Entertainers and athletes double up at the President’s request for mass pardons for cannabis

150 influencers, advocates and even Drake have issued an urgent call for the release and forgiveness of all prisoners of conscience in the war on cannabis

Last week (September 14), cannabis reform advocacy group, The Weldon Project, followed a letter signed by over 150 influencers, politicians and experts in March urging President Biden to keep his promise to pardon all non-violent cannabis offenders .

In a virtual conference, The Weldon Project and multi-state operators Glass House Brands and Viola reiterated the letter’s call for the president to immediately use the power of the president to grant mass pardon and carry out record deletions at the federal level.

The livestream conference included passionate statements from Representative Barbara Lee (CA-D), currently incarcerated rapper Ralo, and the cop who became Glass House Brands cannabis CEO Kyle Kazan, all calling on President Biden to end this first step Doing the war on drugs and correcting its many injustices.

The project started earlier this year with a letter initiative signed by artists like Drake, Lil Baby, Killer Mike, 2 Chainz, Meek Mill and Baby Bash, athletes like Al Harrington, John Wall, Deion Sanders, Kevin Garnett and Julio Jones, political Personalities such as Kansas US District Attorney Barry Grissom, Indiana State Senator Eddie Melton (D-IN), and criminal justice activists Alice Johnson and Weldon Angelos.

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The Weldon project and the Mission Green initiative

The 2020 letter to Biden is part of The Weldon Project’s Mission Green initiative, which is dedicated to the release and extermination of those imprisoned for non-violent cannabis offenses.

(See the full letter and signatories here).

The Weldon Project was founded by Salt Lake City-born Weldon Angelos after Angelos was released in 2016 after being arrested in 2004 for selling cannabis to an undercover officer. On last week’s livestream, Angelos stated:

“This problem is personal to me because I got 55 years for $ 900 worth of cannabis. I was in jail watching state after state legalize and company after company enrich themselves while serving life sentences. “

Angelos got out after a viral campaign resulted in his sentence being commuted by President Obama in 2016. In 2020, President Trump pardoned his crime charges and removed the often crippling burden that follows many imprisoned citizens upon release.

Ralo speaks his truth

Angelos says he had no problem convincing megastars like Drake and Lil Baby to sign Mission Green their autographs thanks to rapper Ralo’s reach. Ralo participated in the livestream from the Clayton County Detention Center in Georgia, where he is serving an eight-year prison sentence on non-violent cannabis charges.

Angelos explained, “I think they look at (Ralo) while Drake is making money in the marijuana industry, (and Drake) doesn’t understand why his friend is going to jail for eight years.”

Mission Green says both immediate release (pardon) and record wiping (pardon) are crucial steps to help everyone reintegrate into society

“I was lucky,” says Angelos, “because I’ve had a lot of people pulling for me and most of the people in prison don’t have the support I had. When I got out, I made a commitment to use that network and the support that helped me get other people out. ”Unless Biden does not grant mass pardons, individuals will need to control the deletion process on their own and with legal fluency.

“We all see the injustices within the marijuana industry. Lots of people get life sentences for something they sell in the store. Joe Biden, we appreciate his acknowledgment of this fact (during his campaign) but we ask him to do something about it. We can cry over things, but we have to hold hands and get things done. “

One such person is Atlanta rapper Ralo, born Terrell Davis, whose promising career as a musician and entrepreneur was diverted by federal marijuana charges in 2018.

“Luckily I got a blessing and was introduced to Brother Weldon,” Ralo said on the phone over the last week’s livestream. “He gave knowledge about how to solve things. He called for action, and with his knowledge and ethics, I was able to work with him to attract people like Drake and Killer Mike and many of my co-workers and friends who I have come close to in the music industry. “

The signatories of the letter are confident that Angelos is the leader who will lead Mission Green to success thanks to his extensive network and wealth of experience in fighting unjust cannabis laws at the state level.

Kazan calls Angelos “a bridge builder” because he was able to win over the conservative political donor Charles Koch and the hip-hop legend Snoop Dogg for the same ZOOM appeal. “He’s one of the few people who can,” explains Kazan.

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Fix damage with measures

The Kingpin of Glass House Brands, Kyle Kazan, believes it is his duty to bring his considerable influence to the subject, having participated in the War on Drugs as a cop in the 1990s, as well as being the Glass Chief Honcho due to his current affluence House brands.

“I am the chairman, CEO and co-founder of a publicly traded company. And this quarter we’re going to complete 5.5 million square feet of growing space, on top of the 500.00 we already have – six million square feet. I will be the head of the largest cultivation facility in the world, ”said Kazan. “Meanwhile, Ralo is living in a nightmare.”

“We have been fighting for decades to reverse the outdated, discriminatory, and clearly racist federal marijuana policies. Marijuana has been racialized and stigmatized for far too long in this country. We have seen significant strides toward cannabis justice in the states of the country. It is long overdue to bring cannabis justice to the federal level now. “

Representative Barbara Lee (CA-D)

The retired policeman continued, “It is my repentance to raise my voice until this injustice is over … I was involved in the war on drugs for five years in the 1990s. I was out there booking and after playing the game for several years I realized this is a really, really bad deal for everyone involved. “

Kazan says the president owes the same debt as he does to citizens who caught the bad end of his 1994 crime law. “He’s in the same position as me. He was part of that machine. Still part of it. The Crime Act, where he was the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, we all know people, we have people in our families, me included, who were addicted. He’s got the same problem … How can he turn his back? … It’s time. Every day is time. “

Will Biden get away with cannabis?

President Biden’s 2020 campaign website promised that “as President he will decriminalize cannabis use and automatically overturn previous convictions” and “will reschedule cannabis as a List II drug so researchers can study its positive and negative effects. But as we near the middle of his first term, he has yet to deliver on his statement that “no one should be in jail for cannabis use”.

Politics around the topic is not as gloomy as it has been in past decades. The left’s passion for the social justice elements of legalization and the right’s interest in revenue and state rights make federal decriminalization a breeze on both sides of the aisle.

“I hope these people get real pressure in Congress,” says Kazan, “maybe when the mid-term elections start where they need some low hanging fruit victories and they push their president.”

However, according to the CEO of Glass House Brands and his partners at Mission Green, state legalization is nowhere near as urgent as state forgiveness. “(Legalization) will come when it comes, I think the grace, the pardon, (are) much more important.”

Angelos ended the meeting with a call to everyone in the cannabis industry, from vendors to consumers, to do their part in calling for action from the president.

“Those who benefit from cannabis have an absolute duty to help those who are still affected,” Angelos said. “Whether they are in jail or still outside, they still suffer the consequences of a conviction.”

The Mission Green livestream event was moderated by Politico reporter Mona Zhang and can be streamed in full here

Calvin Stovall

Calvin Stovall writes and produces media in Atlanta, GA and runs the day-to-day business for The Artistic Unified Exchange, a nonprofit that protects intellectual property on behalf of independent artists and underserved communities.

View article by Calvin Stovall

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