An initiative that could upend the legal marijuana market in Massachusetts may have started as a long shot, but it has the industry’s attention.
The measure would repeal the state law that legalized marijuana sales and established regulations and taxes for recreational pot. After its backers successfully gathered more than 78,000 signatures toward putting the measure on the ballot, a group of marijuana business owners and other supporters of legal weed have mounted a collective effort to challenge the initiative.
In a challenge filed last week, they accuse the anti-cannabis activists of deceiving the public to earn signatures by obscuring the true purpose of the ballot measure.
They say signature gatherers approached voters outside supermarkets and in the parking lot of Gillette Stadium, claiming they were advocating for a petition that would provide affordable housing, combat the scourge of fentanyl or fund public parks, according to the challenge filed by the Committee to Protect Cannabis Regulation.
“Based on multiple sworn affidavits and consistent accounts from voters across several communities, it became clear that this was not an isolated incident, but a pattern of deceptive and misleading signature-gathering practices,” Adam Fine, an attorney at Boston law firm Vicente LLP and chair of the committee, said in a statement Thursday.
“Voters deserve honesty when they are asked to participate in the ballot process,” he said. “These allegations warrant further investigation and review to protect the integrity of our elections.”
Proponents of the ballot initiative, “An Act to Restore a Sensible Marijuana Policy,” disputed the committee’s accusations.
“We stand behind the integrity of our signatures,” said Wendy Wakeman, a spokesperson for the group behind the measure, the Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts. “We used professional signature gatherers. They were well-trained. This is a tactic by opponents of the question to try to take it down before it goes to the voters, and we don’t believe it’s a tactic that will work.”
A pre-conference hearing on the challenge is scheduled for Monday before the State Ballot Law Commission, according to the Committee to Protect Cannabis Regulation. The hearing itself is scheduled for Tuesday, it said.
The group has urged members of the public who believe they were misled by someone seeking signatures for the ballot measure to report their experiences via an online form.
“The evidence shows a troubling pattern of signature gathering built on misrepresentation and deception,” Tom Kiley, an attorney for CEK Boston helping lead the challenge, said in a statement Thursday. “This objection is about ensuring that only lawfully and honestly obtained signatures are certified.”
On Tuesday, Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin transferred the cannabis initiative and 10 other proposed ballot measures that gathered enough signatures to the State Legislature.
Legislators have until May 5 to consider and act on the petitions. If they take no action, the petitioners have two months to gather roughly 12,000 more signatures and place the measure on the November ballot.
The measure would not repeal the state’s medical marijuana program.
It would also permit people over age 21 to possess up to an ounce of marijuana or 5 grams of marijuana concentrate and to gift or transfer pot to another person.
One of the petition’s backers has said its purpose is to eliminate recreational dispensaries, not target people for simple marijuana possession.
Massachusetts voters legalized recreational cannabis through a ballot referendum in 2016, which passed with 53% of the vote.
Since the first recreational dispensaries opened in Massachusetts in 2018, the industry has logged nearly $8.9 billion in sales, including a record $1.65 billion in 2025, according to state data.
The proposed question follows the same legislative process, which has also been used in recent years to raise taxes on people making more than $1 million a year, remove the MCAS test from the state’s high school graduation requirements and allow the state auditor to audit the Legislature.
Will Katcher is a Boston-based reporter for MassLive. He is a proud graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a devout fan of all things live music. You can reach him at wkatcher@masslive.com and…
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