Copyright MassLive
Workers gathering signatures in a new campaign to repeal recreational marijuana are telling people the drive’s goal is to keep pot shops away from parks and schools or to slow down the number of new dispensaries. That’s misleading, said backers of the state’s $1.6-billion-a-year recreational marijuana industry. The two ballot questions would, if passed, repeal the section of state law governing the possession, use, distribution, cultivation and taxation of recreational cannabis. The ballot question would not end the medical marijuana trade. The plebiscite would slow the approval of new marijuana retailers by prohibiting the entire industry, said David O’Brien, president and CEO of Massachusetts Cannabis Business Association. Skeptical passersby have reported misleading interactions in Longmeadow, Chicopee, Burlington and Brockton. “My understanding is this group is out there not being truthful,” said O’Brien. “They say nothing, in fact about what the question says.” And as paid signature gatherers, they are part of gaggle outside supermarkets or in parks and public spaces soliciting signatures on other proposed ballot questions. So that means besides marijuana, people are talking about affordable housing or same day-voter registration, topics different groups would also like to put before voters in November 2026. “So they are shuffling clipboards while they do it,” O’Brien said. People are paid to collect signatures and that pay is typically figured by the signature. Ryan McCollum, a political and marketing consultant from Longmeadow, has clients in the cannabis industry. He wrote in a Facebook post that a ballot measure keeping dispensaries away from schools and parks didn’t make sense. He knows there are already restrictions in place and towns also have leeway in where the businesses are sighted. “While people are entitled to their opinions about cannabis, everyone should know exactly what they’re signing,” McCollum wrote. Wendy Wakeman, chair of Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts which is backing the new ballot measures, said she has heard the same reports of misleading statements. The coalition has signed statements from each of its signature gatherers saying that the gatherer has read the ballot question and understands it. “There are always folks out there in the field who complain or try to subvert or somehow make mischief with all of this,” Wakeman said in an interview Friday. “The committee trains its signature gatherers and we do not support anybody giving any false claims as to what the petition says.” The signature sheet has a summary of the ballot question at the top, she said. People should read it. Debra O’Malley, director of communications for the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, had basically the same advice. She said courts have ruled that signature gathering is a protected first amendment activity and the state has limited ways of regulating the speech. Read the statement at the top of the petition, even if you have to turn the paper over to find the top of the page, she admonished. “So you know exactly what you are signing,” O’Malley said. “That’s why it’s there.” The Secretary of the Commonwealth runs elections in Massachusetts. O’Malley said the office has heard the same complaints and she understands people have complained to the state Attorney General’s Office as well. Questions about the signature takers are also cropping up on Facebook and the social media site Reddit, she said. Referendum campaigns have until Nov. 19 to gather about 75,000 signatures in this round of the approval process. Those signatures are due in December. O’Brien said the timing means signature gatherers will be out Tuesday, Election Day, near polling places in communities with contested races. “Everyone going to a polling place is a registered voter,” he said. He wanted to get the word out before Election Day.
