Top Marijuana Advocacy Group Says Resisting Efforts To Overturn State Legalization Laws Must Be A ‘Priority For The Entire Industry’

The head of a national marijuana reform advocacy organization says pushing back against recent efforts to undermine state-level legalization laws must be a “priority for the entire industry,” urging supporters to take action to resist prohibitionists or else risk jeopardizing years of progress.

Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) Executive Director Adam Smith authored a blog post on Monday warning of the anti-reform escalation, citing a recent op-ed from Joanne Caceres and Hannah King of law firm Dentons that was published by Marijuana Moment.

The op-ed was responsive to a Massachusetts campaign that’s collecting signatures for a ballot initiative to roll back much of the state’s voter-approved adult-use legalization law, as well as a similar effort that’s moving through the ballot process in Maine.

While the op-ed “focused on what repeal in just a single state could mean for the industry,” Smith said, “I would add that although neither initiative would re-criminalize personal possession, it would be disastrous for cannabis users as well.”

“Cannabis policy should be grounded in public health, public safety, and public access, and a well-regulated and sustainable legal industry is essential for all three,” he said. “Eliminating adult-use sales would drive millions of people back to entirely unregulated supply chains riddled with banned pesticides, heavy metals, mold, fungus, and synthetics.”

Eliminating adult-use sales would be disastrous. Cannabis policy should be grounded in public health, public safety, and public access, and a well-regulated and sustainable legal industry is essential for all three. https://t.co/onzfX6c1ez

— Marijuana Policy Project (@MarijuanaPolicy) November 3, 2025

“It would be a boon to organized crime, would reverse the progress we’ve made in reducing youth access, would kill jobs and businesses, and would cost the state much-needed revenues,” Smith said.

“This needs to be a priority for the entire industry.”

“Despite state silos (and unlike Vegas), what happens in Maine and Massachusetts will not stay there,” he said. “Even if a repeal initiative doesn’t win, a relatively close race where they are able to largely control the message would significantly embolden the prohibitionists to expand their efforts.”

“But it is not just the waters that they are testing. It is us. Advocates and industry. Thirty years since California passed Prop 215, and more than a decade into the adult-use era, the political and economic contradictions under which ‘legalization’ has been forced to exist have made us vulnerable. But rather than an excuse to do nothing, Caceres and King argue that our vulnerability should be a clarion call for cooperative and decisive action.”

Smith, who joined MPP earlier this year to help advance state and federal cannabis reform, also circulated an open letter to the cannabis industry last month, stressing that the two pillars of the community “need each other” at a time when a “resurgent and well-funded neo-prohibitionist movement” is on the rise.

—Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.

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To that end, in Maine, a citizen initiative backed by GOP operatives was recently submitted in hopes of rolling back the commercial adult-use market.

Almost 10 years after Maine voters passed a recreational legalization measure at the ballot, a group of voters—including a Republican state senator and a former top staffer to then-Gov. Paul LePage (R), a staunch prohibitionist—filed the petition to repeal much of the law with the secretary of state’s office.

This comes as a separate campaign in Massachusetts says it’s “on track” to turn in enough signatures to qualify their own initiative to roll back cannabis legalization for the state’s 2026 ballot.

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s (D) office last week confirmed to Marijuana Moment that it has been receiving complaints from the public about petitioners for the initiative–with a growing number of people alleging that signature collectors are peddling misleading information about the proposal.

Photo courtesy of Brian Shamblen.