Voters keep legal cannabis as repeal pushes fail in Massachusetts and Idaho

Massachusetts voters on 3 November rejected Question 8, the first citizen-initiated attempt anywhere in the US to shut down a licensed adult-use cannabis market. Unofficial Associated Press returns reported by Cannabis Business Times showed repeal losing by about 76% to 24% with most ballots counted, a far wider margin than the 54% that legalized adult use in the state in 2016.

In Idaho, voters turned down HJR 4, a constitutional amendment written by the legislature that would have taken away citizens' power to legalize marijuana or other drugs through ballot initiatives. Taken together, the two results mean neither of this year's main attempts to roll back or wall off legalization survived a statewide vote.

A rout in Massachusetts

Question 8 would have repealed the laws that legalized recreational sale, possession and use, along with the regulations and tax rules built on them, according to CommonWealth Beacon's ballot guide. Adult-use stores would have had to become medical dispensaries or sell their inventory to one, and growing up to six plants at home would once again have been a crime. Repeal would have taken effect on 1 January 2028. Adults could still have carried an ounce without criminal penalty, but holding between one and two ounces would have drawn a $100 civil fine. The medical program, overseen by the Cannabis Control Commission, was not on the ballot.

The AP called the race just before midnight Eastern time on election night, with roughly half the vote in, Cannabis Business Times reported. By the next morning, with about 80% counted, the No side led by 52 points, which the publication said was the widest defeat for a citizen initiative in Massachusetts since 1976. NORML, citing NBC News, described the gap as about three to one. The results are unofficial until certified.

Who paid for repeal, and who fought it

The measure was run by the Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts, which received more than $3.7 million from SAM Action, the Virginia-based advocacy arm of Smart Approaches to Marijuana. As a 501(c)(4), SAM Action does not have to disclose its donors. WBUR reported that most of the repeal money came from that single out-of-state source. Backers argued that legalization had widened youth access to high-potency products and pointed to a 2025 Mass General Brigham study on adolescents seen in psychiatric emergency care.

The opposing Stop the Repeal coalition launched in June. Gov. Maura Healey, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley and more than 60 state lawmakers came out against the measure. WBUR said cannabis companies and the Retailers Association of Massachusetts were among the largest contributors to the No side, arguing that repeal would push buyers to other states or to the illicit market. Polling had pointed the same way: an early-August survey had 55% of registered voters opposed, and autumn polls from the University of New Hampshire and Suffolk University put opposition as high as 71% among likely voters. The final count went further still.

What was at stake for operators

The numbers explain why the industry spent heavily. Citing the Cannabis Control Commission, Cannabis Business Times put the market at nearly 800 licensed businesses, more than 400 dispensaries and about 27,000 workers, with more than $10 billion in adult-use sales since stores opened in 2018 and roughly $2 billion in state and local revenue. CommonWealth Beacon, also citing the commission, said the industry grossed more than $1.6 billion in 2025 and produced close to $300 million in state tax revenue in fiscal 2025.

A Yes vote would have given that market about 14 months to wind down or squeeze into a medical-only channel. The defeat removes that risk for now, which matters for lenders, landlords and buyers who price Massachusetts licences.

The repeal campaign set out to prove that voters regret legalization. A 52-point loss in the first state to test it sets the bar any future repeal will be measured against.

Idaho keeps the initiative door open

HJR 4 would have reserved the power to legalize marijuana, narcotics and other psychoactive substances for the Idaho Legislature alone. Rep. Bruce Skaug sponsored it, and the Republican supermajority passed it in March 2025 largely along party lines, according to Cannabis Business Times. Sen. C. Scott Grow led the push to send it to voters, arguing the cannabis industry profits from addiction, Marijuana Moment reported.

Unofficial AP figures had the amendment losing 68% to 32% when the race was called with about half the vote counted. KIFI reported opposition above 66% with 36 of 44 counties in. Luke Mayville, executive director of Reclaim Idaho, framed the result as a defence of ballot rights rather than a drug-policy verdict, telling the station that "HJR four was never about drugs."

The vote keeps a path open; it does not create a market. Idaho is one of eight states without a regulated medical cannabis program. A medical initiative failed to make this year's ballot after election officials in July disqualified 61% of the signatures submitted, leaving the campaign more than 12,000 short of the 70,725 required. The group behind it disputes that decision, Marijuana Moment reported. The state also set a $300 minimum fine for possession in a law signed by Gov. Brad Little last year.

A friendlier map for 2027

The same night reshaped the federal and state politics around cannabis. In Texas, Democrat James Talarico beat Republican Ken Paxton to become the state's first Democratic senator elected since 1988; he supports nationwide legalization. South Carolina elected Annie Andrews, its first elected Democratic senator in 28 years, who backs full legalization and expungement, according to the Marijuana Herald.

Statehouses moved too. The Herald reported that Democrats won both legislative chambers and the governorship in Wisconsin, where governor-elect David Crowley has called for full legalization; flipped the Pennsylvania Senate while holding the House and governorship; took the North Carolina House for the first time since 2010; and won both chambers in New Hampshire, where Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte remains opposed. In Kansas, Cindy Holscher won the governorship after pledging to pursue medical and adult-use legalization. The Herald names Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Hawaii, North Carolina, Iowa and Texas as the states most likely to take up adult-use legalization in 2027. Most of those would have to act through legislatures rather than ballots. Today 24 states run adult-use programs and 42 have medical ones.

What to watch

First, certification: both results remain unofficial, and Idaho's are not final until the State Board of Canvassers signs off. Second, whether national prohibition groups try repeal elsewhere; NORML's Paul Armentano described the Massachusetts push as a trial balloon and predicted the defeat would make such groups rethink their plans. Third, the 2027 legislative sessions in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and other newly Democratic statehouses, where legalization bills will show whether election-night gains turn into new markets.