Marijuana use under the microscope: Could your state revoke legal weed?
Here’s some good news: Residents of Massachusetts want to roll back recreational marijuana use in their state.
Just when you thought that none of the Democrat-embraced initiatives damaging our country — eliminating cash bail, dumbing down our public schools or encouraging widespread pot use — would ever be overturned, here comes an effort in the Bay State to put legal weed use to a vote.
This makes Massachusetts the first state in the country to challenge marijuana legalization; with any luck, it won’t be the last.
Many Americans appear to be souring on legal pot, so the effort in Massachusetts comes at a good time. Numerous studies have concluded that regular use of cannabis brings serious health risks, as well as brain impairment among young people. Promoters of the industry are working overtime to convince voters that marijuana is a harmless product; there is mounting evidence that today’s pot, which is many times more potent than the product enjoyed by Boomers in the 1960s and 1970s, is dangerous to individuals and to society.
Gallup shows Americans’ enthusiasm for legal pot at a six-year low of 64 percent, down from an all-time high of 70 percent in 2023.
Democrats in charge of states like Colorado, Washington and Hawaii rushed over a decade ago to legalize recreational cannabis use. Why? Because blue-state officials saw selling and taxing weed as a great opportunity to rake in cash and help offset their out-of-control spending.
In 2012, Colorado became the first state to legalize recreational use of weed, along with Washington state, after approving medical use in 2000. In the years leading up to the referendum on legal pot, Colorado faced major budget deficits; in 2011, the Centennial State faced a gap of $1.5 billion. Advocates promised voters that the state’s fiscal problems would be solved by the taxes generated by legal weed sales.
Lost in the arguments over prospective tax revenues — which failed to materialize at expected levels, by the way — was sufficient consideration of the long-term effects of marijuana use. Even as the legalization push in Colorado raged on, studies emerged showing that frequent cannabis use, especially among young people, could cause memory loss, learning impairment and a high potential for addiction. In high doses, the drug could lead to psychosis and paranoia.
After several years of expanded marijuana legalization and use, the reports have only become more alarming. The American College of Cardiologists published a report this year saying that a study of 4.6 million people “showed a 50 percent increased risk [of heart attack] among those who used the drug.” It also indicated that “cannabis users younger than age 50 were over six times as likely to suffer a heart attack compared to non-users.”
Surveys have also shown that prenatal exposure can have dire consequences for newborns — frequent use raises the risk of stroke and smoking pot also carries the potential for lung disease. Studies have also linked pot use with increasing numbers of arrests and convictions for driving under the influence.
Not surprisingly, as states legalized weed, usage has grown. After all, the message from local officials is that using pot is okay. A National Survey on Drug Use and Health between 2002 and 2019 reported that the proportion of the U.S. population over 12 years of age who consumed marijuana in the prior year increased from 11 percent in 2002 to 18 percent in 2019. Young people especially have increased their use of cannabis, with about 36 percent of 12th graders and 43 percent of college students reporting use in 2021.
Faced with the growing mountain of evidence that using cannabis is bad for young people and bad for our country, the Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts has rounded up more than the 74,000 signatures required to put restricting legal pot on the 2026 ballot. Although the group must jump through further legal hurdles, voters will almost certainly get a chance to reject the free-flowing sale and recreational use of marijuana in their state.
“An Act to Restore a Sensible Marijuana Policy” would reverse parts of the legalization measure passed by 54 percent of Massachusetts voters in 2016. It would revise both the tax and regulatory framework of the state’s cannabis laws; it would not affect the sale and use of medical marijuana. The committee’s proposal would ban people from growing marijuana plants in their homes and also prohibit the retail sale of cannabis products.
Opponents of the measure point, predictably, to the loss of tax revenues if the ban were to pass. Since licensed stores opened their doors in December 2018, Massachusetts customers have bought nearly $9 billion of cannabis and related products, delivering almost $1.5 billion in tax revenue to the state. Pot proponents claim that some 27,000 people are employed by the industry.
Wendy Wakeman is chairman and spokesperson for the coalition seeking to overturn Massachusetts’ laws. In a phone interview, she said her group was alarmed that the rapid roll-out of pot legalization meant the substance was virtually unregulated. Also offensive is that usage in public areas like the Boston Commons is pervasive, even though drinking alcohol in such places is illegal. She and what she describes as a bipartisan group of parents, doctors and educators feel that the negative impact of widespread use — the health and safety issues — is “understudied.”
Understudied perhaps, but evidence of real risks continues to pile up. A recent review by Mass General Brigham Hospital found that, after legalization, the rate of cannabis use by adolescents jumped more than three-fold, as did the number of young people admitted for psychiatric emergencies.
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Under federal law, cannabis sales and consumption are still illegal. Pot companies are pleading with President Trump to change that. There is big money at stake; this year, industry sales are expected to near $50 billion.
But there are also big risks. Hopefully, this Massachusetts effort is just the beginning of a nationwide conversation about the dangers of legal weed. And hopefully, Trump hears these concerns.
Liz Peek is a former partner of major bracket Wall Street firm Wertheim and Company.
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