A sense of fairness and equity is what drove Dennis Hunter and Ned Fussell to launch Farmer and the Felon, a cannabis cultivator and advocacy brand dedicated to social justice. The duo knows all too well how prohibition can drastically alter a life.
“When you’re incarcerated, and even when you’re waiting for sentencing, it seems like an eternity before you’re going to be released—it can feel very, very dark; as if there’s no way out,” Hunter said. The Emerald Triangle native spent more than six years in prison after a federal raid on his illegal cannabis farm in the late 1990s. Upon his release, he connected with fellow cultivator Fussell and the pair went on to launch the influential CannaCraft family of brands, which includes the popular Care By Design and AbsoluteXtracts. The company became a poster child for compliance and saw skyrocketing sales. It was a Cinderella story, almost unfathomable to the vast majority of cannabis offenders.
But despite the incredible turnaround, Hunter and Fussell never forgot where they came from. They knew they wanted to support restorative justice efforts and raise awareness of the plight of those still suffering because of prohibition. But the lightbulb didn’t go off until a fateful dinner meeting with mentor Terry Wheatley, CannaCraft Chairwoman of the Board.
“She said, ‘there’s my farmer and my felon’ as we sat down, and I was just like ‘that’s our new brand!’”Hunter says, laughing at the memory. The name stuck, and thus Farmer and the Felon was born. As CannaCraft’s first flower line, Farmer and the Felon took the company back to its roots while simultaneously staying true to Hunter and Fussell’s desire to educate the cannabis community at large.
The Farmer and the Felon product catalog includes eighths, quarters, ounces and pre-rolls.
“We wanted to be able to tell the story of the company and the founders coming up in cannabis and the injustice that happened,” Hunter said. “And the name truly lent itself to do that. But we’re really seeing the opportunity to use the brand to share information and get the message out—to interject change in the industry and how people look at cannabis.”
With a clear vision, the team got to work. In another stroke of serendipitous fortune, cannabis activist and Harborside founder Steve DeAngelo approached Hunter with a new project that aligned almost too well.
“We were probably a month out from launching when he reached out to me with the idea for the Last Prisoner Project,” Hunter said. “I just thought, ‘Wow, this is a great fit—I’m about to launch a brand called Farmer and the Felon.’”
Last Prisoner Project (LPP) is a nonprofit dedicated to freeing individuals incarcerated for nonviolent cannabis crimes and supporting those who have recently been released from custody. The mission was a perfect match. As such, Farmer and the felon agreed to include LPP’s messaging on every one of their products, with a portion of sales benefiting the nonprofit.
As soon as they launched in March 2020, Farmer and the felon resonated with consumers, many of whom loved the opportunity to do a little good every time they re-upped. It also helps that the sun-grown flower is a fantastic bang for your buck.
The Farmer and the Felon cultivars include Orange Creamsicle, Legend OG, Blue Dream and Strawnana.
“We have more than 40 years combined cultivation experience, and we want that to come through in every bag,” Hunter said. “We want to keep this brand as close to the plant as possible.”
The product catalog includes eighths (the company’s best-sellers), quarters, ounces and pre-rolls with cultivars such as Orange Creamsicle, Legend OG, Blue Dream and Strawnana. The brand is also planning a line of solventless rosin cartridges for the near future.
Bringing premium flower at budget-friendly prices to market is the goal of many cannabis brands, but it’s the message behindFarmer and the Felon that matters most to the team.“No matter how dark it seems, there are a lot of beautiful things on the other side,” Hunter says when asked if he had any advice for people still making their way through the criminal justice system.
“I missed out on so much, but now I get to look back at all that I accomplished once I got out. Hang on and get through it—then cherish the opportunities you’re given.”
This story was originally published in the print edition of Cannabis Now.
Willie Nelson, Snoop Dogg and Tommy Chong may be some of the more obvious honorees for Cannabis Now’s Legacy: Hall Of Fame, but they’re hardly alone. Cannabis giants Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, Ed Rosenthal, Dale Sky Jones and Steve DeAngelo also make the cut of the Cannabis Now “Hall of Fame” for 2023.
The breast cancer survivor and Grammy-award-winning singer/songwriter attributes cannabis to opening her conscientiousness when writing music. READ MORE.
The President and CEO of Oaksterdam University provided the model for cannabis reform as the spokesperson for the first statewide legalization initiative, California’s Prop 19. READ MORE.
Hip hop icons Redman and M1 of Dead Prez will join cannabis activists in Washington, D.C. on Monday to protest the Biden administration’s failure to release people imprisoned on federal marijuana convictions. The rally, which is being billed as an act of civil disobedience, will bring together cannabis policy reform groups including Students for Sensible Drug Policy, D.C. Marijuana Justice, the Last Prisoner Project and Maryland Marijuana Justice as members protest in front of the White House on October 24.
