You have probably heard the refrain or something like it several hundred times by now: The money behind the group trying to end recreational cannabis in Massachusetts is coming from out of state. Furthermore, it’s almost all from one single lousy prohibitionist group.
That’s not hyperbole. Other than a few oddball individuals from Massachusetts who pitched in a couple hundred dollars each to the so-called Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts that is behind Question 8 to repeal legal marijuana, most of the group’s money comes from SAM Action, the Virginia-based dark money plaything of longtime anti-weed grifter merkin Kevin Sabet.
As we reported in September, after the “60th Day Preceding Election” reports came out, from Jan. 1 to Aug. 30, 2026, the Yes on 8 front raised $1,625,625. Other than a mere $600 from individuals, that entire sum came from SAM Action. In that same period, the prohibitionists spent about $750,000, mostly on media and strategy consultants.
The coalition’s Sept. 20 report, covering Aug. 31 to Sept. 15, showed it raised $50,750 in that period. Fifty-grand of it came from the California-based Americans Against Legalizing Marijuana, a nonprofit partner of SAM Action and other anti-drug crusading enterprises. But in the following two weeks, the locals went back to the big well.
According to the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance, from Sept. 16 to Oct. 1, the Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts took in $305,250—all but $250 of it from SAM Action. And the Yes on 8 folks did some spending too …
In that same period, the coalition listed more than half-a-million dollars in expenditures. About half of that went to “Direct Mail: Printing and Postage,” so you can expect some lies at your doorstep shortly. Another $160,000 went to “Digital Advertising” (lies on social media), plus $15,000 for lies on the radio, about $25,000 for various kinds of consulting, and the rest on the usual campaign odds and ends.
As of Oct. 5, the Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts has $831,944.81 left on hand for its asinine effort to take your legal cannabis away.
