Despite fraud allegations, campaign to end $1.6 billion Massachusetts marijuana industry likely to proceed
Elections fraud allegations lodged against the campaign to end Massachusetts’ $1.65 billion adult-use cannabis market may be difficult to prove. Even if the claims that signature-gatherers for a Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts deliberately misled voters are sustained, they may not be enough stop cannabis sales recriminalization from going on the ballot, according to the Statehouse News Service.
Affiliated with state Republican Party operatives, the coalition has since last summer been attempting to qualify a voter initiative for the November ballot that would ban adult-use marijuana sales in Massachusetts.
Bid to end Massachusetts’ $1.6 billion adult-use cannabis industry formally challenged
If Petition 1E qualifies for the ballot and is approved by a majority of voters, medical marijuana sales would continue, and personal use of cannabis would remain legal. However, it would represent the first rollback of voter-approved adult-use cannabis legalization at the ballot.
Did Massachusetts cannabis re-criminalization effort commit fraud?
On Jan. 2, Boston attorney Thomas Kiley filed a formal challenge to the question, alleging the fraudulent conduct, as Statehouse News reported. He filed the objection on behalf of his daughter-in-law, who says she signed the petition under the impression it was for affordable housing. The state Ballot Law Commission heard Kiley’s objection on Monday.
Kiley was given until the end of business Tuesday to show an “offer of proof” backing up his claims.
Last month, Secretary of State William Galvin’s office certified 78,301 signatures, according to State House News. That’s enough for the campaign to proceed. A total of 3,727 signatures would have to be invalidated to halt the effort. And canceling a signature must “be based on evidence,” Galvin said last week.
In response to Kiley, Patrick Strawbridge, an attorney for the campaign, submitted an affidavit from lead sponsor Caroline Cunningham, a member of the Massachusetts Republican State Committee.
