Sheldon Adelson, the politically influential billionaire and Donald Trump supporter, is bankrolling the fight against marijuana legalization measures on several state ballots this year. Meanwhile, Adelson the philanthropist gave money to research that supports the medical use of marijuana.

When thinking about how to cast your ballot on Question 4, to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana, consider the social justice implications of your vote.

"Marijuana is safer than than alcohol or tobacco."

I came across that claim again last week while scrolling through Twitter. This time, the tweet was from Dr. Peter Grinspoon, who practices primary care at Mass General.

Grinspoon supports ballot Question 4 in Massachusetts, which would make marijuana legal for recreational use. He has a lot of personal experience with drugs; he's in recovery from an addiction to Vicodin and a few other opioid painkillers. But when asked about his tweet, Grinspoon talks about his patients. He says as many as half of his patients use marijuana, many to relieve pain or in other ways Grinspoon says are a health benefit.

With pot on the ballot in nine states, the big winner in next Tuesday's election could be America's legal cannabis industry. By 2020, legal market sales are expected to surpass $22 billion. And for states struggling with budget shortfalls, that extra revenue would be clearly welcome. 

Voters in five states — Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada — will decide whether to legalize recreational marijuana for adults. Medical marijuana is on the ballot in Arkansas, Florida, Montana, and North Dakota. 

Supporters believe the marijuana measures will pass in California and Florida, and possibly several other states, because America's attitude about pot has changed significantly in the last few years. 

The Boston Archdiocese spends big money in last-minute effort to prevent legal marijuana in Massachusetts.

According to reports the Catholic church in Boston is dumping nearly a million dollars to defeat the ballot measure known as Question 4. The measure would legalize marijuana in Massachusetts.

Nearly 60 million Americans may wake up Nov. 9 to find voters in their states have abolished long-standing marijuana prohibitions, a three-fold expansion for legal cannabis across the country.

Another 24 million Americans could find themselves in states with newly legal medical marijuana use, a smaller but still significant expansion of legalized pot around the United States. Already, half of the states permit some form of medical marijuana use, and more than half of all Americans live in a state that has approved medical marijuana.

The movement to legalize marijuana, the country’s most popular illicit drug, will take a giant leap on Election Day if California and four other states vote to allow recreational cannabis, as polls suggest they may.    – “Election May Be a Turning Point for Legal Marijuana,” The New York Times, Oct 24, 2016

A rendering of a 1 million-square-foot marijuana greenhouse and processing center AmeriCann Inc. hopes to build in Freetown.

On the eve of a vote that could legalize recreational marijuana in Massachusetts, a Colorado company is preparing to build the state’s largest marijuana greenhouse, a sprawling, high-tech complex that could eventually grow to nearly 1 million square feet.

Denver-based AmeriCann, Inc. completed a deal last week to lease a 53-acre parcel for the project near Route 24 in Freetown, where officials have welcomed the company’s proposed Massachusetts Medical Cannabis Center as a potential economic boon.

Even by the usual standards of politics, this election’s campaign against marijuana legalization has made strange bedfellows. The largest donors to the various anti-weed political groups around the country include a billionaire casino tycoon, a woman who believes in reefer madness, a drug-crusading former U.S. ambassador, cops, prison guards, booze merchants, and a pharma company that sells the powerful painkiller fentanyl.

Reisa Clardy appears in the latest No on 4 video, which points to drugged driving.

A new video from the campaign opposing marijuana legalization in Massachusetts features the widow of state police trooper Thomas Clardy, who died in a roadside collision in March.

Clardy was stopped at the side of the road on the Mass Pike in Charlton when a vehicle crossed three lanes of traffic and collided with his cruiser. Police believe the man who was behind the wheel of that car, 34-year-old David Njuguna, was under the influence of marijuana at the time.