Steve DeAngelo, a cannabis policy reform leader and co-founder of the Last Prisoner Project, said that he has helped organize Monday’s demonstration to bring attention to the plight of those imprisoned on nonviolent marijuana charges, often for decades. Activists hope the protest will spur the White House to take action on cannabis clemency before the November general election.
“As the nation heads into the midterms, I am calling for one simple thing— that President Biden keep the promise he made during the last election cycle, to release those people still serving prison sentences for cannabis convictions,” DeAngelo wrote in an email to High Times. “As the White House itself has admitted, the recently announced pardons will not free one single person.”
On October 6, President Joseph Biden announced that he had issued an executive order pardoning all people who have been convicted on federal charges of simple marijuana possession. An analysis of Biden’s executive order conducted by the New York Times estimated that the pardons will apply to about 6,500 people convicted of federal weed possession charges between 1992 and 2021 and thousands more with similar convictions in Washington, D.C. But the action provides no relief for cannabis prisoners currently behind bars, most on marijuana distribution and related charges.
“At a minimum, if President Biden really wants the support of cannabis voters, as a show of good faith, he should immediately release at least 100 of the 2800 federal prisoners currently serving time on non-violent cannabis charges,” DeAngelo said. “If President Biden refuses to act, I will gather at the White House on October 24 along with hip hop legends M1 and Redman, and hundreds of other cannabis activists, to hold the President’s feet to the fire.”
M1 said, “I decided to participate in this action because of the inaction of this government to step on the right side of his/herstory. My cannabis community deserves freedom and justice. And with my cultural activist comrades, we will keep our finger on the pulse of the People. Free ‘em ALL!”
Biden’s announcement earlier this month also included a call for governors to take similar action on cannabis clemency at the state level. The president also directed Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra and Attorney General Merrick B. Garland to review cannabis’ status as a Schedule 1 drug. Despite the historic nature of Biden’s pardons, activists argue that the president did not go far enough.
“I’m outraged that the President would make an executive action on cannabis but release zero of our incarcerated friends and family,” Kat Ebert, board chair of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, said in a statement from the group. “He’s forcing us to raise our voices to be heard in order for the wider public to understand cannabis prisoners are still not free. On October 24th we plan to make it clear to the Democratic leadership that we won’t accept mostly symbolic actions. We demand clemency for all cannabis prisoners.”
DeAngelo is the co-founder of the Last Prisoner Project, a group working to free those imprisoned on cannabis charges. In addition to the activist groups involved, formerly incarcerated individuals and local cannabis freedom fighters will also take part in the protest.
“If President Biden truly wants to repair the harms of our nation’s unjust policy of prohibition, this initial progress must be followed up with bolder action—action that would actually lead to freedom for cannabis prisoners,” said Sarah Gersten, LPP executive director and general counsel.
Monday’s demonstration is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. local time at the gates of the White House, with Redman and M1 slated to appear to join the call for cannabis clemency. The crowd will gather at the Andrew Jackson statue in Lafayette Square before engaging in expected civil disobedience nearby, with the goal of drawing attention to the lack of people released from federal prison as a result of Biden’s executive order.
“DCMJ is joining protests to free all cannabis prisoners because we’ve simply waited too long,” said Adam Eidinger, co-founder of D.C. Marijuana Justice, a group that has spearheaded cannabis policy reform efforts in the nation’s capital. “We are excited that students are leading this effort to make tangible gains on freeing cannabis prisoners whose continued confinement is immoral and unjustified.”
Cannabis industry veteran Steve DeAngelo recently wrote an opinion piece, entitled “Topple the Pyramids,” in which he addresses the shift from medical to adult-use sales in California, and how small, legacy cannabis businesses struggle in comparison to corporate cannabis ownership.
DeAngelo began his piece by looking back on the medical cannabis law in California prior to the shift toward adult-use sales. “Nobody got rich. Nobody made intergenerational wealth, but everybody was taken care of,” he said of the past. “The system worked in its basic purpose of providing high quality cannabis at affordable prices, and providing all of its participants with an adequate income and dignified lifestyle—so it grew, steadily gaining more and more in-state market share from the underground market.”
After adult-use cannabis went live on Jan. 1, 2018 in California, he found that only 10 of the 500 suppliers to DeAngelo’s cannabis business at the time, Harborside, had received state licenses. Shortly afterward, prices at Harborside increased, which sent consumers “right into the arms of all the growers who had not been licensed.” He explained that this change has affected California’s cannabis industry long term, citing sales attributed to tourists or people who have enough money not to care about the price tag.
He also spoke about the people who helped build up the cannabis industry, who have been cast out by corporate companies. “Almost everywhere I go, I find that my counterculture cannabis tribe, the people who love this plant the most, and sacrificed the most to make her legal, have been mostly purged from legal companies, and many of them have entirely lost their livelihoods,” he said, adding that this mentality has spread from California to Massachusetts and Illinois.
