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Marijuana and drug policy

2 tracked measures relating to marijuana and drug policy, in 2 states.

Topic labels are applied by this site to group related measures. They are a navigation aid, not a legal classification, and they are not assigned by any state.

Colorado

1 measure

  • Penalties for Fentanyl Crimes (Initiative #85)

    On the ballot

    This initiated statute would raise criminal penalties in Colorado for fentanyl, carfentanil, and benzimidazole opiates. Distributing, manufacturing, dispensing, or selling these synthetic…

    Colorado · November 2026 general election · Citizen initiative

Massachusetts

1 measure

About marijuana and drug policy ballot measures

This tag covers measures about how a state treats controlled substances: whether possession or sale of a drug is legal, decriminalized, or criminal; how a legal market is licensed, taxed, and inspected; medical and supervised-therapeutic access; and whether past convictions are sealed, expunged, or resentenced when conduct is reclassified.

These questions are almost always statutory rather than constitutional, and they are unusually long, because legalizing a market means writing one. A single measure commonly does five things at once — reclassify the conduct, create a licensing authority, set a tax rate, name the funds the revenue flows to, and preserve some local control over whether businesses may operate at all. The tax and the local-option provisions are where states differ most, and where the practical result of an otherwise similar measure diverges.

Points worth checking: the effective date, since licensing typically lags legalization by a year or more; whether the measure addresses existing convictions and whether relief is automatic or requires a petition; what the tax is levied on and where the money is directed; whether local governments may prohibit or limit businesses; and what the state's fiscal analysis estimates for revenue, which is quoted on each measure page where a note exists. State law also remains distinct from federal law on these substances.

Wording, numbering, and certification status are set by each state and can change up to the printing of the ballot. Every summary above links to the records it was built from; where those records disagree with this page, the records govern. Confirm the final ballot text with your state or county election authority before you rely on it.