According to the head of an advocacy group for marijuana reform, fighting recent efforts by prohibitionists to weaken state-level laws is a top priority. He encourages his supporters to do their part to fight back.
Adam Smith, Executive Director of Marijuana Policy Project MPP (MPP), wrote a blog on Monday to warn of an anti-reform escalation. He cited a recent op ed by Joanne Caceres of Dentons and Hannah King from law firm Dentons which was published in MEDCAN24.
The Massachusetts campaign, which is collecting signatures in order to launch a ballot measure to rollback much of Massachusetts’ voter-approved law on adult-use marijuana legalization, and a Maine initiative that has a similar ballot proposal moving forward.
Smith stated that while the article “focused on the potential impact of repealing the law in just one state” for the cannabis industry, it was also detrimental to the users.
“Cannabis policies should be grounded on public health, safety and access. And a well-regulated legal industry that is sustainable and long-lasting for all three, he added.” Eliminating adult-use cannabis sales will drive millions back into unregulated supply chain riddled by banned pesticides and heavy metals. Mold, fungus and synthetics are also present.
Smith said that it would benefit organized crime. It would also reverse progress made by the government in terms of reducing access for youth. Jobs and businesses would disappear, as well as much needed state revenues.
The entire industry needs to make this a top priority.
“Unlike Vegas, the events in Maine or Massachusetts won’t stay there despite their state-silos,” said he. Even if the repeal initiative does not win, the fact that they can control the messaging in a close race would encourage prohibitionists.
They are not testing just the water. “It is not just the waters that they are testing. Both advocates and industry. Thirty years since California passed Prop 215, and more than a decade into the adult-use era, the political and economic contradictions under which ‘legalization’ has been forced to exist have made us vulnerable. Caceres & King say that rather than using our vulnerability as an excuse for inaction, we should use it to call on us all to take decisive and cooperative action.
Smith, who was hired by MPP to advance federal and state cannabis reform earlier this year, circulated an “open letter” to the marijuana industry in the last month. He stressed that both pillars “need” each other at a moment when “a resurgent, well-funded, neoprohibitionist” movement is rising.
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In Maine, an initiative submitted by a group of GOP activists aims to reduce the adult market.
Almost 10 years after Maine voters passed a recreational legalization measure at the ballot, a group of voters—including a Republican state senator and a former top staffer to then-Gov. Paul LePage (R), a staunch prohibitionist—filed the petition to repeal much of the law with the secretary of state’s office.
This comes as a separate campaign in Massachusetts says it’s “on track” to turn in enough signatures to qualify their own initiative to roll back cannabis legalization for the state’s 2026 ballot.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s (D) office last week confirmed to MEDCAN24 that it has been receiving complaints from the public about petitioners for the initiative–with a growing number of people alleging that signature collectors are peddling misleading information about the proposal.
Brian Shamblen is the photographer.
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