According to DeAngelo, only 20% of product from licensed producers has been sold in Canada since 2018, and the other 80% was either too low of quality to be sold, and was either destroyed or stored in a warehouse.
DeAngelo imagines an alternate approach to regulating cannabis, in the forms of limited square foot canopy, awarding licenses without taxation, growing high-quality, small batch cannabis instead of mass produced flower, or allowing an “Etsy for weed” to solve problems related to the current scale of cannabis sales. He explains his suggestions as a way to cultivate organic growth of the industry.
He ended his statement by pitching hope for the future. “We don’t have to accept the status quo. We can move away from the boom and bust cycle that has been so destructive for so many companies and so many markets, and restore the excitement and optimism that we saw in the early days of legal cannabis. The brightest of futures is still possible if we have the courage to think outside the Pyramid.”
The same sentiments about supporting small scale growers can also be found in the recently filed bill proposal from Rep. Jared Huffman and Rep. Earl Blumenauer. “As policies change, we cannot leave our smallest family-farmers behind. With my bill, these small businesses can have the chance to compete and succeed in a fully legalized cannabis market,” Huffman wrote on Twitter on Sept. 14. Called the “Small and Homestead Independent Producers Act,” his bill would help smaller cannabis cultivators compete with corporations by shipping their products over state lines.
Only a few weeks ago, the National Craft Cannabis Coalition was founded to help protect small growers in California, Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Maine, and Massachusetts.
Earlier this year in April, Assembly Bill 2691 was introduced to allow cannabis farmers markets (although the conversation ended in late May). High quality cannabis products are being featured in similar events such as the Mendocino Craft Farmers Auction, which was held in May.
New York state has been in a strange state of legal limbo since cannabis was legalized there last spring. Criminal penalties for simple possession have been lifted, and those for home cultivation within permitted limits are set to be removed by the end of summer 2022. But as of yet, there is no regulatory structure in place for licensing and oversight of a commercial sector and unregulated cannabis sales are booming.
Tremaine Wright, chair of the state’s newly formed Cannabis Control Board last week told local news site Gothamist that the regulations would be issued “this winter or early spring.”
Some, however, have not been waiting. Last summer, New York City witnessed an explosion in cottage-industry (or perhaps apartment-industry) mini-businesses—with bud, edibles and other cannabis products being hawked from tables set up in parks and sidewalks. Many of these were actual licensed businesses, but not licensed cannabis businesses, because no such licenses exist yet. Generally, these outfits avoided calling monetary transactions “sales,” saying the cannabis product was being offered in exchange for a “donation,” or as a “promotion” for purchase of other (very overpriced) merchandise.
Now, with the cold weather, actual storefront establishments on this unregulated cannabis model have started to emerge in the city. A burgeoning chain of such establishments has opened shops in two Manhattan neighborhoods.
An Unregulated Cannabis Chain?
This enterprise, dubbed Empire Cannabis, opened its first outlet on Eight Ave. and 17th Street in Chelsea in October, and just added a second location, at 172 Allen Street on the Lower East Side, this month. There is absolutely no sense whatsoever of flying below the radar. At the Lower East Side location, the staff wear matching T-shirts emblazoned with the name and cannabis-leaf logo of the business. Glass cases display high-quality bud identified by strain, and a wide array of edible products and cartridges, marked by THC and CBD content.
Empire Cannabis in New York City. PHOTO Bill Weinberg
This reporter was told that the establishment operates as a private club, and was offered a $50 monthly membership to be able to make purchases. When I explained that I was a journalist on assignment, I was told that only management could speak on the record, and that someone would get back to me.
The Empire Cannabis website states: “We have taken the blessings of the New York State Legislature allowing the transfer of cannabis without profit and have setup [sic] a membership service in which the club will acquire cannabis products for its members, and only add the cost to facilitate the acquisition and transfer of said products.”
And indeed, the official New York Courts website states that under the Marijuana Regulation & Taxation Act (MRTA), signed into law by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo last March 31, “it is now legal for a person 21 years of age or older to give or transfer up to three ounces of cannabis and up to twenty-four grams of concentrated cannabis, to another person 21 years of age or older, as long as it is given without any payment.”
After two days, nobody from the club’s management had replied to Cannabis Now’s queries. However, a report on Business Insider identifies the establishment’s co-owner as Jonathan Elfand. Online searching indicates that Elfand was (or perhaps remains) chief officer of Door to Door 420 Collective, registered in 2015 in Laguna Niguel, in California’s Orange County. This is identified by a registry of California businesses as a nonprofit, presumably operating on a similar model.
Competition with the regulated sector?
This strategy of unregulated cannabis purveyors conforming to the letter of the law, however narrowly, is viewed with skepticism by some.
