Press and social media toolkit — Massachusetts

 

Sample letter to the editor (generally limited to 150-200 words; check with your local paper for details):

This November, voters in Massachusetts will choose whether or not to legalize pot in our state. What the out-of-state special interests financing this effort aren’t telling us is that this ballot initiative would create hundreds of neighborhood pot shops selling kid-friendly pot products like lollipops and gummy bears, easily mistaken for ordinary candy.

And since initiative would pack the rulemaking body with pot industry representatives, the law would create a corporate “Big Tobacco”-like industry with the goal of making a few people rich.

Since Colorado legalized marijuana, it has the highest rate of youth pot use in the nation—a rate 70% higher than the national average.

Let’s not sell our state to the next Big Tobacco. Voters should reject marijuana legalization in November.

 

Sample op-ed column (usually a good deal longer than a letter to the editor; check with your local paper for details):

This November, voters in Massachusetts will choose whether or not to legalize pot in our state. What the out-of-state special interests financing this effort aren’t telling us is that this ballot initiative would create hundreds of neighborhood pot shops selling kid-friendly pot products like lollipops and gummy bears, easily mistaken for ordinary candy. And since the rulemaking body would consist of many pot industry representatives, the law would create a corporate “Big Tobacco”-like industry with the goal of making a few people rich. That means we can be assured of weak advertising regulations and widespread promotions, coupons, and other ads aimed at young people.

The initiative is written so broadly, it would provide no effective regulation on marijuana advertising or edibles. That means that local pot shops could sell and promote pot candies, ice creams, sodas, and marijuana concentrates that can be as more than 90% pure.

Massachusetts should learn from states like Colorado that legalized pot. Since Colorado legalized marijuana, it has the highest rate of youth pot use in the nation—a rate 70% higher than the national average. There, marijuana use is now number one in the country among teenagers. Parkview Hospital Emergency Room in Colorado wrote recently that since recreational marijuana has been legal in that state, the hospital has seen a 51% increase in children 18 and under that test positive for marijuana. Nearly half of all newborns born in that hospital also tested positive for pre-natal marijuana exposure.

At a time when our opioid epidemic is out of control, do we really want more drug problems?

Finally, in today’s hyper-partisan political climate, it speaks volumes that high-profile politicians from both parties oppose the initiative, including Governor Charlie Baker, Attorney General Maura Healey, and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, along with the Massachusetts Superintendents and the Massachusetts Hospitals Association.

Let’s not sell our state to the next Big Tobacco. Voters should reject marijuana legalization in November.

 

Examples of social media content for Twitter, Facebook, and other sites (all of the below are Twitter friendly — 140 characters or less):

  • There’s a reason Gov Baker, AG Healey and Mayor Walsh oppose legal pot in MA. Shops selling pot candy are bad news. Vote No this November!

  • MA’s pot initiative would put pot shops in our neighborhoods selling pot candy profiting off of our kids. Not good for our state. Vote No!

  • MA’s pot law creates a corporate “Big Tobacco”-like industry with the goal of making a few people rich. Vote No this November!

  • Our opioid crisis has given us a nightmare of a drug problem in MA. Legal pot will make it worse. Vote No this November!

  • The proposed MA pot law will let the pot industry “regulate itself.” Sounds like Big Tobacco all over again. Vote No this November!