Massachusetts Gearing Up For 2016 Legalization Campaign

Building on steadily increasing public support, a coalition of marijuana policy reformers are looking to 2016 to get an initiative on the Massachusetts ballot to make marijuana legal for adults and regulate it similarly to alcohol.

MPP was largely responsible for the successful 2008 campaign to remove the threat of arrest for possession of small amounts of marijuana in the state. Now, national and local advocates are preparing to end marijuana prohibition in the Bay State:

Outside groups are already pledging support - strategic and financial - to push for legalization in Massachusetts.

The Marijuana Policy Project, a national nonprofit that says it spent about $2 million on the successful 2012 campaign for legalization in Colorado, also plans to spend money in this state.

"We intend to support an initiative in Massachusetts in 2016 that would regulate and tax marijuana like alcohol," said spokesman Mason Tvert.

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Bill Downing, treasurer of Bay State Repeal, a group created to get the legalization question on the ballot, said he expects other national groups to back the effort here.