Prohibitionist campaigns backed by dark money are aiming to gut state legalization laws
Across the country, prohibitionists have launched a well-funded effort to roll back cannabis reform state by state. Using out-of-state dark money to finance ballot initiatives and legislation designed to gut legalization laws, end regulated adult-use markets, and turn back the clock on over 30 years of progress.
These efforts are not grassroots. They are professionalized, coordinated attempts to dismantle what patients, consumers, advocates, and voters worked years to build. And they’re gaining traction.
Millions of dollars have already been spent to put initiatives on the Massachusetts and Arizona ballots this November — and in Maine next June — that would dismantle the regulated adult-use market established by voter-approved initiatives.
So how do we stop them? By turning these threats into opportunities.
We know that regulation works:
- States that have legalized adult-use markets have seen an average 90% reduction in cannabis arrests.
- Teen cannabis use has declined in virtually every state with a regulated market.
- State testing programs keep the cannabis supply chain free of pesticides and heavy metals.
- Regulated markets have led to the creation of tens of thousands of legitimate businesses and hundreds of thousands of living wage jobs.
- Instead of financing organized criminal networks, the dollars being spent on legal cannabis support local economies and have created billions of dollars in tax revenues for states and localities.
-
MPP will spend 2026 bringing that message to voters in the initiative states and nationally, and deliver a terminal blow to the failed approach of prohibition and criminalization.
MPP has been vocally challenging and debunking the baseless and misleading talking points prohibitionists are circulating across media platforms and in legislative chambers. We’ve mobilized voters and advocates to defeat regressive legislation threatening adult-use and medical cannabis access in multiple states, and we’ve been working in concert with local and national allies to organize a coordinated campaign in response to the growing number of anti-legalization ballot initiatives.
Prohibitionists know they are losing the long-term fight. Public support for legalization remains strong. That’s why they’re resorting to procedural maneuvers and misleading campaigns funded by outside interests.
We cannot allow a vocal minority with deep pockets to override the will of voters and the American people.
Now is the time to send a clear message to prohibitionists that their mission has failed, and your urgent support is crucial to ensure that cannabis reform continues to move forward, not backward.