The campaign to repeal cannabis sales in MA uses slippery stats

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You know the old saying: There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.

That’s how Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), the anti-cannabis group pushing the campaign to repeal recreational cannabis sales in Massachusetts, operates. Take a kernel of truth, strip it of all context, and present a new, skewed context that makes it seem like SAM’s interpretation is settled fact. 

Here’s a clear example from The Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts’ website, funded almost entirely by SAM Action, SAM’s 501(c)(4) lobbying arm, which doesn’t need to disclose donors.

The coalition tells voters on its website there was "an almost fourfold increase in cannabis use for adolescents" after legal sales began. It cites a 2025 study but doesn’t link it. 

The fourfold increase they cite, as best I can find, comes from an analysis of the urine drug tests of 12- to 17-year-olds who came through the psychiatric emergency service at Massachusetts General Hospital between 2017 and 2019. THC positivity in that group went from 5% to 17.3%. 

Of course, there are many reasons why it’s unwise to extrapolate this number to the whole state. Chief among them, it would be totally incorrect. 

Data from the CDC’s biennial federal Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) shows the exact opposite case: past-month cannabis use among high schoolers in Mass fell from 24.1% in 2017 to 12.0% in 2025. Cannabis sales in the state began in 2018. Use among high schoolers peaked back in 1999 at nearly 32%, which clearly had nothing to do with regulated sales to adults. 

To be clear, I don’t dismiss the study’s findings. It’s absolutely true about a vulnerable group of teenagers. But it’s nowhere near the claim on the coalition's website.

And of course, I’m not implying causation here. There are lots of complex reasons why teen use is down, many of which have little to do with cannabis policy itself. Regulated sales to adults could be one small piece of a big sociological puzzle. Nationwide trends are also down, to about 12.9% last year from 19.8 % in 2017. 

Either way, it’s a very different story than SAM, the well-funded organization behind the majority of efforts to both repeal and rein in cannabis reform around the U.S., is selling voters.

It’s important to scrutinize that. Voters head to the polls in November. 

-JB

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