It’s wild when the Rule Of Unintended Consequences rears its ugly head
Marijuana Is On The Ballot In 2026. The Debate Has Changed
Ten years after Massachusetts voters legalized recreational marijuana, they’re being asked to reverse course. Meanwhile, voters in Idaho and Houston will weigh in on who gets to decide marijuana policy and how existing laws should be enforced.
The November 3 election offers an interesting snapshot of how the marijuana debate is changing. And for employers, the results could have implications for everything from workplace accommodations to drug testing and criminal background checks.
Massachusetts voters approved recreational marijuana in 2016, and the industry has grown considerably since then. In September, the state’s Cannabis Control Commission reported that recreational marijuana businesses had surpassed $10 billion in cumulative sales.
Now, voters are being asked whether to dismantle that market.
Question 8 would eliminate recreational marijuana sales, the associated tax and regulatory framework, and home cultivation. Adults 21 and older could still possess up to one ounce, subject to limits on concentrates, without penalties. Medical marijuana would remain legal.
Why? That’s $10 billion. Is the state not getting enough money?
Supporters point to concerns about youth access, impaired driving, mental health, and the commercialization of cannabis. They argue that the regulated market has brought consequences voters didn’t fully anticipate in 2016.
Well, everyone opposed told them the consequences. Hell, even those in support told them. Personally, again, I could care less. I don’t do it, haven’t touched in at least 15 years. I just stopped enjoying it. I think one problem is that it is so much more powerful these days and available in so many different ways. It’s not like when we would roll a joint, smoke a bowl, or do some bong hits and get a good buzz going, and every once in a while get the strong stuff and get stoned. Mostly it was just a good buzz.
Anyhow, are those things enough to spike all but medical marijuana? Can they crack down on the kiddies using it? We could get it in high school, but, wasn’t that easy, and there were no gummies and cookies and this and that, nor vapes. BTW, the yutes are going to get alcohol. People will drive impaired. Mental and physical health issues. Yet, no one is talking about eliminating it.
Opponents warn that eliminating recreational sales could push consumers toward illicit markets, eliminate tax revenue, and threaten businesses and jobs.
People are surely getting from illicit markets already, as we’ve seen with California and Colorado.
While Massachusetts voters reconsider a legalization decision made a decade ago, Idaho voters will decide who gets to make that decision in the future.
House Joint Resolution 4 would amend the state constitution to give the legislature exclusive authority to legalize marijuana, narcotics, and other psychoactive substances. Citizens could no longer use ballot initiatives to legalize those substances.
I’m 100% against this. The GOP runs the general assembly in full, and should not be doing this.
I don’t think they should do this. I also think that everyone at the FDA who were responsible for relcassifying it, and didn’t, after its components were first approved for medical use, should be fired, and charged with whatever crime is on the books for doing a goverment job incorrectly.
Personally, i think all drugs should be legalized and that after a generation or two, so about ~30 years, things will have stabilized.
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