The following is from the Committee to Protect Cannabis Regulation. In short, the groups that would actually be impacted by the dramatic fallout if Question 8 passes—and who serve the communities that would feel the most pain—are standing together against this unbelievable bullshit. Also some elected leaders are mentioned …
Today, the No on 8: Stop the Repeal Campaign announced the endorsement of nearly a dozen social justice organizations, including ACLU Massachusetts, who join more than 50 State legislators, including Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Ronald Mariano, regional leaders, public health officials, law enforcement, small business owners and advocates fighting to protect the Commonwealth’s legal cannabis law.
The groups endorsing today include 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.
In the decade since voters made a clear choice to replace restrictive policies with a safe, regulated cannabis market, Massachusetts has built a system that prioritizes public health, consumer safety, responsible regulation and equitable opportunities.
“Question 8 would reinstate failed policies that disproportionately put Black men and women behind bars. This is not speculation. We have the data. We know the War on Drugs devastated communities of color, both here in the Commonwealth and across the nation. Why would we ever want to go back?” said Carol Rose, Executive Director, ACLU of Massachusetts. “We urge a NO vote on Question 8 to protect civil liberties for all Massachusetts residents. Let’s maintain access to safe and legal marijuana for adults — and focus our collective energy on eradicating racial bias from the criminal legal system.”
“Massachusetts legalized cannabis with a promise to begin repairing the damage caused by decades of discriminatory drug enforcement and create economic opportunities for communities that were hardest hit,” said Co-Founder and Executive Director of Equitable Opportunities Now (EON) Shanel Lindsay. “Question 8 would take us backward, by recriminalizing cannabis sales while destroying opportunities for small business ownership, jobs, and community reinvestment. We still have a long way to go to fulfill the promise of legalization, but repealing it would be a devastating step in the wrong direction.”
Legalization of recreational 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.
Question 8, if passed, would bring us 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.
“Massachusetts encouraged people who were harmed by cannabis prohibition to become entrepreneurs and build generational wealth through the legal industry. We have spent years navigating an expensive and complicated licensing process, investing savings, and fighting for a fair opportunity to succeed,” said Co-Founder of the Massachusetts Cannabis Equity Council and Co-Owner of Firehouse dispensary Armani White. “Question 8 would pull the rug out from under us just as we’re beginning to realize that opportunity. We cannot claim to support economic justice while shutting down the very businesses that were supposed to help deliver it.”
