{"id":83794,"date":"2025-10-15T09:42:45","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T17:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2025\/10\/15\/top-marijuana-advocacy-group-urges-collaboration-with-industry-amid-rise-of-neo-prohibitionist-movement\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T19:49:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T03:49:36","slug":"top-marijuana-advocacy-group-urges-collaboration-with-industry-amid-rise-of-neo-prohibitionist-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2025\/10\/15\/top-marijuana-advocacy-group-urges-collaboration-with-industry-amid-rise-of-neo-prohibitionist-movement\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Marijuana Advocacy Group Urges Collaboration With Industry Amid Rise Of \u2018Neo-Prohibitionist Movement\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

A leading marijuana reform advocacy organization is circulating an open letter to the cannabis industry, stressing that the two pillars of the community \u201cneed each other\u201d at a time when a \u201cresurgent and well-funded neo-prohibitionist movement\u201d is on the rise.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNeither industry nor advocacy will succeed alone,\u201d t<\/span>he letter from Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) Executive Director Adam Smith says.<\/p>\n

While some industries concoct seemingly grassroots campaigns to create the appearance of credibility, that \u201cfake grass\u201d is \u201cinorganic, doesn\u2019t grow, nourishes nothing, and is made of mostly forever plastics and noxious chemicals,\u201d Smith wrote.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s a different story for the cannabis reform movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cCannabis advocacy is not astroturf. It wasn\u2019t created by an industry. In fact, just the opposite,\u201d Smith said, referring to the fact that the movement\u2019s successes created the opportunity for the legal marijuana industry to later emerge. \u201cCannabis policy reform is a movement. And like every fight for justice, ours was born out of suffering: the suffering of people whose liberty, children, homes, education, or lives were stolen from them in the name of the war on drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe suffering of those desperate for medicine for themselves or to help a loved one to eat, ease pain, or calm seizures,\u201d he said. It rose against a drug war machine that has fueled government overreach, mass incarceration, discrimination, and inequity for nearly a century. All based on lies told about a plant.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s been some tension between the advocacy and industry sides of the cannabis movement in recent years, especially as philanthropic support for grassroots organizations has dried up as a majority of states have moved to legalize marijuana for medical or adult use. It\u2019s an issue that a former MPP executive, Matthew Schweich, routinely discussed as the group fought against the changing policy and financial dynamics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Smith is hoping that his letter will restart the conversation and impress upon the industry that there are mutual benefits to working more closely together in the pursuit of reform.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndustry and advocacy are fighting for the same big goal; not just to end cannabis prohibition, but to end it well,\u201d Smith told Marijuana Moment on Wednesday. \u201cPatients and consumers need safe, dependable access, which requires an economically stable industry that is rationally regulated, reasonably taxed, and operating within a normalized commercial environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In an open letter to the cannabis industry, MPP’s Executive Director, Adam J. Smith, makes the case that robust independent advocacy is indispensable to industry’s goals, and calls for a more strategic deployment of our collective political capital. https:\/\/t.co\/1hg5VOpKwP<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Marijuana Policy Project (@MarijuanaPolicy) October 15, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\u201cBut the cannabis issue is about more than dollars and cents, and industry won\u2019t get there alone. Independent advocacy has been and remains an indispensable force for reform,\u201d he said. \u201cWe may not agree or collaborate on everything, but we can do a much better job of big picture strategic coordination, and we have to start now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because prohibition persists, however, he emphasized in the letter that the associated \u201csuffering, injustice, and inequity\u201d of criminalization also linger. And that has imperiled the movement that advocates and stakeholders have worked for years to build. If the industry fails, \u201cwe fail together,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cA strong industry creates jobs, generates tax revenues, and revitalizes local economies. These arguments were, and still are, powerful incentives for reform. But they cannot finish the job of ending prohibition. They don\u2019t speak to the deeper issues that first brought this movement together, nor can they speak with authority to address the concerns, including public health and safety, that many lawmakers and their constituents have about cannabis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith also pointed out that the prohibitionist group Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) and its allies are actively \u201cbacking legislation, and soon ballot initiatives, to roll back our progress state by state.\u201d That includes a possible 2026 ballot measure in Massachusetts to recriminalize recreational marijuana sales<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Prohibitionists \u201calso know that the normal incentives of any industry, reducing costs and maximizing profits, can undercut an industry\u2019s credibility with lawmakers and the public on these threshold issues,\u201d he said. \u201cTheir strategy is to force legislators into a false choice between your profit motives and their claim to the mantle of public health. They want you isolated in that fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut independent advocacy requires resources. And resources have been scarce. At the Marijuana Policy Project, we have led the fight to secure 29 medical and adult-use laws, both through legislatures and ballot initiatives. We have helped ensure good faith implementation of those laws and defended them when opponents have tried to roll them back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith noted that MPP is actively working to advance adult-use legalization in Louisiana, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, and it has a \u201clist of priorities that overlap with the industry\u2019s across multiple legal and medical states.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCannabis advocacy organizations do not work for the industry, and it\u2019s true that we will not always align or collaborate on every issue. But our independence is a feature, not a bug,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s what gives us credibility and increases our power over time. Anyone who wants to see sensible and lasting normalization in cannabis needs that independent power working at full strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a \u201creal urgency\u201d to develop a \u201cdeeper, coordinated conversation between the leaders of industry at every level and the institutions of independent advocacy about how we move forward together,\u201d the letter<\/a> states.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means renewed financial support, yes. But it also means better strategic alignment across our common goals and shared purpose as we confront our common challenges. Neither industry nor advocacy will succeed alone,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd maybe you didn\u2019t even realize it was happening. So it wasn\u2019t your responsibility to step up. But now you know. So now it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post Top Marijuana Advocacy Group Urges Collaboration With Industry Amid Rise Of \u2018Neo-Prohibitionist Movement\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Top Marijuana Advocacy Group Urges Collaboration With Industry Amid Rise Of \u2018Neo-Prohibitionist Movement\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A leading marijuana reform advocacy organization is circulating an open letter to the cannabis industry, stressing that the two pillars of the community \u201cneed each other\u201d at a time when a \u201cresurgent and well-funded neo-prohibitionist movement\u201d is on the rise.\u00a0 \u201cNeither industry nor advocacy will succeed alone,\u201d the letter fromContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83794"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83794"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83795,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83794\/revisions\/83795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}