Prohibitionists submit language that would transport the commonwealth back to the medical-only dark ages
The Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General announced this week that it received 42 proposed referendums to review for the 2026 ballot. Two of the initiatives are loaded shotguns aimed directly for the adult-use cannabis industry.
According to the Initiative Petition for a Law Relative To Regulating Marijuana, cutely billed as an Act To Restore a Sensible Marijuana Policy, its “purpose is to modify the criteria for the legal possession, distribution, and use of marijuana by: (a) continuing the medical use of marijuana program, subject to new potency limitations; (b) ensuring that the simple possession of 1 ounce or less of marijuana by those 21 and over is not punishable by civil or criminal penalties, and that possession of over 1 ounce to no more than 2 ounces of marijuana is punishable only by a civil penalty; and (c) repealing Chapters 94G and 64N of the General Laws which govern the possession, use, distribution, cultivation, and taxation of marijuana not medically prescribed.”
Put simply, there would still be medical dispensaries, with some new rules, while everything else that everyone from politicians to activists to entrepreneurs have worked years for will be burned to the ground.
As for the revamped med side, one draconian section empowers the CCC to “demand access to and inspect all papers, books and records of close associates of a licensee whom the commission suspects is involved in the financing, operation or management of [a] licensee.” Which the agency already does to some extent in certain cases, but what’s relevant about the wording here is that it shows what the initiative’s proponents prioritized in their framework.
Under the proposed law, individuals 21 years of age and older would be allowed to possess up to an ounce of cannabis, not more than 5 grams of which can be concentrates as defined under certain terms. While “possession of an amount between more than 1 ounce and 2 ounces or less of marihuana … shall only be a civil offense, subjecting an offender to a civil penalty of one hundred dollars and forfeiture of the marihuana, but not to any other form of criminal or civil punishment or disqualification.”
And if you get caught with more than two ounces, law enforcement officers will behead you on the State House front lawn and then discard your corpse among the hopes and dreams of thousands of adult-use cannabis investors, customers, and workers.
As Kyle Jaeger of Marijuana Moment pointed out, the measure would also repeal the right to cultivate cannabis at home. Ouch.
The main proponent and multiple original petition signers listed on the anti-cannabis proposal are district committee members of the state Republican party (MassGOP). The proponent, Caroline Cunningham, also served as a general consultant for the campaign against Question 4, to legalize and regulate psychedelics in Mass, which went down in flames last year.
Cunningham filed two similar versions of the no-holds-barred Act To Restore a Sensible Marijuana Policy, with one setting new stricter potency limits for the resulting medical program. If either petition is approved by the attorney general, backers would have to gather nearly 75,000 signatures to advance. If those are approved and the measure is placed on the ballot and supported by voters in November 2026, the new law would take effect Jan. 1, 2028.
Smoke ’em while you got ’em.
