The head of Massachusetts’s marijuana regulatory agency has suggested that a pair of proposed ballot initiatives to effectively recriminalize recreational cannabis sales could imperil tax revenue that’s being used to support substance misuse treatment efforts and other public programs.
Travis Ahern, executive director of the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC), said in a recent interview with Talking Joints Memo that while the agency doesn’t generally “advocate for or against the policy specifically as it relates to a ballot question,” the state’s marijuana law that would be upended by the proposals has meaningfully contributed to valuable social services.
A budget report that included a review of the commonwealth’s cannabis industry demonstrated “the good that has come out of the funds—the revenue received through cannabis, the success of cannabis taking over cranberries as the number one cash crop, and tax revenue over alcohol,” he said, noting that a portion of those funds have supported agencies that “deal with substance abuse.”
“It’s funding programming at a bunch of different state agencies, which is all great. I think it answers a lot of people who may be looking at the future ballot question on should we recriminalize and saying, ‘Well, the good that’s coming out
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