“If licensed adult-use retailers disappear, consumers will continue to seek cannabis through other channels… None of the alternatives will produce the safe and regulatory tested products, jobs and tax revenue the current legal market generates.”
By Steve Reilly, Insa
If you are a Massachusetts voter who has not been following the debate over cannabis policy, Question 8 on this November’s ballot deserves your attention.
The measure asks voters whether Massachusetts should repeal the laws that allow and regulate adult-use cannabis sales. The implications go well beyond whether a dispensary remains open. The question reaches the system of licensed businesses, product testing, taxation and regulatory oversight that Massachusetts has built over the past decade—seeking to eliminate 27,000 jobs and $300,000,000 in tax revenue that will need to be made up somewhere else.
Understanding what is actually being proposed and what would replace the current system is essential before casting a ballot.
Massachusetts voters approved adult-use marijuana legalization in 2016. Since then, the commonwealth has developed a regulated market overseen by the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC), with licensed cultivators, manufacturers, retailers and testing laboratories operating under regulated state rules. Although there have been documented issues with regulatory oversight, the legislature recently took
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