The Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts and Committee to Protect Cannabis Regulation are both fattening the pockets of consultants
There has been a lot of angry chatter over the past couple of months about the deep pockets of those trying to close adult-use dispensaries. Up until last week, we already knew that the so-called Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts, which is gunning for legal weed, raised $1.55 million in 2025, literally all of it from the Virginia-based prohibitionist group SAM Action Inc. The campaign spent most of that money on paid signature gatherers, who as we noted extensively lied to voters and collected names in an unscrupulous fashion statewide.
The latest from the ‘Yes On 8’ side
Now, we also have “60th Day Preceding Election” reports to check out. From Jan. 1 to Aug. 30, 2026, the Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts raised $1,625,625. Other than a mere $600 from individuals, that entire sum came from SAM Action.
In the same period, the prohibitionists spent about $750,000, mostly on media and strategy consultants. That might explain why every news outlet between Mass and DC has pushed anti-marijuana propaganda for months. Moving forward, per public records, the group has about a million bucks on hand (plus whatever else SAM kicks in) heading toward Election Day.
The latest from the ‘No On 8’ side
As for the main group behind the “No On Question 8” agenda, the Committee to Protect Cannabis Regulation, aka the “No on 8: Stop the Repeal Campaign” … It was just starting in 2025, and only raised about ten grand. This year, From Jan. 1 to Aug. 30, this group raised $1,529,206.40 from 206 contributors.
Those amounts range from $205,000 on the high end from INSA, and $100,000 from the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, to about 25 donors in the $20,000 to $50,000 range, mostly related to adult-use businesses in the state, and a number of smaller contributions. The committee has also received more than $70,000 in corporate “in-kind” contributions, like in excess of $10,000 in promotional stickers and rolling papers from CommCan, and more than $5,000 worth of lawn signs and stickers from Coast Cannabis.
And what has the campaign done with the cash so far? There’s apparently been a lot of consulting going on. Of the $591,624.78 spent by the Committee to Protect Cannabis Regulation, at least $272,969.39 went to consultants. From April through July, the campaign paid $60,000 to the Boston-based Field First, which then cut checks to a subvendor called Dewit Impact Group for “Campaign Consulting Services.” But wait, there’s more …
Through the end of August, $25,000 went to an LLC which shares a Cambridge post office box with Mass J2J Inc., a nonprofit affiliated with Committee to Protect Cannabis Regulation Chair Ryan Dominguez. Kg Consulting, which is associated with Kevin Gilnack who works with Equitable Opportunities Now, was paid an additional $15,000. And internally, two campaign employees made a combined $5,000 per week starting in June.
In a public statement, Dominguez said the following: “This latest fundraising filing shows the strong momentum building behind the effort to protect Massachusetts’ legal, regulated cannabis industry. To date, we’ve raised more than $1.5 million, demonstrating that people across the Commonwealth understand what is at stake, 27,000 jobs, more than 400 small businesses, and billions of dollars in tax revenue.”
He continued: “What makes our movement even more powerful is the breadth of the coalition standing together to say that repeal is not the right answer. From public health officials, to workers and labor organizations, to small business owners, entrepreneurs, advocates, patients, consumers and community leaders across Massachusetts. Voters are coming together because they believe that we must continue to move forward, not backward.
“This is a growing, grassroots coalition with deep roots across the Commonwealth. We will continue to stand up and protect the legal, regulated cannabis system that voters created a decade ago.”
The other ‘No On 8’ groups
The Committee to Protect Cannabis Regulation isn’t alone in formally countering Question 8. Activists associated with the longtime commonwealth advocacy group MassCann also formed a ballot question committee for the occasion, the Committee for Keep Cannabis Legal, Vote No on 8. It had raised $3,215 from a dozen donors through Aug. 30, including $2,000 from the New England Cannabis Convention, but had not spent anything by the reporting deadline.
Finally, there is a third group called Democratic Socialists Against Reactionary Rollbacks. Based in Pittsfield with officers in Greater Boston, this operation reported on its organization forms that it was “established by members of Boston Democratic Socialists of America to raise money, print literature, and canvas against Changing State Revenue Limit (Question 5), Top Two Primary System (Question 3), [and] Repealing Legal Recreational Marijuana Sale (Question 8).” According to the 60th Day Preceding Election Report, this group raised $50 over June, July, and August.