In the Albany area, Greg Kerber, founder and CEO of Gnome Wellness (formerly Gnome Serum), is waiting to open a licensed dispensary in Colonie, a suburb of the state capital. “We’ve been waiting with bated breath to see the licensing process,” he tells Cannabis Now, emphasizing his intention to “play within the lines.”
The company is now offering wholesale and online sales of both food supplements and legal cannabis products, such as tinctures of hemp-derived CBD, often treated with terpenes for a desired effect. He envisions the storefront dispensary operating on a “Weed with Wellness” model, where customers can get both “supplements to boost your immune system amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and some weed to chill out—one-stop shopping to take care of both your health and your anxiety.”
But Kerber worries that his dreams may be undercut by a proliferation of the unregulated cannabis dispensaries—these so-called gray-market outfits—before the regulatory structure is in place. “The problem is getting private equity for people who are doing it the right way, which means the added costs of seed-to-sale tracking and other likely requirements. That makes it harder for us to compete with people who aren’t doing that, who are just opening stores and selling weed. Will capital come into a place where it’s the wild, wild west?”
Kerber notes an Upstate-Downstate cultural divide in New York. “There’s a lot of tolerance down there—there’s a different mentality up here. A lot of counties are bowing out of the opportunity to sell cannabis. There’s a still a THC-phobia reflecting the long years of propaganda.”
Indeed, Upstate’s Oswego County News noted last month that localities had until Dec. 31 to pass measures that opt out of allowing cannabis businesses within their limits, and more than 400 statewide did so. There are 62 counties in the state of New York, and thousands of municipalities (cities, towns or villages).
“Will venture capital come into the marketplace if they know we’re immediately competing at a disadvantage?” Kerber asks rhetorically. “Upstate is already an investment desert. Who’s going to make the investment if you’re competing against someone who doesn’t play by the rules? Will these storefronts be allowed to continue to conduct business? It’s wait-and-see at this point, but we’re hoping they’re going to build a fair and equitable process here in New York state.”
The California Comparison
It’s something of an irony that (for the moment, at least) traditionally no-nonsense New York has a more freewheeling atmosphere for cannabis than California, which first pioneered state-legal sales with the establishment of a medical-marijuana market in the 1990s, and legalized adult-use cannabis in 2016, five years before the Empire State followed suit.
But lots of illicit legacy operators persist in the Golden State, and “door to door” delivery services operate in a similar kind of “gray market”—not regulated, but basically tolerated. And play-by-the-rules operators are similarly complaining about competition from the unregulated cannabis sector.
This was noted in a recent account for Politico. “You don’t have a real cannabis industry if the dominant portion of it has no interest in being legal,” said Adam Spiker, executive director of the Southern California Coalition, a regional cannabis trade association. “There’s no other regulated industry in the world that I know of that operates like that.”
On Dec. 17, leading California cannabis companies sent a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders in Sacramento, warning that “our industry is collapsing.” As AP reported, the letter—signed by more than two dozen executives, industry officials and legalization advocates—complained of burdensome taxes and an opt-out provision under which two thirds of the state’s local jurisdictions have no dispensaries. The letter stated that the current system “is rigged for all to fail.”
Meanwhile, a 2019 audit conducted by the United Cannabis Business Association counted 2,835 unlicensed retailers and delivery services operating in California. By contrast, there were only 873 licensed dispensaries in the state.
In a December interview in New York’s Albany Business Review, a longtime industry leader from California, Steve DeAngelo, offered this warning for his Empire State counterparts: “I think the basic message I have right now is: Don’t repeat the mistakes of California. The essence of the mistake that California made was trying to eliminate the legacy cannabis market rather than trying to integrate the legacy cannabis market.”
DeAngelo, who is now on the East Coast networking with local industry players, said: “California, in 2018, started going through the same transition that New York is going through now. In California, it’s really been a disaster. Today, the unregulated cannabis market in California is three times the size of the regulated legal market in California. The reason for that is pretty simple. The cannabis in California was overtaxed and over-regulated.”
“These are not criminals, but heroes,” said cannabis activist Steve DeAngelo as he welcomed Richard DeLisi and Michael Thompson on stage before the Blues Brothers show in Las Vegas last Thursday night.
The concert was a special event organized by MJ Unpacked, a new cannabis conference connecting industry brands and retailers on the executive level.
Over 1,000 people were in attendance, spread throughout the juke-joint inspired House of Blues, sitting at high-top tables, on the red velvet seats in the second story mezzanine, and gathered on the hardwood paneled dance floor—all ready to share some laughs and good music in the name of cannabis reform. And it was a big night for the cannabis freedom movement. Approximately $70,000 were raised for DeAngelo’s nonprofit, the Last Prisoner Project, which was founded in 2019 with the mission of releasing prisoners serving time for nonviolent cannabis offenses.
“There are 40,000 people in jail for trying to help people by touching a plant,” DeAngelo cried out to the audience. “Don’t forget our sisters and brothers as wealth is created.”
