Who's Behind 'SMART' Campaigns to End Adult Use Sales?

You've seen the recent push against marijuana in advertising online. “Scrommiting” for example. Articles claiming people have been hospitalized over Marijuana without a source. Clickbait anti-cannabis articles have been popping up in ads all over Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. All these articles have no sources, are often written by chat GPT, and posted alongside unrelated rage inducing photos. 

For example CHS is real... rare. It's not on the rise, people aren't often hospitalized for it but it's all over Facebook like the images below.

Where are these Articles coming from and how are they getting these statistics? Why has this only been spoken about since the mention of the rescheduling of cannabis? Did this just suddenly influx? Where? Have they tested said cannabis for contaminants? We must now blame ALL marijuana?!

Why is this happening? Who is doing this? 

There's so many reasons behind it and people involved it's hard to tell where to pinpoint without the exact article. However, we know one major player. 

While the culprits are not all in one party, we need the cannabis industry to stop looking at CBD as an enemy or competition. The fighting within the industry is due to greed and selfish players but not everyone behaves this way. Some of us really are in it for self care, truth, health and trusted knowledge. CBD is not your problem, it's a key to the door of legality. The more we fight with one another, the less people there are to defend us from the real problem. We'd like you to take a break from the internal fighting in the Cannabis industry to introduce you to one of cannabis reform’s sworn enemies. 

They are claiming credit for the quests to end adult-use marijuana sales in Maine and Massachusetts, where in the latter state signature-gatherers are allegedly resorting to deceptive tactics.

Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a Washington, D.C., area-based anti-legalization organization, is contributing “multi-million-dollar support” to voter initiative campaigns that, if successful, would end a combined $1.8 billion in annual taxed cannabis sales, its founder and president claimed last week.

Republican Party-affiliated political operatives with the Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts have declined to say who’s paying for the pricey signature-gathering campaign – and with campaign finance filings still not due, that information is not publicly available.

Wendy Wakeman, a spokeswoman for the campaign, again declined to identify supporters during a brief telephone interview on Tuesday.

Photo Credit ABC News

But on Thursday, a few hours after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that, when fulfilled, will downgrade cannabis’ status under federal law, SAM co-founder and President Kevin Sabet claimed to be behind the campaigns.

“Now, today, for the first time, I can also announce our multi-million-dollar support for two grassroots campaigns to end marijuana sales and commercialization in Maine and Massachusetts,” Sabet said in a video posted to X. “We still have the power to take back our public health.”

SAM did not respond to an email seeking comment.

With campaign finance forms not yet filed, it’s still not known exactly how much cash SAM is devoting to the causes. SAM’s backers have long been a contentious subject of speculation in the cannabis advocacy world.

SAM Action, a 501(c)4 affiliate of the organization, recently claimed to have spent in excess of $100,000 on television ads urging Trump not to reschedule cannabis. (2)

We see the scramble in the industry and the ads keep popping up, the laws keep changing, legality is teetering and everyone is up in arms. Certain states are just fighting with each other. These are times when we need to be strong, we need to be together, and we need to know our enemies. 

If you're getting an influx of these ads, or they started after reading our article, you can report ads that don't fit your needs to places like Facebook. You can also report it as fake news. You can join in on community notes. You can even contest in the comments! You can mention how they don't concern themselves with alcohol, or how alcohol and Big Pharma involvement. 

Catch them when they lie about hospitalizations due to Marijuana by simply posting our article about how opiate death has decreased 30% since Marijuana has become accessible. (3)

Truth is it's not alcohol or pharma this time. SAM Action's main goal is to prevent the marijuana industry from becoming the next big tobacco. Whatever that means, we assume it's paid for by big tobacco. It's a shame that with all the money they are spending on lies, they can't pay a web developer to complete their mission page. At least their donation button works, because of course it does. (4)

Stay strong, stay educated, keep educating others. We will win. Avoid ignorance or troll it. They hate that. 

Sources (because we have them) 

1. Familiar Marijuana Foe Claims Credit for Campaigns to End adult use Sales in Maine and Massachusetts - MJBizDaily - https://mjbizdaily.com/news/familiar-marijuana-foe-claims-credit-for-campaigns-to-end-adult-use-sales-in-maine-massachusetts/613743/

2. Sam Action Makes Six Figure TV Ad by Urging President Trump to Reject Biden Era Marijuana Rescheduling Plan - Learn About SAM -https://learnaboutsam.org/2025/12/sam-action-makes-six-figure-tv-ad-buy-urging-president-trump-to-reject-biden-era-marijuana-rescheduling-plan/

3. Opiate Deaths Decrease by 30% in Areas with Accessible Marijuana - https://naturalhealthycbd.com/news/counties-with-legal-dispensaries-see-30-drop-in-opioid-related-deaths/

4. Homepage - SAM Action - https://SamAction.net