[PRESS RELEASE] – BOSTON, Nov. 2, 2026 – The No on 8: Stop the Repeal Campaign announced the endorsement of the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers (NABLEO), building on the voice of public safety leaders who have joined public health officials, labor groups, small business owners and advocates fighting to protect the commonwealth’s legal cannabis law in Massachusetts.
Repealing the regulation of marijuana for adult use would mean returning control of the product to illicit markets, which would have serious economic and public safety impacts across the state. Today’s endorsement underscores the importance of keeping cannabis safe and regulated under current state law.
“Massachusetts has implemented one of the most strict enforcement laws in the country that keep cannabis sales within a regulated and age-gated system with product testing from seed to sale,” Stop the Repeal Chairperson Ryan Dominguez said. “We should not be pushing consumers toward sellers with no age checks, product standards or oversight. We are grateful to have the support of the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers in helping us to defeat this damaging ballot question that threatens public safety.”
In the last decade, Massachusetts has built a system that prioritizes public health, consumer safety, responsible regulation and equitable opportunities. Under current regulations, licensed businesses must verify age, test and label products, use child-resistant packaging, track inventory, maintain security, submit to inspections and conduct recalls when necessary. In addition, owners and workers pass background checks and stores must check IDs twice on camera.
“A return to the prohibition and criminalizing of cannabis commerce will only increase demands on already over-burdened law enforcement resources and raise serious questions regarding enforcement priorities, consumer safety and the effective use of public resources,” NABLEO Chairman Lieutenant Charles Wilson (Ret.) said.
Question 8, if passed, would bring Massachusetts back to a system under which the arrest rate for marijuana sales disproportionately impacted communities of color. Black people were more than seven times higher than the arrest rate for white people before legalization. Even after legalization, Hispanic and Latino individuals were three times as likely as non-Hispanic and Latino respondents to report a prior cannabis-related arrest.
Last week, more than 50 current and former law enforcement officials signed an open letter opposing Question 8. As they said in their letter:
“Many of us spent our careers enforcing marijuana laws. We know firsthand what that system cost: resources diverted away from violent crime and toward low-level cannabis offenses, lack of visibility into an unregulated market, and no tools to hold sellers accountable when something went wrong. The 2016 vote to legalize and regulate marijuana changed that. A decade later, the evidence shows the current system is working. There is no good reason to go back.
“Repealing legal, regulated sales would not eliminate demand for marijuana or meaningfully reduce its consumption. It would only strip the market of the licensing, testing, and accountability the current regulatory system provides, pushing transactions toward sellers with no age checks, no product standards, and no legal responsibility to consumers or the state. We believe police should remain focused on the most serious public safety threats.
“Recriminalizing nonmedical cannabis sales would pull police, prosecutors, courts, and correctional resources back into enforcement against activity that licensed businesses in Massachusetts have been conducting safely and legally for years. These resources are better spent on issues like violence, impaired driving, illegal sales to minors, and organized drug trafficking.”
The full letter is available here.
Throughout the campaign, hundreds of elected officials, businesses, advocates, community leaders and voters stressed the importance of defeating repeal efforts. Gov. Maura Healey, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, more than 60 state legislators, including Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Ronald Mariano, the Law Enforcement Action Partnership, the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, Progressive Massachusetts, the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts (BECMA), the Mass Reentry Coalition, Mass Healing, the National Association of Social Workers, the Coalition for Social Justice, Massachusetts Cannabis Equity Council, Equitable Opportunities Now, Springfield No One Leaves and Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, and others, have all said No on 8.
Legalization of adult-use marijuana built an economic engine that, in the last decade, has created over 400 new storefronts, more than 27,000 jobs and generated over $2 billion in tax revenue benefiting our municipalities and the Marijuana Regulation Fund, supporting public health programs, law enforcement and schools, as well as regulatory oversight.
To learn more about efforts to keep regulated recreational marijuana legal in Massachusetts, click here.