DeLisi and Thompson were both released through the support of the Last Prisoner Project (LPP). Before last Thursday’s show commenced, they briefly shared their moving stories with the crowd. Prior to DeLisi’s release in December 2020, he was the longest active cannabis prisoner in the U.S., serving more than three decades of a lifetime sentence. Thompson, released in January 2021, served more than a quarter century of a 60-year sentence in a Michigan prison.
Michael Thompson, Steve DeAngelo and Richard DeLisi on stage before the Blues Brothers show in Las Vegas.
“It’s broken, and it needs to be fixed,” Thompson said, referring to the justice system that failed him. “Those in prison for marijuana need to be free!”
With tears in his eyes, Thompson struggled to get his final words out. A supportive DeAngelo with an arm around his shoulder stood next to him, rubbing his back, encouraging him to go on. Audience members cheered and applauded as Thompson thanked LPP for their support—for reuniting him with his family, for keeping him alive.
Throughout the concert, slides were projected onto the stage’s backdrop, reminding and educating attendees of the problems that exist, what LPP is working towards, and how people can help. One slide read, “Despite widespread legal marijuana reform, cannabis arrests are actually increasing in several states,” and another offered people a way to take action: “Text freedom to 24365 to donate to Last Prisoner Project.”
Mary Bailey, the Last Prisoner Project’s managing director, firmly echoes the importance of education and sharing the powerful stories of those who are trapped behind bars for something that is now legal.
“We know that the injustice that is cannabis-related incarceration can only be counteracted by public attention paid to—and subsequent advocacy around—the issue,” Bailey said. “Leveraging the power of events like the Blues Brothers Benefit Concert is a critically important tool when helping to grow this desperately-needed public awareness, and we’re immensely grateful to those whose hard work and dedication made the concert a resounding success.”
Sitting down with DeAngelo in the venue’s “James Brown Room,” he provided a rundown of what these funds are used for: covering expenses for the families of prisoners; release grants; legal assistance; job placement.
“It really depends on what that particular prisoner needs, and then we attempt to provide that,” he said.
Cannabis & The Blues
Following DeAngelo’s on-stage introduction, the mood lightened. The Blues Brothers themselves—Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi—swaggered on stage donning black suits, shades and matching hats for an entertaining revue in which they reenacted the characters of Elwood and Zee Blues from the popular 1980 comedy release of the Blues Brothers. Backed by the talented Sacred Hearts band, the famous duo got in full character with chest slams, bare belly rolls, and some hilariously bad moves.
Jim Belushi performs at the House of Blues at a fundraiser for the Last Prisoner Project.
“It tickles me to dance with this 6’4” Canadian and sing alongside him,” Belushi said. “It just brings joy to my soul in every show. Of course, performing at the House of Blues, which we opened as The Blues Brothers, is a highlight, as well. All House of Blues venues are just so sexy and exotic and filled with the resonance of all the Blues legends and spirits.”
At the close of the concert, Aykroyd auctioned off the opportunity to come on stage and sing the hit song “Soul Man.” Grow Generation’s president Michael Salaman and board member Paul Ciasullo both pledged $12,000.
George Jage, founder and CEO of Jage Media, which organized MJ Unpacked, says booking the Blues Brothers made sense for a number of reasons.
“When we were developing the show, we wanted to make sure we had a strong mission-based philosophy. We are here to serve the industry, but we also need to help support the industry and advocacy groups,” Jage said. “I’ve always been impressed with Mary Bailey and Steve DeAngelo. I think it’s one of the most important causes for our industry.”
Belushi has also served as an official advisor to the Last Prisoner Project since May 2020. He first got involved with the nonprofit after a venue fell through for another LPP fundraising event DeAngelo was organizing in Los Angeles.
“He called me in the morning, and we had the first fundraiser at my house that night,” Belushi recounts. “I was so deeply moved. I said, ‘How do I get in on this? I want to help.’”
In his LPP advisory role, Belushi says he helps spread awareness for the cause. And as a longtime entertainer turned cannabis farmer, he’s in an ideal position to help.
“My job is to get the word out,” he says. “Let’s free these men and women—now!; Write letters, donate money. Also, I call and speak with the survivors of the failed war on drugs when they’re released. I participate in fundraisers.”
Belushi is intimately connected with both music and marijuana. For him, it’s about more than operating a profitable business. It’s about bringing people together. It’s about healing.
“I’m hoping to create confidence in cannabis with the curious, the new consumer. I believe in the medicine,” he said. “Everybody knows somebody who’s suffering. Everybody. And the pathway to healing and the medicine of cannabis can really aid those who are suffering, including their families who witness the suffering.”
Needless to say, cannabis matters to Belushi, as it does to countless other Americans. And in the words of Steve DeAngelo, “If you’re not a Black or Brown person and you love cannabis, and you live in North America, you’ve got a debt to pay.”
