Massachusetts Could Legalize Psychedelic Therapy This Election—But Not Everyone is Onboard

All eyes are on Massachusetts right now. Not because it will sway the election’s outcome, per se, but because it’s the only state with broad psychedelic legislation on the ballot this November 5. With the future of FDA-approved psychedelic pharmaceuticals in flux for the foreseeable future, psychedelic scholars, activists, and detractors alike are in the final days of a campaign that will ultimately determine the fate of ballot Question 4, a complex psychedelic legislative package that — win or lose — will likely set the tone and tenor of future psychedelic policy across the United States and abroad.

The campaign to legalize psychedelic therapy and decriminalize possession is supported by Washington DC-based New Approach PAC, which previously led successful ballot initiatives in Oregon and Colorado. New Approach originated from the Marijuana Policy Project, which led recreational cannabis legalization efforts in Oregon in 2014 and in California, Maine, and Massachusetts in 2016. After partnering with the Healing Advocacy Fund, a non-profit committed to expanding psychedelic access through state-level regulation, on past campaigns, New Approach has shifted gears for its East Coast psychedelic debut, enlisting the political consulting firm Dewey Square Group (DSG) to guide strategy and operations. 

According to Jared Moffat, New Approach’s MA campaign liaison, the idea for a ballot initiative in the Bay State “really started when Graham Boyd… founder of New Approach… was invited to speak at the Boston Psychedelic Research Group (BPRG) after Colorado’s measure had passed.” In response to Boyd’s presentation, Moffat added, “There were a lot of folks that [asked], ‘can we do that here in Massachusetts?’”

READ: Multiple Presidential Candidates Push Psychedelics Reform

The Yes on 4 campaign is staffed by a mix of longtime DSG operatives and genuine grassroots activists who’ve joined the political sphere straight from the front lines of the psychedelics movement. One such activist is Jamie Morey, a Marshfield, MA resident who is a mother of four and founder of Parents for Plant Medicine. A longtime non-profit industry professional with a background in market research, Morey joined the campaign ranks back in May alongside fellow grassroots advocate Graham Moore, who currently serves as Yes on 4’s Educational Outreach Director. 

DSG was founded in Boston back in 1993 and is known as a “grasstops” public relations organization, or a firm that builds campaign strategies around influencing key community leaders who hold sway over public opinion, decision-making, or policy. DSG was instrumental in the strategic operations for multiple Democratic presidential campaigns over the past three decades, including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Kerry. With offices in Boston, Sacramento, Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Washington, DC, DSG has worked with multinational corporate titans such as Microsoft and Coca-Cola in addition to smaller-scale, progressive-minded clientele. 

Jennifer Manley of DSG has played an integral role in shaping the Yes on 4 campaign’s messaging and steering its public relations strategy. As a principal of DSG’s communication practice in the Boston branch, Manley has reportedly been instrumental in securing a number of high-profile political endorsements for Question 4. 

Two Boston-based political consulting firms, MLM Strategies LLC and DLM Strategies, have also worked alongside DSG in the Yes on 4 campaign in a strategic advisory capacity.  MLM’s founder Meredith Moeghini serves as Treasurer, and DLM’s founder Danielle McCourt is the Campaign Chair.

The campaign for psychedelics kicked off by raising nearly $4 million in 2023, with support from Eliza Dushku, the former Buffy the Vampire Slayer actress-turned-psychedelic-therapist; Blake Mycoskie, TOMS Shoes founder; and Austin Hearst IV, the heir to the Hearst Media empire. However, their roll-out hit a snag during the campaign’s initial signature drive that almost derailed Question 4’s place on the ballot. State officials flagged “several disqualifying” marks on their ballot papers after gathering over 74,000 signatures. Approximately 12,000 signatures were disqualified, forcing the campaign to hit the pavement across the state again to replace the disqualified signatures. Ultimately, the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s office certified 96,277 signatures collected by the campaign to solidify the initiative’s spot on the ballot.

At the time, Moffat downplayed the near-disastrous snafu as a printing error made by “a signature firm that we have worked with before.”

READ: Advocates Are Battling Over the Future of Psychedelic Reform in the US

In January of this year, US Navy veteran Emily Oneschuk — who made headlines in 2017 as the first female Navy SEAL applicant — was named Yes on 4’s Grassroots Campaign Director. Working for the campaign is “deeply personal” for her. She recently told Boston’s GBH Radio: “[psychedelics] transformed my life.”

Following her brother Andrew’s murder by Neo-Nazis in 2017 and the subsequent years of military service, Oneschuk went through conventional treatments at the VA, but the Wakefield, MA native “wasn’t seeing much improvement.”

During a psychedelic ceremony in Jamaica sponsored by the HOPE Project, Oneschuk “went through a really transformative experience…” which she credits as a large part of why she ended up advocating for Question 4.

“If we could have addressed the mental health crisis with traditional medications, through tools we already have,” said Oneschuk, “we would have addressed it already.”

