A new campaign has launched in Massachusetts to oppose a proposed ballot initiative that would shut down the state’s regulated adult-use marijuana market.
The Stop the Repeal campaign announced its launch Thursday, with supporters urging voters to reject the measure in November. The coalition includes people from the marijuana industry, public health, local government and advocacy circles who say the proposal would undermine the state’s regulated market.
The campaign, paid for by the Committee to Protect Cannabis Regulation, is centering its effort around a simple message: keep marijuana legal and vote no on the repeal proposal.
The initiative, formally titled An Act to Restore a Sensible Marijuana Policy, would end the state’s adult-use retail system, though medical marijuana sales would remain legal. It would also allow adults 21 and older to possess up to one ounce of marijuana without civil or criminal penalties, with possession of more than one ounce and up to two ounces treated as a civil offense.
However, opponents say the measure would eliminate regulated adult-use stores, erase home cultivation rights, end tax revenue from recreational marijuana sales and push consumers back toward the unregulated market.
The measure has cleared earlier stages of the initiative process and is expected to go before voters in November if supporters complete the final steps required to qualify it for the ballot. The Stop the Repeal campaign says a no vote would protect state and local budgets, help maintain safety rules for the regulated market and preserve opportunities for consumers and businesses.
Ryan Dominguez, chair of the campaign, said at Thursday’s press conference that the proposal would undo years of work by communities and small businesses.
“Repealing recreational cannabis laws in Massachusetts will not only take us backwards,” Dominguez said, adding that it would harm communities already facing budget shortfalls and locally owned businesses that have invested heavily in the legal market.
Opponents of the repeal effort point to the scale of the existing market, saying adult-use legalization has produced over $2 billion in public revenue and now includes hundreds of licensed operators employing thousands of workers.
According to Stop the Repeal, that revenue helps support programs related to schools, housing, transportation, health care and other state and local priorities. The campaign also argues that preserving the legal market helps maintain age verification, product testing and other consumer safeguards that would not exist in the illicit market.
Massachusetts voters approved recreational marijuana legalization in 2016, and the first legal adult-use stores opened in 2018. Since then, the state has developed one of the more established regulated markets in the country, with licensed retailers, cultivators, product manufacturers and testing laboratories operating under oversight from the Cannabis Control Commission.
Supporters of the repeal effort, led by the Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts, have argued that ending adult-use sales would address concerns over public health, youth access and problems within the state’s regulatory system. Opponents counter that the initiative would dismantle the regulated system rather than improve it, leaving the medical market in place while eliminating the broader commercial framework voters approved nearly a decade ago.
The Stop the Repeal campaign is urging voters to reject the proposal on Nov. 3, saying the measure would cut off tax revenue, threaten jobs and make Massachusetts the first state to repeal a voter-approved adult-use marijuana market through a statewide vote.
