Massachusetts Ballot Question · The Cannabis Repeal

VOTE NO

A group from Virginia wants to repeal the cannabis law Massachusetts passed in 2016. They're counting on you not showing up. Show up.

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Scroll — the receipts are below

You already voted on this

Massachusetts
decided in 2016.

0

Yes votes on Question 4 · 53.66% · November 2016

Almost 1.8 million people here said yes to legal cannabis for adults. Ten years later, the system they voted for is built, tested, taxed, and working. This November, one ballot question asks you to tear it all down.

People crossing a street in Boston
The people who live here
Massachusetts State House gold dome
Beacon Hill
Boston skyline at night
Boston

Read the bill, not the slogan

What a yes
actually does.

This is from the repeal bill itself — H.5002. Not a guess. Not a scare. The text.

Every recreational cannabis store in the state closes on January 1, 2028
H.5002 §10
Growing your own at home becomes illegal again
H.5002
Selling cannabis becomes a crime again
H.5002
The Social Equity Program is eliminated
SJC filing, Apr 2026
Hundreds of licensed small businesses shut down. Thousands of jobs go with them
CCC / campaign toolkit

What it doesn't touch — because we tell you the whole truth

Medical cannabis is not affected. And possessing up to an ounce stays a civil penalty, not a crime. We don't need to exaggerate. The facts are enough.

What the ballot will call it An Act to Restore a Sensible Marijuana Policy
What it is

A full repeal of legal cannabis.
Vote No anyway.

Follow the money

Who's behind it?
Not Massachusetts.

The repeal campaign is run by SAM Action. Here's the paper trail, straight from campaign finance filings.

VA

Virginia

SAM Action is organized under Virginia law. Its funds sit at a bank in Virginia.

MO

Missouri

About $1.4M went to a paid signature-gathering firm in Jefferson City, Missouri.

DE

Delaware

Consulting and legal compliance billed from Delaware.

MA

Massachusetts

Where you live — and the only place that gets a vote.

Their own words — federal court filing, May 2026
"SAM, Inc. … is a tax-exempt nonprofit corporation organized under the laws of Virginia."
SAM's corporate disclosure statement, USCA Case #26-1106, U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit
$0
Spent before the campaign even started — just to collect signatures. Per OCPF filings.
$0
What the full campaign is expected to spend, per industry projections. Expected — they'd love you to think it's unstoppable.
0
People who testified in favor of the repeal at the March 2026 State House hearing. One.

The money matters

Repeal doesn't make cannabis disappear.
It makes the money disappear.

$0 billion

Nearly $2B in state and local tax revenue since legal sales began in 2018

Where the cannabis excise fund goes, by law

Addiction treatment, prevention & recovery76%
Social Equity Trust Fund15%
Higher education8%
Public safety4%
Agriculture1%

2025 alone: $1.65 billion in adult-use sales and roughly $308 million to the Commonwealth. Plus sales tax to the General Fund — the MBTA, school buildings — and direct payments to every city and town that hosts a dispensary. A yes vote zeroes all of it out. The demand stays. The testing, the ID checks, and the tax money go.

It's working

Ten years in,
the system holds.

Not our opinion. Numbers.

0%
of Massachusetts adults who used cannabis last year got it from a licensed source — tested, labeled, taxed.
Cannabis Control Commission
0%
of Massachusetts voters oppose the repeal. Only 20% support it.
UNH poll, March 2026
Historic
lows
Teen cannabis use is at or near historic lows nationally since states began regulating. A study of 2.8 million hospital records across 13 states found no consistent increase in teen cannabis problems after legalization.
U. Michigan survey · Intl. Journal of Drug Policy
ID ×2
Dispensaries check ID twice — at the door and at the register. Street sellers check zero times.
935 CMR 500.140
6 tests
Every product is lab-tested six ways: potency, pesticides, heavy metals, mold, mycotoxins, solvents.
935 CMR 500.160
$26.5M
in social equity grants to 181 Massachusetts businesses in FY25 — the program the repeal eliminates.
Cannabis Social Equity Trust Fund
Even the Legislature's own committee reviewed the repeal and recommended no action — citing "substantial concerns regarding the structure, scope, and anticipated impacts."
Special Joint Committee on Initiative Petitions, May 2026

Their actual strategy

They don't need to change your mind.
They need you to stay home.

Presidential years, about 3.4 million Massachusetts ballots. Midterms, about 2.5 million. Watch what 868,000 missing voters looks like.

Each dot ≈ 13,500 voters. The dark ones skip the midterm.

2026 is a midterm. The repeal isn't betting on arguments. It's betting on your couch.

Practice run

Try it now.
It takes one second.

Counted
Official-ish practice ballotNov 3, 2026

Shall the law legalizing recreational cannabis for adults in Massachusetts — passed by voters in 2016 — be repealed?

Yes
Closes it all down
No
Keeps it legal & regulated
Oct 17–30
Early voting, statewide
Oct 24
Voter registration deadline
Nov 3
Election Day. Vote No.