Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said on Sunday she would vote against a November ballot initiative that would roll back the state's marijuana legalization law, saying in an interview on WCVB-TV's On The Record, "I'd vote no." A survey released last week found 61 percent of likely voters oppose the measure, according to CommonWealth Beacon, which published the poll, and MassINC Polling Group, which conducted it.
Massachusetts governor says she would vote against marijuana rollback initiative
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said on Sunday she would vote against a November ballot initiative that would roll back the state's marijuana legalization law, saying in an interview on WCVB-TV's On The Record, "I'd vote no." A survey released last week found 61 percent of likely voters oppose the measure, according to CommonWealth Beacon, which published the poll, and MassINC Polling Group, which conducted it.
The CommonWealth Beacon survey conducted by MassINC Polling Group found 61 percent of likely voters oppose the initiative, 27 percent favor it, 11 percent are undecided and 1 percent said they would prefer not to state an opinion. A University of New Hampshire poll released last month found 71 percent of respondents planned to vote against the measure and 24 percent planned to support it. A survey released in August found voters opposed the repeal measure 55 percent to 33 percent.
The initiative would repeal laws allowing regulated commercial sales of recreational cannabis and home cultivation while maintaining legal possession and continuing the medical marijuana system. The Secretary of the Commonwealth's Office determined that organizers for the anti-cannabis proposal had turned in enough valid signatures to put the measure before voters. A marijuana reform advocate filed an objection with the State Ballot Law Commission claiming that various signatures were not genuine, were obtained through fraudulent means or were not "signed substantially as registered." The body rejected the challenge to the rollback measure, clearing it to go before voters. Cannabis industry operatives also filed a legal challenge arguing the measure contains "impermissibly unrelated subjects" and that the state attorney general's official summary is "misleading and deficient." The state Supreme Judicial Court heard oral arguments on the litigation and ultimately ruled against the lawsuit.
The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission announced last month that the state has surpassed $10 billion in adult-use cannabis purchases since the market launched in 2018. CCC Chair Chris Harding told Marijuana Moment he cannot comment directly on the initiative and that the commission does not take positions on pending ballot questions or legislation.
A coalition of Massachusetts marijuana business leaders, healthcare professionals and other advocates has launched a campaign to defeat the measure and recently rolled out two TV ads urging voters to reject the rollback initiative and keep marijuana sales legal. The Service Employees International Union Massachusetts State Council is urging voters to reject the measure. The Marijuana Policy Project issued a warning that passage would have "disastrous political and economic consequences for legal cannabis markets everywhere."
In June, the campaign behind the anti-legalization ballot measure fired a signature gatherer it says was shown appearing to engage in "wholly unacceptable" conduct in a video. As Marijuana Moment reported, a man petitioning for the Massachusetts initiative as well as a similar anti-cannabis proposal in Maine was depicted in social media posts seeming to argue that voters who support legal marijuana access should sign the petitions in order to advance or protect reform. The campaigns have previously been accused of misleading petitioning tactics. In Massachusetts, some voters reported that the campaign used fake cover letters for other ballot measures on unrelated issues like affordable housing and same-day voter registration during the first round of petitioning, and legal cannabis supporters filed an earlier formal complaint about the prohibitionist effort's tactics, which the State Ballot Law Commission rejected.
Healey filed legislation last month proposing to increase military veterans' access to medical marijuana by allowing them to receive patient cards without having to get a doctor's recommendation. Marijuana Moment, which published the article, describes its own coverage as cannabis advocacy journalism and asks readers for monthly pledges.
- The source does not state the arguments made by supporters of the rollback initiative for the measure itself.
- The source does not state sample sizes, margins of error or fieldwork dates for the polls it cites.
- The source does not name the marijuana reform advocate who filed the signature objection, nor state the grounds on which the State Ballot Law Commission rejected it.
- The source does not state the grounds of the Supreme Judicial Court's ruling beyond that it ruled against the lawsuit.
- The source does not state campaign spending or funding totals for either side beyond the statement that SAM Action is largely funding the anti-cannabis campaigns in Massachusetts and Maine.
- The source does not state how many jobs or businesses a repeal would affect, or the amount of tax revenue at stake, beyond Harding's general characterization.
Read the original at Marijuana Moment