David Bronner, a longtime psychedelic philanthropist who donated $1 million to the Yes on 4 campaign in 2023, says that while he doesn’t think the state is ready for full-scale legalization of psychedelics — a false claim about the proposed measure lobbed by the opposition campaign — he tells DoubleBlind that he strongly supports creating pathways for legally established psychedelic organizations “to be more explicit about [providing access] to responsible community use” of plant medicine, “whether they’re religious or secular.”

As for what led Bronner to lend his support to New Approach’s East Coast psychedelic expansion, the Harvard alum said that the strength of local activists and the momentum of the Massachusetts movement were the driving forces behind New Approach’s decision to expand its psychedelic reform efforts to the East Coast.

Question 4 — formally known as Massachusetts Bill H.4255: An Act Relative to the Regulation and Taxation of Natural Psychedelic Substances — would decriminalize possession and the personal use of certain psychedelics for individuals age 21 and older, and legalize psychedelic-assisted therapy services provided by state-licensed professionals.

Possession limits would include 1 gram of DMT, 18 grams of mescaline, 30 grams of ibogaine, 1 gram of pure psilocybin (about 133 grams of dried mushrooms), and 1 gram of pure psilocyn. The possession limits only apply to the five substances named in the bill. Any additional alkaloids, MAOIs, or other compounds found in capsules or edibles are treated as separate substances and do not count toward the weight of the substances covered in the measure. A five-member regulatory board, modeled after the Cannabis Control Commission, will also be formed to oversee licensing and standards for psychedelic therapy services. The bill also permits at-home cultivation in areas up to 12-by-12 feet, secured from minors, with penalties for unsecured substances capped at a $100 fine.

Inside the Opposition Campaign

In contrast to the tight-knit political collective backing Question 4, the opposition campaign is a uniquely diverse group of adversaries. Leading the opposition is the Massachusetts Coalition for Safe Communities, supported by two Washington, D.C.-based organizations: the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions (FDPS) and Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM). The coalition is led by Dr. Anahita Dua, a prominent heart surgeon at Boston’s Mass General Hospital and Assistant Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Dua also founded the HealthCare for Action PAC in 2022 to support healthcare workers running for Congress.

Chris Keohane is a spokesperson for the Coalition for Safe Communities (C4SC) and has a history working with Dewey Square Group on Massachusetts’ 2014 medical cannabis legalization effort. Keohane recently told Boston Public Radio (GBH) that while C4SC doesn’t necessarily dispute the medicinal benefits of psychedelics, he thinks the measure was crafted with capitalistic aims, paving the way for-profit facilities to emerge. Keohane also objected to Question 4’s decriminalization and cultivation measures, claiming that if the measure passed, Question 4 would “create a large gray area, particularly around the home growth component.”

And while Question 4 bears more legislative resemblance to Colorado’s dual approach of decriminalization and legal psychedelic therapy model than Oregon’s psilocybin-only, service-center exclusive format, Keohane has frequently cited the high cost of care in Oregon as a core tenant of the C4SC’s opposition platform.

“The yes side of this ballot question is touting veterans and other people that have various sicknesses… [but] they are providing false hope to the people that need it the most.”

READ: Massachusetts is Leading the Way on Psychedelic Reform. Here’s the Latest.

Perhaps the most enigmatic (and possibly foreboding) political power broker fueling the No on 4 campaign is the C4SC’s treasurer: Charles Gantt, the vice president of the Beverley, MA-based Red Curve Solutions. Notably, Gantt is also the Founder of Make America Great Again Inc., the right-wing Super PAC that has bankrolled Donald Trump’s multiple presidential campaigns — selling watches, NFTs, and the very fabric of Trump’s suits along the way. What’s more, in April, the Campaign Legal Center (CLC) — a nonpartisan government watchdog organization focused on campaign finance issues — filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that Red Curve’s financial relationship with the Trump campaign “appears to have violated the federal ban on corporate political contributions.” The arrangement between Red Curve and four Trump-aligned PACs appears to conceal the actual recipients of a significant portion of Trump’s legal fees, potentially violating federal law.

While Gantt has not spoken publicly about his political career, over the last 20 years he’s served as a campaign official for a wide range of conservative political causes and has a particular knack for soliciting sizable donations from wealthy conservative donors.

In 2012, Gantt served as the senior financial analyst for former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign and proved instrumental in garnering multiple donations of $500,000 or more. 

Curiously, despite supposedly having at least a handful of staff members on the payroll since their initial filing back in May 2024, the C4SC’s first three campaign finance reports of the year did not list a single donation or expenditure. 

Dr. Nassir Ghaemi, a professor of psychiatry at Tufts University and current president of the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society (MPS), is particularly contrarian in his views on psychedelics, especially as a psychiatric professional of his stature. Ghaemi’s semi-eponymously-titled podcast focuses on psychiatric issues of today, with episode titles like “The Invalidity of Adult ADHD and Why DSM is Mostly False.” In 2011, Dr. Ghaemi wrote and published A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness, for which he was panned in a New York Times book review as “unrealistic in his beliefs.”

