HAVERHILL — It’s been called a battle between “big marijuana” versus “alcohol and gambling billionaires” — with millions of dollars, thousands of jobs and a ballot question for voters hanging in the balance.
As a result, cannabis business owners have taken a stand against a proposed rollback of marijuana legalization in Massachusetts.
Four operators, including Haverhill Stem’s Caroline Pineau, filed a lawsuit earlier this month in the state Supreme Judicial Court against Attorney General Andrea Campbell and Secretary of State William Galvin for accepting the potential question that aims to ban recreational marijuana.
The lawsuit argues that the initiative violates constitutional requirements and shouldn’t be posed as a question to voters.
But going head to head with the Haverhill-based plaintiff is a spokesperson for the anti-cannabis campaign who just so happens to live right next door.
Wendy Wakeman of North Andover, a self-described “subject expert” in promoting ballot initiatives, has emerged as the leading public voice for the effort to repeal the state’s 2016 voter-approved legalization of recreational marijuana.
The proposal, titled “An Act to Restore Sensible Marijuana Policy,” is led by the Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts, and it asks to halt licensed adult-use recreational sales of cannabis, while continuing medical use.
Pineau and Wakeman have previously clashed with rival testimonies at a Special Joint Committee on Initiative Petitions hearing held in March at the Massachusetts State House.
There, Wakeman introduced the proposal to lawmakers, with charts on marijuana use, potency and detriments included in her presentation, although some data was derived from out-of-state studies, as officials pointed out.
The spokesperson told the committee that there are more than 100,000 Massachusetts residents in support of rolling back the law.
The committee members posed several questions about the statistics presented and potential economic impacts. Sen. Michael Day questioned whether eliminating recreational sales while keeping possession and gifting of an ounce of marijuana legal could create a “black market.”
“That’s not how I look at it, but I see your point,” Wakeman said in response.
Afterward, Pineau approached the microphone to testify alongside fellow cannabis operators — all criticizing the initiative.
“I am here in opposition to a destructive ballot initiative that is driven by out-of-state alcohol and gambling billionaires trying to protect their own pockets,” she said.
While the cannabis operators couldn’t offer a specific name to identify the out-of-state proponents, they mentioned Virginia- and Missouri-based interests connected to the campaign.
Wakeman confirmed that she was not involved in the formation of the ballot initiative. She said parents, religious leaders and activists from across the state joined forces to impose stricter regulations on the drug due to the dangers of marijuana use.
“This is not some secretive cabal,” Wakeman said. “It is a loosely organized group of parents, educators, people who had bad experiences with marijuana who came together to put this question out there.”
The Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts, which first organized in September, has drawn strong financial backing. The group has received $1.55 million in two contributions from SAM Action Inc., a Virginia-based advocacy group that aims to “Stop the marijuana industry from becoming the next Big Tobacco,” according to the Massachusetts Office of Campaign & Political Finance (OCPF).
More than $1.4 million of that funding has been spent on grassroots signature gathering efforts, including services from Missouri-based Groundgame Political.
Wakeman said that the group gathered roughly 80,000 signatures, using paid gatherers to gain support for the petition.
“There are lots of parents who have lost their children to mental illness and imprisonment and other ancillary effects of marijuana, and it’s not the harmless happy drug that we would like to believe,” Wakeman said.
Meanwhile, Pineau has argued that the measure would have sweeping economic consequences that include wiping out an industry that has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in state and local revenue and created 14,000 jobs.
“Big marijuana is going to any length to avoid having this discussion,” Wakeman said. “The claims of the lawsuit are bogus.”
The legal challenge, filed by Pineau and other cannabis business owners, is currently before the state’s highest court and seeks to block the question from appearing on the November ballot.
If the court allows it to proceed, voters will ultimately decide whether to keep or repeal the state’s recreational marijuana law.