The Short and Long Plays
As cannabis legalization picks up steam and continues to spread across the U.S., the Last Prisoner Project is making it known that pardons granted for cannabis offenses aren’t occurring at the same rate. Not a single cannabis law has passed that provides for the release of cannabis prisoners.
It seems logical that when laws are passed legalizing cannabis, those incarcerated for the thing that is no longer illegal (cannabis, in this case), should be automatically released. It should be written into the laws.
DeAngelo explains why this isn’t the case.
“I’ll tell you why it hasn’t been automatic. It’s because there hasn’t been an organization like LPP at the table,” he says. “There are a huge number of problems. The default position of the justice system is that once a prisoner is sentenced, they have to serve their sentence unless there’s some other judicial procedure that intervenes and releases them.”
He goes on to discuss the structural impediments in the way, the main one being that there are too many people in power opposed to releasing prisoners.
“One of the things the prohibitionists like to do is talk about how you can’t reward people who broke the rules, and you can’t let criminals go free. They have this point of principle about it,” he said. “Because there hasn’t been a voice that’s strongly advocated for the release of cannabis prisoners, it’s been an overlooked issue for many years in the cannabis freedom movement.”
With no amnesty laws currently in place, LPP is focusing on other ways to release prisoners.
“When you’re doing work to get prisoners out, you have to fight on multiple levels simultaneously,” DeAngelo said, explaining that they’re also looking ahead, working to ensure that new cannabis laws passed in the future include the release of prisoners.
“We’re lobbying to make sure that happens, but it hasn’t happened yet,” he said. “We have people in prison, so we have to use other ways to get them out. One is with the clemency process.”
In every state that’s legalized cannabis, the governor has the ability to release all cannabis prisoners with the stroke of a pen. However, it’s not so easy. Clemency, as DeAngelo explains it, is a difficult process that comes down to a lack of resources. To grant clemency, a legal document must be filed for each prisoner, and each document must be individually reviewed by someone in the governor’s office. With hundreds of clemency petitions and maybe one person reviewing them on a part-time basis, the road to freedom is slow.
“So, what we’ve been doing is working with governors’ offices to try and get them to agree to a mass release of cannabis prisoners instead of considering these petitions one by one,” DeAngelo said.
The work of LPP is limited, however, to states where adult-use cannabis is legal.
“It’s basically impossible to argue for the release of prisoners for something that’s still a crime. It’s only been since we’ve had those victories that we really have the ability to go to the governors and say, ‘Hey it’s not illegal anymore, you should really release everybody who’s in prison for the thing that’s not illegal anymore.’ If it’s still illegal, you don’t have an argument to make. It’s really only in the last few years that it’s been possible to make this argument in an effective way.”
Life After Bars
While releasing cannabis prisoners is the Last Prisoner Project’s main objective, it doesn’t stop there. Much of the group’s work is dedicated to ensuring that prisoners are given opportunities after they get out.
Craig Cesal and Evelyn LaChapelle, both in attendance at the Blues Brothers show, were locked up for never even touching the plant. In 2001, Cesal was charged with conspiring to distribute marijuana because his Chicago-area truck repair company was working on a Florida company’s feet of trucks used to haul marijuana. He had no prior convictions and was sentenced with life without the possibility of parole.
“It’s too typical, unfortunately,” Cesal says. Twenty years later, on January 20, 2021, Cesal received clemency. The Last Prisoner Project hired him as a Program Associate the day he walked out of prison.
“They were instrumental in convincing President Trump to grant clemency to me and 11 other marijuana lifers,” he said. “I had no faith in it. I didn’t believe it until I walked out of the front gate of the prison.”
Meanwhile, LaChapelle, a former high-end hospitality professional, was charged for depositing profits from unregulated cannabis sales into her bank account. She was tried in North Carolina—a state she had never even been to—and sentenced to 87 months in jail, all of which she served. An attractive young woman with a solid résumé, she landed a position as a sales and catering coordinator at the Omni, which was in line with her career path before going to prison. Because she was working in California, she wasn’t required to include any past criminal charges on her application. However, with a quick Google search, a co-worker found her case online and reported her to Human Resources. She was fired immediately.
“It reminded me that I have a résumé, I have a degree. I have experience, and I still got fired,” LaChapelle said. “So, for the men who come out of prison, for the people who look the part of a felon—because I don’t look like a felon, even with all that going for me, I was fired—what does that say about our second chances?”
Raising Awareness
As businesses are built and cannabis becomes more deeply woven into our daily culture, Steve DeAngelo and the Last Prisoner Project team are working hard to ensure that the very people who introduced the plant to our culture are not forgotten.
“For me this is a global issue. We take it everywhere. The Last Prisoner Project is part of an overall approach that I have,” DeAngelo said. “I want the cannabis industry to be more of an engine of change and justice than an engine of wealth creation and concentration of money and power. That’s what I really want.”
