Hampshire conducted Sept. 17-21 found that 71% of Massachusetts voters plan to oppose the anti-cannabis measure, while 24% plan to support it.
These numbers support the Stop the Repeal campaign’s stance that, in the decade since voters replaced prohibition policies with a regulated cannabis market, Massachusetts has built a “system that prioritizes public health, consumer safety, responsible regulation and equitable opportunities.”
According to the campaign, Question 8 threatens to take Massachusetts back to a system of extreme disparities in cannabis arrest rates.
“In the decade since voters made a clear choice to do away with dangerous, unregulated cannabis policies, the commonwealth has not only built a system that prioritizes public health and consumer safety, but has had a significant impact on equitable opportunities,” Stop the Repeal Chairperson Ryan Dominguez said.
“After legalization, Massachusetts became the first state in the country to create a social equity program that directly supports entrepreneurs who were impacted by the war on drugs,” he said. “Since the Social Equity Trust Fund was established, it has awarded more than $57 million through more than 400 grants, with an additional $28.8 million this year supporting another 194 projects.”
According to the group, the state’s Social Equity Program has certified more than 1,100 participants, requiring licensees to maintain public positive impact plans and diversity plans to advance equity in their operations and in harmed communities.