Dr. Ghaemi’s primary criticism of Question 4 is his repeated claims that psychedelics are potential “drugs of abuse.” Recently, in an interview with Boston25 News, Ghaemi alleged that psychedelics are addictive.

In the Mass Psychiatric Society’s monthly newsletter for October, Ghaemi wrote to MPS members that he “would never become a psychedelic expert…” because he “would like to spend research time on something that could be helpful, not on a dead end.” 

However, during an October 15 debate on Boston’s GBH Radio with Emily Oneschuk, Yes on 4’s grassroots campaign director, Ghaemi conceded that “there may be, under certain circumstances, some benefits to [psychedelics]… if the harms are mitigated.” Ghaemi also incorrectly claimed during GBH’s debate that the home cultivation provisions included in Question 4 would effectively “legalize [the five psychedelics] all the way.”

When pressed to elaborate by longtime GBH Radio host Jim Braude on whether or not he believes there are any potential benefits to psychedelics, Dr. Ghaemi again contradicted himself, noting that organizationally, the MPS “supports the medical use of these drugs by medical professionals in a supervised medical setting.” 

“I can’t speak for anybody [else],” Dr. Ghaemi said, “but I think very low dose psilocybin in a regular, medically supervised setting with a medical… or mental health professional for PTSD alone… I think that’s possible.”

READ: How the War on Drugs Fuels Environmental Destruction

Another organization that’s been critical of the bill, the Massachusetts Municipal Association — has claimed that the bill would legalize retail sales of psychedelics. While “gifting and personal distribution” of home-cultivated psychedelics would be legally permitted, commercial and retail sales would not be. Per page 17 of the proposed measure:

“Giving away or otherwise transferring without remuneration not more than a personal use amount of a natural psychedelic substance to a person 21 years of age or older, so long as the transfer is not advertised or promoted to the public and is not part of a business promotion or other commercial activity.”

Arguably, the most divisive figure associated with the opposition campaign is local psychedelics activist James Davis, co-founder and director of Bay Staters for Natural Medicine. Based in Somerville, MA, Davis and BSNM originally endorsed Question 4 last year — he even took a $35,000 donation from New Approach last fall. Not long after, Davis quickly fell out of favor with New England’s grassroots psychedelic community. Leaked emails in the following months revealed his collaboration with C4SC representatives. Weeks later, Talking Joints Memo reported that Davis had been impersonating US Marine veteran Mike Botelho for nearly a year for BSNM interests.

The Polls, New Endorsements, and the Future

The race is razor-thin. A Boston Globe Media poll released on October 8 had Question 4 leading by half a percent: 46.5 percent Yes to 46 percent No, with 7.2 percent of voters having yet to decide. Another poll conducted by UMass Amherst found support for Question 4 at an even split: 43 to 43 percent, with a whopping 14 percent still undecided. 

However, Oneschuk downplayed those numbers, citing the swath of undecided voters and eerily similar polling data from Colorado just a week before the 2022 election that showed the Natural Health Medicine Act (NMHA) behind in the polls. A week later, Colorado voters passed the NMHA by roughly 8 points: 54 to 46, respectively.

The Yes on 4 campaign has also garnered a growing number of high-profile endorsements, including longtime psychedelic policy supporters Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa and Rep. Nicholas Boldyga. MA Senator Elizabeth Warren also endorsed the measure during a live debate on GBH News last week, noting, “we’ve got to get the right regulations in place to make sure people are safe.”

READ: Native Tribes Should Have More Say in the Psychedelic Movement

Although the opposition coalition’s funding has been mysteriously nonexistent for the last few months, C4SC spokesperson Keohane recently told the Hampshire Gazette that their campaign had recently raised over $100,000. Per the C4SC’s October 20 campaign finance report, the opposition raised approximately $100,600, the bulk of which was donated by Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM).

As for what’s next for the forces behind the Question 4 campaign, David Bronner indicated that a renewed state-level policy reform effort in California is priority number one moving forward. Prior efforts in California have fallen short for three years running, but Bronner highlighted the shortcomings of those campaigns as a process of learning and refinement. 

“[In] California… [we] feel like we’ve done three really good legislative runs,” he said, further explaining that, “in the course of which [we] really educated opinion leaders, elected officials as well as generated a huge amount of earned media.” As a result, Bronner estimates that “the average Californian is way more informed and supportive on this than in most states.”

That won’t take place for a while, however. For now, the focus is on Massachusetts, where the Yes on 4 leadership team remains laser-focused on the campaign’s final days.

“Our campaign is working with courageous people every day who are telling their personal stories about how natural plant psychedelics have positively impacted, and in some cases saved, their lives,” said Lynda Tocci, longtime principal for DSG’s Boston outfit. “It has been a privilege to meet, work with, and learn from the advocates at the forefront. We are going to use every day and every hour until November 5 to educate voters about this important health care issue.”

  ​   DoubleBlind Mag Read More