MA marijuana legalization repeal ballot question: What to know

The ballot question, known as “An Act to Restore A Sensible Marijuana Policy,” seeks to repeal state laws legalizing, regulating, and taxing cannabis.

Those laws, which grew out of the 2016 voter-approved referendum legalizing marijuana, lay the framework for rules governing testing, licensing, and other regulations, as well as state and local taxes on recreational pot sales. The ballot question would eliminate pot taxes.

Yes, if the ballot question passes, medical marijuana would remain legal and its laws untouched. Medical cannabis is not taxed.

Not as the rules stand.

In Massachusetts, the list of qualifying conditions for a medical card is limited largely to chronic conditions including cancer, HIV/AIDS, and Hepatitis C.

However, health care providers can still register patients if they determine they have some “other debilitating condition,” which the state defines as those that cause weakness, uncontrolled weight loss, intractable pain, or nausea, to the extent that they limit major life activities.

While cannabis patients don’t pay taxes on their products, initial doctor consultations can cost between $150 to $250 on average, with the cost for renewing certification annually costing between $100 and $200.

Under the proposed law, anyone 21 and over can possess 1 ounce or less of marijuana without any penalties. Adults would face a $100 fine for having between 1 and 2 ounces.

Currently, people are allowed to carry up to 2 ounces of pot on them, but any more could result in criminal charges carrying up to a $500 fine or six months in prison. That would continue to be the case.

People under 21 caught with any amount of weed under the repeal would face a $100 fine and a mandatory drug awareness program. Failure to complete the program would result in a $1,000 fine.

Driving while impaired and public consumption are not allowed, and would remain so.

If passed, the ballot question would repeal home cultivation and expanded in-home possession regulations and limit possession to 1 ounce or less in every setting. Currently, people can grow six marijuana plants and store 10 ounces of marijuana at home.

The repeal would also pull back regulations that ensure parents cannot lose custody, visitation, and other parental rights for their cannabis use alone unless it can be proved it “created an unreasonable danger,” to child safety. When passed in 2016, these represented the strongest parental protections guaranteed in any marijuana regulation, according to The Family Law & Cannabis Alliance.

Last year Massachusetts collected nearly $300 million from marijuana sales, while cities and towns got $50 million.

Most of the state revenue funds public health programs through the Bureau of Substance Addiction Services. Health officials there said losing marijuana taxes could slash integral budget functions at a time of financial squeeze.

The CCC would regulate medical cannabis and oversee an expedited transition of any retail weed shops that wish to become medical marijuana facilities, or for retailers to sell their remaining inventory to medical licensees before shuttering.

Licensing costs are much higher for medical establishments. Many recreational retailers told The Boston Globe they were unlikely to make the switch.

Massachusetts was the first state to make its legalization law require that groups who were targeted by marijuana arrests be fully included in the legal pot industry.

As of January, about 15 percent of open businesses were part of the state’s two main programs aimed at these groups, called social equity and economic empowerment.

The state has doled out almost $60 million in grants funded by pot taxes to keep struggling businesses in these programs afloat.

All the state’s equity businesses are involved in recreational pot. It remains unclear how many would convert to medical, given the costly regulatory hurdles and their struggles to break even, though the CCC is currently tasked with rolling out new medical sales licenses exclusive to these groups.

The ballot campaign is led by Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts, a Beverly group which received over $1.5 million last year from its sole donor, a subsidiary of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a prominent antilegalization nonprofit out of Virginia.

That group is headed by Kevin Sabet, an outspoken advocate against recreational sales and a former drug policy adviser to various presidential administrations.

The campaign’s original petitioner, Caroline Alcock, is a member of the Massachusetts Republican State Committee representing Middlesex County, and also served as general consultant of a similar repeal campaign in Maine that could be on the 2027 ballot, according to Maine Morning Star.

The coalition’s spokesperson, Wendy Wakeman, is also a Massachusetts Republican Party strategist, though she has said the repeal effort is not tied to the party.

Repeal advocates argue that recreational marijuana has led to unchecked rises in cannabis product potencies, as well as rising youth use and marijuana-related road accidents.

Cannabis advocates dispute these points, and argue that a regulated market has benefitted both consumers and public health.

A coalition of marijuana businesses, workers, and advocates held a recent State House rally to announce their opposition to the question in the form of a campaign called Stop the Repeal. The coalition, called Committee to Protect Cannabis Regulation, also includes legalization advocates from organizations like the Marijuana Policy Project, and is chaired by Adam Fine, a partner at cannabis law firm Vincente LLP.

The committee raised just over $10,000 last year, public disclosures show, and has backed various unsuccessful legal efforts to prevent the repeal question from making it to ballot this year.

The Retailers Association of Massachusetts, representing some 4,000 members, has also come out in support of the cannabis industry.

Bryan Hecht can be reached at bryan.hecht@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram @bhechtjournalism.