They came to to power with promises of enacting significant cannabis reform. As far as we can tell, the administration has done absolutely zero. On top of that, there was this really disturbing incident where dozens of young White House staffers were asked to fill out these questionnaires confessing to past cannabis use.
Well, they were, and unfortunately it was. Five of them were removed from their jobs entirely. The rest of them were told that they could keep their jobs but they would never be allowed to come to the White House to work.
These are young people who all they wanted to do is serve the Biden administration and work in the White House. I think it was a very discouraging signal sent out to the cannabis industry. The message to the cannabis freedom movement is to double our efforts. We have to hold the feet of this administration to the fire. The organization that I founded a little bit over a year ago, the Last Prisoner Project, is calling on the Biden administration to grant immediate clemency to every single federal cannabis prisoner.
Biden firing those staffers who admitted to previous cannabis use was pretty shocking even considering his stance on legalization. Kamala Harris during the campaign talked openly about smoking it when she was in college. You know, I was smoking back in college and listening to Snoop. For some reason, this one really cut deep for me.
I just really, really feel terribly offended that they that they took that kind of step against those young people. The cannabis is going to rub off on the furniture? What are you worried about? The only real way the Biden administration is going to feel pressure to move on this is if lawmakers put legalization legislation on his desk.
What have you made of all of this momentum in Congress? We now have overwhelming support for cannabis reform in the House of Representatives. I mean, they would turn around and run away from us when we tried to talk to them.
Part of that is just the general problem with the Senate. We have a profoundly undemocratic situation where you have states like Wyoming that have two senators and a million people or so, and states like California that have 40 million people and the same two senators. It is not a representative institution. It, in fact, is a check and a block to effective democracy in our country right now. If there was proportional representation in the U.
Senate, cannabis would be legal already. Hopefully somebody with some vision and political will is going to attack that problem and fix it, because it touches a lot more than just cannabis. Once we have a more democratic Senate — democratic with a small D — I think this problem takes care of itself. You see like in New Mexico, where Governor Grisham endorsed the most progressive and far-reaching of a few different versions of cannabis reform measures that were in front of her, and then extended the legislative session by two days in order to make sure that it got passed.
We know that cannabis prohibition is going to end, the only question is how many more people, disproportionately black and brown people, are going to suffer until that change happens. Do you feel like enough is being done here? Do you have any concerns about the way some of this legislation is taking shape? I think they need to be made. That includes offering real opportunities for ownership to people who for the most part have been denied ownership in the American experiment and in American society.
Democracy is something that generations of Americans have fought and died and sacrificed their lives for. It is sacred and nobody should ever violate it. To have the U. Congress step in and invalidate an election where 69 percent of the people voted [in favor], made me so furious and disgusted, that I decided to leave DC and come to California where it was clear that the law that had passed in was going to be implemented.
Instead of complying, Steve rallied the support of his community and fought the U. Today Harborside is still considered the gold standard for medical cannabis dispensaries. His younger brother Andrew has been there every step of the way. Not just in the United States, but everywhere in the world.
Andrew handles a lot of the operations in the businesses he and Steve work on together as well as some business development along with the occasional public appearance, most of which Steve handles.
Their chemistry has always been strong. It allows me to approach problems in a way that is more dispassionate and more carefully considered. Generally, Steve will consume large amounts of cannabinoids throughout the day — both psychoactive and non-psychoactive — via the edible format. I consume a massive amount of cannabis every day, more than most people can possibly tolerate. Things like sexism, things like homophobia, things like racism, things like warfare.
We want a generous cannabis community that spreads the wealth broadly. Right now, most industries are created by people who already have a great deal of wealth and a privileged position in the world, and most of the real opportunities are reserved for that class of people. We have this unique opportunity with the cannabis industry to structure it in such a way that a lot of opportunity will be created for a lot of people.
We also want a sustainable industry. That means understanding the carbon footprint of the cannabis we grow and taking every measure we can to reduce it. It means using the most eco-friendly options for packaging.
And it needs to be inclusive, which cannabis teaches us to be. We always share. One of the tragic facts about our world is that most industries in this country are controlled by white men. We need to make sure that the industry—and not just its lower ranks, but all of it—reflects the diversity of the world we live in.
In California, following legalization of recreational weed, the amount of diversity in cannabis companies has actually gone down from what it was during the time when only medical marijuana was legal. This is particularly important when you consider the fact that prohibition in this country originated as a method of racial control and oppression.
Some who have been making their living in the unregulated market are even facing displacement. So those are the main pillars: We want an industry that has economic justice in it, spreading prosperity widely, and that gives opportunities of ownership and advancement that have mostly been denied to people in this country.
This amazing plant that mother nature has given to us that at one time wakes up our hearts and souls, brings us closer to nature, and gives us the raw material to make 50, different products, and for every hectare of cannabis we harvest, we sequester 20 tons of atmospheric carbon. He comes from the state of Delaware, which is essentially controlled by pharmaceutical companies. He has always been in the pocket of law enforcement.
This is nothing unusual from Joe Biden. When she was attorney general of California and the federal government came into the state and attacked the legal, licensed medical cannabis dispensaries, not only did she completely fail to defend them, she then went on television and basically laughed about it.
When I started 50 years ago talking about making cannabis legal, people laughed. And they laughed for a long time, when legalization was this crazy, unattainable hippie dream. I want to live in a different world, a new and better world. We can always do better; we have to do better.
That is an incredibly powering thing. If we listen to them and take the lessons they teach us seriously, we can do this. Magazine, among other publications.
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