Some losers don’t exit the building quietly. Especially those who operate shady dark money political groups that play by no rules but their own. And whose livelihoods are basically hamster wheels powered by conservative grudge donors.
Since the beginning of the effort to end adult-use cannabis in Massachusetts more than a year ago, nobody really projected that the prohibitionists would win. Even after the Virginia 501(c)4 group SAM Action started dumping millions on the local operatives manning the repeal scam, the ballot measure was widely considered a longshot.
Still, it’s fair to say that not even most skeptics predicted the walloping that went down. At the time of this reporting, with about 94% of the votes counted per the AP, it appears that Question 8 split 76% “no,” to a mere 24% in the “yes” camp.
It’s one of the most brutal electoral maulings in commonwealth history, yet Sabet sees only silver linings. In a video released on X after the crushing returns rolled in, the dildo extraordinaire claimed, “We won this thing a long time ago,” and “I’m feeling really good right now.”
It’s nonsense, of course. His argument is that several hundred thousand people in Mass pulled for repeal, so the concept must have merit. Yet if that were the case, they wouldn’t have had to design a house of cards campaign built on a foundation of fraudulent petitions.
We truly wish that there was no need to give SAM or any of its cloak-and-dagger donors additional oxygen. But they’re already promising to bring their circus elsewhere, starting with neighboring Maine. Check out Sabet’s video announcement, which we actually amplified since we think people ought to see it.
If you see these clowns kicking around your state capital, spare no time fighting back. In the meantime, watch our documentary to see how Massachusetts spanked them.
Below we also reprinted their press release—not out of fairness, but rather because Sabet is so full of shit, that if you gave him an enema, you could slide his ass into a preroll tube. You really have to read this garbage for yourself to actually believe that someone belched it …
Massachusetts made history tonight as the first state ever to put the question of ending commercial marijuana sales before its voters. Question 8 asked voters to end commercial recreational marijuana sales while keeping personal possession and medical marijuana legal.
“The fact Massachusetts residents had this opportunity to vote on repealing marijuana sales is historic. It was the shot heard around the world,” said Dr. Kevin Sabet, President and CEO of SAM Action. “Hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts voters took on the billion-dollar, modern-day Big Tobacco industry in the nation’s first statewide vote to end commercial marijuana sales. This vote was unthinkable just a few years ago.
“Though we came up short tonight, this is a pyrrhic victory for the industry and we are not backing down—Maine and other states will be next. The industry will again be forced to defend their supercharged potency products, higher rates of psychosis, higher rates of ER visits, and higher rates of addiction.
“We are proud that during the course of this campaign millions of people were educated about the harms of the industry and its drugs. And we are proud that hundreds of thousands of people today said they have had enough. That number will only grow. The pro-legalization movement lost at the ballot box again and again before it ever won, and this is only the beginning. The industry should take note: Massachusetts voters have opened a conversation it cannot close.”
Legalization Lost Before It Won
Movements that change laws rarely win the first time, and the legalization movement is proof. Before it ever won, it lost again and again at the ballot box, including in states that are now among the largest commercial markets in the country:
- Nevada rejected marijuana ballot measures in 2002 (39%) and 2006 (44%) before passing legalization in 2016.
- California voted down legalization in 1972 (33%) and 2010 (47%) before passing it in 2016.
- Colorado rejected a 2006 measure (41%) before passing legalization in 2012.
- Oregon voted down legalization in 1986 (26%) and 2012 (47%) before passing it in 2014.
- Alaska rejected measures in 2000 (41%) and 2004 (44%) before passing legalization in 2014.
- Arizona voted down legalization in 2002 (43%) and 2016 (49%) before passing it in 2020.
- Ohio rejected legalization by nearly two to one in 2015 before passing it in 2023.
After losing in Nevada in 2002, the Marijuana Policy Project’s campaign director said, “It may take two years or four years or ten years, but we will win…we lost a battle, but we haven’t lost the war.”
The legalization movement treated every one of those losses as a starting line. Tonight, Massachusetts drew a new one, and Maine is next.
