The campaign behind a Massachusetts ballot question to repeal legal recreational cannabis says it is responding, in part, to a threat of higher marijuana use among teens. The repeal question comes before voters in November. If Question 8 passes, Massachusetts would become the first state to repeal recreational weed legalization.
Wendy Wakeman, spokesperson for the Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts, which is backing the repeal campaign, defended the approach. “I’m not surprised there are mixed opinions,” Wakeman said. “The research has not been done, so that, in essence, is one of the scary reasons to support rolling back recreational marijuana.”
Recreational dispensaries are now open in 23 states nationwide. Recreational marijuana laws began gaining traction in states across the US in 2012.
Fewer adolescents ages 12 to 17 are reporting using marijuana within the past month, down to 5 percent last year, from 6.1 percent in 2021, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the largest and most recent federal household survey on drug use, published in July.
A prior version of that survey showed past-month teen marijuana use fell across most states from 2021 to 2024. A Globe analysis found the drop was steepest in states where recreational marijuana was legal the longest.
In Massachusetts, a survey analysis from the Cannabis Control Commission found the number of adolescents ages 16 to 20 reporting daily or near-daily cannabis use fell by roughly half between 2019, when pot shops began opening statewide, and 2023, when the rate hit 7 percent. The share of teens who never tried pot grew 9 percentage points in the same period.
In Boston Public Schools, 12 percent of students said they were current marijuana users in 2025, a drop of around 10 percentage points from 2015, according to district survey data. However, in southern Berkshire County, past-month marijuana use increased 70 percent among 12th graders between 2021 and 2025, according to youth survey data.
Dr. Kevin Hill, director of addiction psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a professor at Harvard Medical School, was among over a dozen pediatricians, drug researchers, and addiction specialists interviewed by the Globe. “I’m not a fan of how things have gone down in Massachusetts, but I don’t think that repealing everything is going to be a panacea,” Hill said.
“Kids who wanted to get cannabis have always been able to do that, and I don’t think that having tons of stores in Massachusetts has really changed that,” Hill said. He added, “We’re not really clear about the risks and benefits of cannabis because so many people are trying to profit from it. That’s really the issue.”
Dr. Sharon Levy, chief of addiction medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, said teen cannabis usage has not turned out to be “the huge tidal wave that I think people were fearing could potentially occur.” Levy was among dozens of doctors and researchers who signed a 2019 letter objecting to marijuana shops in Massachusetts, citing public health concerns.
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