A citizen’s initiative aimed at ending the sale and production of recreational cannabis in Maine can now begin collecting signatures to put the question on the 2026 ballot after Secretary of State Shenna Bellows approved the initiative’s application on Monday.
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The initiative aims to place a referendum question before voters next November that would significantly amend the “Act to Amend the Cannabis Legalization Act and the Maine Medical Use of Cannabis Act” to essentially end Maine’s recreational cannabis industry.
The changes would end commercial production and sales of cannabis, and end the ability to grow cannabis for personal consumption, but would not criminalize marijuana possession in recreational quantities and would allow the medical cannabis industry to continue.
Under the referendum, the state would direct the Office of Cannabis Policy to expedite the process to allow cannabis growers currently licensed for recreational production to transition to become licensed as medical growers.
The referendum would also implement stricter tracking and testing standards for medical marijuana and require testing for certain dangerous pesticides, including potentially fatal chemicals like fenobucarb and isoprocarb, which are illegal in the U.S.
Illegal Chinese marijuana growers have been found to use the toxic chemicals as pesticides, including substances that even the Chinese government does not approve for use as pesticides.
[RELATED: Illegal Chinese Neurotoxins Are Coming to Maine’s Blackmarket Cannabis Grows: Maine Threat Brief…]
The initiative must obtain a minimum of 67,682 verified signatures, or the equivalent of 10 percent of the votes cast in the most recent gubernatorial election, in order to put the question on the ballot.
If the initiative is able to gather the required number of signatures, it will likely face a difficult path to victory with voters, who have grown accustomed to the legalized recreational cannabis industry since it was passed as a referendum question by a slim margin in 2016.
According to the state’s fiscal impact statement on the proposed referendum question, an end to the commercial cannabis industry would cause an estimated annual tax revenue decrease of $45,750,571.
The changes would also likely have a significant impact on the state’s economy. Maine’s 2025 marijuana sales reportedly reached over $230 million as of early December.
“Cannabis is a really big part of our economy now. It created hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, thousands of small businesses and over 10,000 jobs,” Rep. David Boyer (R-Poland) told the Portland Press Herald.
While Rep. Boyer has long been a champion of marijuana legalization, Maine’s legislative Republicans are not entirely unified on the issue.
Sen. Scott Cyrway (R-Kennebec) was one of the eight citizens who signed the initial application for the citizens’ initiative, submitted to the Secretary of State for approval in September.
“The timing is right,” Cyrway told the Portland paper. “We’ve got illegal Chinese grows, moldy marijuana making people sick. Maine is tired of this. Let’s send it back to the people to decide.”
He was joined on the application by Nicholas Adolphsen, the head of the Christian Civic League of Maine.
The Maine Wire reached out for a comment from Colin T.R. Mack, who is listed as the contact for the citizens’ initiative on the Secretary of State’s website, but he did not immediately respond.
Currently, one ballot question committee, Mainers for a Safe and Healthy Future, Inc., has filed with the Maine State Ethics Commission to support the citizens’ initiative.