As made evident by last week’s turnout at MJ Unpacked and MJBizCon in Las Vegas, there is a huge amount of opportunity in this burgeoning industry. But the onus is on the consumer to engage and stay informed rather than simply having your product of choice delivered to your door, sitting back and indulging.
“We have this amazing opportunity with cannabis to really do something different and build an industry that spreads wealth widely and empowers people who are usually disadvantaged. We can do that,” DeAngelo says. “If we cannabis consumers insist on that and vote with our dollars and educate ourselves, then that can happen. If we don’t do that, if consumers don’t do that, if we don’t engage, it’s just going to be another fucking industry that makes money for some rich people who have more money than they need already.”
“These are not criminals, but heroes,” said cannabis activist Steve DeAngelo as he welcomed Richard DeLisi and Michael Thompson on stage before the Blues Brothers show in Las Vegas last Thursday night.
The concert was a special event organized by MJ Unpacked, a new cannabis conference connecting industry brands and retailers on the executive level.
Over 1,000 people were in attendance, spread throughout the juke-joint inspired House of Blues, sitting at high-top tables, on the red velvet seats in the second story mezzanine, and gathered on the hardwood paneled dance floor—all ready to share some laughs and good music in the name of cannabis reform. And it was a big night for the cannabis freedom movement. Approximately $70,000 were raised for DeAngelo’s nonprofit, the Last Prisoner Project, which was founded in 2019 with the mission of releasing prisoners serving time for nonviolent cannabis offenses.
“There are 40,000 people in jail for trying to help people by touching a plant,” DeAngelo cried out to the audience. “Don’t forget our sisters and brothers as wealth is created.”
DeLisi and Thompson were both released through the support of the Last Prisoner Project (LPP). Before last Thursday’s show commenced, they briefly shared their moving stories with the crowd. Prior to DeLisi’s release in December 2020, he was the longest active cannabis prisoner in the U.S., serving more than three decades of a lifetime sentence. Thompson, released in January 2021, served more than a quarter century of a 60-year sentence in a Michigan prison.
Michael Thompson, Steve DeAngelo and Richard DeLisi on stage before the Blues Brothers show in Las Vegas.
“It’s broken, and it needs to be fixed,” Thompson said, referring to the justice system that failed him. “Those in prison for marijuana need to be free!”
With tears in his eyes, Thompson struggled to get his final words out. A supportive DeAngelo with an arm around his shoulder stood next to him, rubbing his back, encouraging him to go on. Audience members cheered and applauded as Thompson thanked LPP for their support—for reuniting him with his family, for keeping him alive.
Throughout the concert, slides were projected onto the stage’s backdrop, reminding and educating attendees of the problems that exist, what LPP is working towards, and how people can help. One slide read, “Despite widespread legal marijuana reform, cannabis arrests are actually increasing in several states,” and another offered people a way to take action: “Text freedom to 24365 to donate to Last Prisoner Project.”
Mary Bailey, the Last Prisoner Project’s managing director, firmly echoes the importance of education and sharing the powerful stories of those who are trapped behind bars for something that is now legal.
“We know that the injustice that is cannabis-related incarceration can only be counteracted by public attention paid to—and subsequent advocacy around—the issue,” Bailey said. “Leveraging the power of events like the Blues Brothers Benefit Concert is a critically important tool when helping to grow this desperately-needed public awareness, and we’re immensely grateful to those whose hard work and dedication made the concert a resounding success.”
Sitting down with DeAngelo in the venue’s “James Brown Room,” he provided a rundown of what these funds are used for: covering expenses for the families of prisoners; release grants; legal assistance; job placement.
“It really depends on what that particular prisoner needs, and then we attempt to provide that,” he said.
Cannabis & The Blues
Following DeAngelo’s on-stage introduction, the mood lightened. The Blues Brothers themselves—Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi—swaggered on stage donning black suits, shades and matching hats for an entertaining revue in which they reenacted the characters of Elwood and Zee Blues from the popular 1980 comedy release of the Blues Brothers. Backed by the talented Sacred Hearts band, the famous duo got in full character with chest slams, bare belly rolls, and some hilariously bad moves.
Jim Belushi performs at the House of Blues at a fundraiser for the Last Prisoner Project.
“It tickles me to dance with this 6’4” Canadian and sing alongside him,” Belushi said. “It just brings joy to my soul in every show. Of course, performing at the House of Blues, which we opened as The Blues Brothers, is a highlight, as well. All House of Blues venues are just so sexy and exotic and filled with the resonance of all the Blues legends and spirits.”
At the close of the concert, Aykroyd auctioned off the opportunity to come on stage and sing the hit song “Soul Man.” Grow Generation’s president Michael Salaman and board member Paul Ciasullo both pledged $12,000.
George Jage, founder and CEO of Jage Media, which organized MJ Unpacked, says booking the Blues Brothers made sense for a number of reasons.
