Firebrand is more than just our brand name. It is our primary ethos, our raison d’être, our ikigai. The word “firebrand” means a person who is passionate about a particular cause, typically inciting change and taking radical action. We have lived that definition from our inception.
Led by founder and CEO Blake Mensing, the 2022 New England Cannabis Convention’s Massachusetts cannabis activist of the year, Firebrand Cannabis employs a corporate structure that is actually built on social equity, not just branded with it. Firebrand is social equity owned and managed, with social equity and economic empowerment participants holding real control over the company’s corporate and day to day operations as 51% majority owners and operators.
That is not lip service to social equity. It is proof that Firebrand Cannabis is literally a firebrand.
Now, there is a building prohibitionist tidal wave that is coming to obliterate the Massachusetts adult use cannabis industry under the guise of public health and safety. A 2026 statewide ballot question to reverse 2016’s Question 4 legalization of adult use cannabis is likely to be up for a vote, despite the fact that voters already chose legalization with a clear majority of roughly 54 percent in favor according to official election results.
Even the path to get this repeal question in front of voters is messy. Voters across the state have reported deceptive signature gathering tactics by the Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts, saying they were misled about what they were signing. The Massachusetts Cannabis Business Association is now urging anyone who believes they were duped to contact their local election clerk and request that their signature not be certified on petitions 1D or 1E, a call that has been documented in detail by Talking Joints Memo.
Prohibitionists know they cannot win a fair debate on facts, so they are leaning on confusion, fear, and low turnout. That is exactly where the industry, consumers, and advocates have to push back.
The Massachusetts cannabis industry’s adult use rollout has not been without hiccups, but the billion dollar question is this: will voters ignore the tax revenues, jobs created, equity programs, and youth use data by voting to repeal legalization.
Since the first adult use retailers opened in November 2018, licensed marijuana establishments in Massachusetts have generated more than 8 billion dollars in gross adult use sales as of July 2025, after a record breaking first half of 2025 that alone saw 806 million dollars in sales. Those sales are taxed at 6.25 percent state sales tax plus a 10.75 percent state excise tax, with the Department of Revenue reporting more than 264 million dollars in cannabis sales and excise taxes in fiscal year 2025 through the end of May, already outpacing the prior year at the same point.
Independent tax and policy analyses walk through how those cannabis tax dollars flow into public health, substance use treatment, law enforcement training, and social equity initiatives, making cannabis revenue one of the few voter created funding streams tied directly to community impact. MassBudget has documented that Massachusetts has generated roughly 2 billion dollars in cannabis related revenue since legalization and has emphasized how those funds are being used to support equity and reinvestment.
Zoom out to the national level and the story is the same. Adult use states have collected more than 24.7 billion dollars in cannabis tax revenue since legalization began, funding everything from education to infrastructure and substance use services. Repealing legalization here would not just close dispensary doors, it would tear out a mature, regulated economic engine that other states are still trying to build.
Question 4 also promised to try and undo some of the wrongs of the failed drug war by prioritizing restorative social justice through the social equity training program, the economic empowerment priority applicant designation, and the Massachusetts social equity grant trust fund, which has already distributed millions of dollars to social equity and economic empowerment businesses in the state, including Firebrand Cannabis. The blood, sweat, and tears required to get a cannabis business open will be for nothing if prohibitionist efforts succeed.
Prohibitionists love to pretend that legalization unleashed a wave of youth use. Massachusetts’ own data tell a different story.
The Department of Public Health runs long standing surveys like the Youth Risk Behavior Survey and Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System that track underage cannabis use over time. Those official surveys show that youth cannabis use in Massachusetts has stayed stable or declined on key measures since adult use stores opened, in line with national research from public health journals that finds no post legalization spike in adolescent use.
Peer reviewed studies in outlets such as JAMA Pediatrics and American Journal of Public Health have repeatedly found that across legalization states, youth use does not behave the way prohibitionist campaigns claim it will, generally seeing flat or decreasing trends when adult use markets open and access is tightly carded at 21 plus.
It strains credulity to believe that stamping out a multi billion dollar regulated industry that checks IDs, tests products, generates tax revenue, and funds equity would somehow “protect” young people better than pushing everything back into an underground market with no rules at all.
Consumers, business owners, advocacy groups, politicians, and municipal officials need to come together to fight back against the disinformation and fear mongering that groups like Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts/Smart Approaches to Marijuana and coalition partners are funding and fomenting in the Commonwealth.
What does that look like?
First, the industry needs a unified coalition so our message does not get fractured or diluted. We cannot afford eleven half campaigns and twelve slightly different slogans. We need one clear, data backed narrative.
Second, we need a tight set of talking points to help inform voters about the consequences of repealing adult use cannabis in Massachusetts:
- Adult use cannabis has generated more than 8 billion dollars in regulated sales in Massachusetts since 2018.
- Cannabis taxes brought in more than 264 million dollars in fiscal year 2025 through May alone.
- Youth cannabis use has not surged since legalization, according to Massachusetts’ own public health surveys.
- Question 4 passed with majority support and built in social equity commitments that are finally putting money into communities harmed by the drug war.
Third, we need people to vote. Not just post. Not just complain about prohibitionists in the group chat. Vote.
Now is the time to get informed, get vocal, and encourage your friends, coworkers, family, and anyone else who values personal freedom to vote against repealing adult use cannabis. Prohibitionists rely on half truths and innuendo to try and convince an all too gullible voting block that cannabis is a net negative for Massachusetts. Not only is that false on many fronts, it completely ignores the fact that prohibition already failed to stop anyone from consuming this plant.
Cannabis is going to be consumed no matter what. The real choice in 2026 is whether Massachusetts wants that use in a regulated, transparent, equity focused system, or shoved back into the shadows.
The logic that passed Question 4 should prevail again, but it will not matter if we as an industry, we as consumers, and we as advocates of personal freedom decide that “other people” will show up and vote down repeal. It is time for everyone to step up and be a Firebrand for Massachusetts cannabis.
Please consume responsibly.
Marijuana can impair concentration, coordination and judgment. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of this drug. There may be health risks associated with consumption of this product. For use only by adults 21 years of age or older. Keep out of the reach of children.
*KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN.*
