A ballot initiative offered for next year’s state election would ask Massachusetts voters whether they want to repeal the state law allowing for legal marijuana sales.
But don’t put out your joint just yet. The proposal still has a long way to go before making the ballot.
Titled “An Act to Restore A Sensible Marijuana Policy,” the initiative would continue the state’s medical marijuana program, but repeal the section of state law governing the possession, use, distribution, cultivation and taxation of recreational pot.
Caroline Alcock Cunningham, a member of the Massachusetts Republican State Committee representing Middlesex and Worcester counties, submitted two versions of the question ahead of its first deadline earlier this month.
Justin Riemer, an election lawyer representing Cunningham, referred any questions on the proposal to her. She did not respond to a request for comment, but told The Boston Globe she is not opposed to marijuana, but to its sale at dispensaries.
“The true purpose of the measure is to eliminate the recreational stores,” she told the paper. “The goal is not to arrest people for simple personal possession.”
Massachusetts voters legalized recreational cannabis through a ballot referendum in 2016, which passed with 53% of the vote.
The question proposed by Cunningham follows the same legislative process, which has also been used in recent years to raise taxes on people making more than $1 million a year, remove the MCAS test from the state’s high school graduation requirements, and allow the state auditor to audit the Legislature.
Questions must first be submitted to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office with signatures from 10 registered voters by the first Wednesday in August.
Attorney General Andrea Campbell is now reviewing nearly 50 such initiatives filed ahead of the deadline to determine if they meet constitutional requirements. She is expected to certify the questions that qualify around the first Wednesday in September.
Those questions that pass then face a far higher hurdle to proceed toward the ballot.
Petitioners must collect more than 74,000 signatures for their initiative, which must be approved by local election officials and then filed with the Secretary of State’s Office in December.
The Legislature would have the opportunity to pass any measures that draw enough signatures. If lawmakers decline to act, the proposals would still need more than 12,000 additional signatures to make the November 2026 ballot.
The state’s cannabis industry surpassed $8 billion in cumulative sales earlier this summer, even as the price of the drug dropped to its lowest point since legalization.
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