Question 8: Ban on Retail Marijuana Sales

Up to 1 ounce, no. Today adults 21 and over can have up to 2 ounces (a 2026 state law raised the limit from 1 ounce). Under Question 8, up to 1 ounce would still carry no penalty, but more than 1 ounce up to 2 would bring a $100 civil fine and forfeiture instead of jail. Adults could still give away up to 1 ounce to another adult if it isn't advertised.

Not for recreational use. The right to grow at home sits in Chapter 94G, section 7 of state law (up to 6 plants per adult and 12 per household, in your primary residence), and section 6 of this petition repeals Chapter 94G outright. Medical patients are a separate case: the measure keeps the medical program, and a registered patient who qualifies for a hardship cultivation registration could still grow a limited number of plants. One wrinkle worth knowing, because it cuts the other way: the petition also tells the Cannabis Control Commission to write guidelines on growing marijuana in a primary residence, which reads at first like home growing survives. That instruction sits in the measure's amendments to the medical marijuana chapter and points back to the medical hardship provision, so it appears to be about patients rather than the general public. The state's official summary describes this measure as ending retail sale and changing possession penalties, and doesn't mention home growing either way.

The medical program continues, and this measure sets no limits on what patients can buy. That's worth stating plainly, because the opposite has been circulating: potency caps of 30% THC for flower, 60% for concentrates and 5mg per serving. Those caps are real, but they belong to Version A of this petition (25-09), a version that was certified but did not advance to the ballot. The measure on your ballot is Version B (25-10), and it contains no potency language at all. What would change for patients is the retail landscape: stores serving both markets would have to convert to medical-only or close.

No. If this passes, Massachusetts would be the first state in the country to unwind marijuana legalization after voters approved it.

That's opponents' central argument: banning licensed retail would push buyers back to an unregulated market with no age checks or product testing, undoing the regulated system voters approved in 2016. Supporters counter that the public-health cost of today's high-potency legal products, especially youth access, outweighs those risks. Neither side offers a hard estimate of how many buyers would actually shift to the illegal market.

The repeal takes effect January 1, 2028, about 14 months after the election. The petition sets no separate wind-down schedule, transition period, or grace period: Section 1 repeals the retail marijuana law and Section 10 makes that effective January 1, 2028. The one accommodation is Section 8, which directs the Cannabis Control Commission to “expedite and streamline” the process for existing adult-use licensees to get medical marijuana licenses instead. So a licensed store's realistic options are to convert to medical or close by that date. Section 8 also lets stores sell their remaining adult-use inventory to medical marijuana dispensaries. The petition doesn't address license fees already paid or employees. Those would be left to the Legislature or the Commission to sort out.

It would end municipal cannabis revenue entirely. Cities and towns that host a dispensary can currently charge a local tax of up to 3% of retail sales, and can collect a community impact fee on top of that. Both come from the two chapters of law this measure repeals, so both would disappear along with the retail market. In fiscal year 2025 alone, the state's official fiscal statement puts adult-use marijuana taxes at about $280 million in state revenue and $50 million in local revenue. Over time, municipalities have collected roughly $196 million from the local 3% tax since it began (through August 2025), on more than $8 billion in adult-use sales statewide. That's a cumulative total, not a yearly figure. It's concentrated rather than spread evenly: Boston, Worcester, Fall River, Northampton, and Great Barrington collect the most, and a town with no dispensary collects nothing either way. Community impact fees peaked in 2022 and have fallen sharply since a 2022 law required them to be tied to documented costs.