What is Question 4? The only standalone psychedelic policy reform initiative to go before voters at this election is Massachusetts’ Question 4, which would legalise the licensed provision of facilitated psychedelics sessions and decriminalise personal use and home cultivation of certain psychedelics.
Who supports and opposes it? The Question is forwarded by Massachusetts for Mental Health Options, a ballot committee backed by the national New Approach PAC. New Approach has scored numerous successes in the cannabis policy reform arena and its efforts in psychedelics have led to the creation of two state-level psychedelic programs via ballot initiatives, in Oregon and Colorado.
The Yes campaign has raised millions of dollars in its effort to convince voters to endorse the Question from donors including the non-profit MAPS, soap company Dr. Bronner’s, and other psychedelics advocates.
The official No campaign, meanwhile, has received just over $100,000, almost all of which came from Kevin Sabet’s anti-cannabis outfit, Smart Approaches to Marijuana. The No coalition also includes Bay Staters for Natural Medicine, a small psychedelic policy reform group that has been involved in countless scandals that have led it to ostracise itself from much of the local and broader psychedelics community.
The campaign has been fraught with minor controversies and dramas from both sides, with discourse becoming particularly thorny as the campaign draws to a close. (See, for example, Final Stretch for Question 4: Controversy, Advocacy, and Celebrity Voices Shape Psychedelic Vote, for example.)
Some worry that in-fighting and bickering might have confused the Yes campaign’s key talking points, or that the two-pronged nature of the Question itself (which would both decriminalise and establish a regulated system) is inherently confusing to voters.
What are the polls saying? More than anything, tensions have run high because the race is oh-so-close: Polls have consistently shown that, just like the presidential race, Question 4 is too close to call, so it will be a nail-biter for advocates and opponents alike.