“When we were developing the show, we wanted to make sure we had a strong mission-based philosophy. We are here to serve the industry, but we also need to help support the industry and advocacy groups,” Jage said. “I’ve always been impressed with Mary Bailey and Steve DeAngelo. I think it’s one of the most important causes for our industry.”
Belushi has also served as an official advisor to the Last Prisoner Project since May 2020. He first got involved with the nonprofit after a venue fell through for another LPP fundraising event DeAngelo was organizing in Los Angeles.
“He called me in the morning, and we had the first fundraiser at my house that night,” Belushi recounts. “I was so deeply moved. I said, ‘How do I get in on this? I want to help.’”
In his LPP advisory role, Belushi says he helps spread awareness for the cause. And as a longtime entertainer turned cannabis farmer, he’s in an ideal position to help.
“My job is to get the word out,” he says. “Let’s free these men and women—now!; Write letters, donate money. Also, I call and speak with the survivors of the failed war on drugs when they’re released. I participate in fundraisers.”
Belushi is intimately connected with both music and marijuana. For him, it’s about more than operating a profitable business. It’s about bringing people together. It’s about healing.
“I’m hoping to create confidence in cannabis with the curious, the new consumer. I believe in the medicine,” he said. “Everybody knows somebody who’s suffering. Everybody. And the pathway to healing and the medicine of cannabis can really aid those who are suffering, including their families who witness the suffering.”
Needless to say, cannabis matters to Belushi, as it does to countless other Americans. And in the words of Steve DeAngelo, “If you’re not a Black or Brown person and you love cannabis, and you live in North America, you’ve got a debt to pay.”
The Short and Long Plays
As cannabis legalization picks up steam and continues to spread across the U.S., the Last Prisoner Project is making it known that pardons granted for cannabis offenses aren’t occurring at the same rate. Not a single cannabis law has passed that provides for the release of cannabis prisoners.
It seems logical that when laws are passed legalizing cannabis, those incarcerated for the thing that is no longer illegal (cannabis, in this case), should be automatically released. It should be written into the laws.
DeAngelo explains why this isn’t the case.
“I’ll tell you why it hasn’t been automatic. It’s because there hasn’t been an organization like LPP at the table,” he says. “There are a huge number of problems. The default position of the justice system is that once a prisoner is sentenced, they have to serve their sentence unless there’s some other judicial procedure that intervenes and releases them.”
He goes on to discuss the structural impediments in the way, the main one being that there are too many people in power opposed to releasing prisoners.
“One of the things the prohibitionists like to do is talk about how you can’t reward people who broke the rules, and you can’t let criminals go free. They have this point of principle about it,” he said. “Because there hasn’t been a voice that’s strongly advocated for the release of cannabis prisoners, it’s been an overlooked issue for many years in the cannabis freedom movement.”
With no amnesty laws currently in place, LPP is focusing on other ways to release prisoners.
“When you’re doing work to get prisoners out, you have to fight on multiple levels simultaneously,” DeAngelo said, explaining that they’re also looking ahead, working to ensure that new cannabis laws passed in the future include the release of prisoners.
“We’re lobbying to make sure that happens, but it hasn’t happened yet,” he said. “We have people in prison, so we have to use other ways to get them out. One is with the clemency process.”
In every state that’s legalized cannabis, the governor has the ability to release all cannabis prisoners with the stroke of a pen. However, it’s not so easy. Clemency, as DeAngelo explains it, is a difficult process that comes down to a lack of resources. To grant clemency, a legal document must be filed for each prisoner, and each document must be individually reviewed by someone in the governor’s office. With hundreds of clemency petitions and maybe one person reviewing them on a part-time basis, the road to freedom is slow.
“So, what we’ve been doing is working with governors’ offices to try and get them to agree to a mass release of cannabis prisoners instead of considering these petitions one by one,” DeAngelo said.
The work of LPP is limited, however, to states where adult-use cannabis is legal.
“It’s basically impossible to argue for the release of prisoners for something that’s still a crime. It’s only been since we’ve had those victories that we really have the ability to go to the governors and say, ‘Hey it’s not illegal anymore, you should really release everybody who’s in prison for the thing that’s not illegal anymore.’ If it’s still illegal, you don’t have an argument to make. It’s really only in the last few years that it’s been possible to make this argument in an effective way.”
Life After Bars
While releasing cannabis prisoners is the Last Prisoner Project’s main objective, it doesn’t stop there. Much of the group’s work is dedicated to ensuring that prisoners are given opportunities after they get out.
Craig Cesal and Evelyn LaChapelle, both in attendance at the Blues Brothers show, were locked up for never even touching the plant. In 2001, Cesal was charged with conspiring to distribute marijuana because his Chicago-area truck repair company was working on a Florida company’s feet of trucks used to haul marijuana. He had no prior convictions and was sentenced with life without the possibility of parole.
“It’s too typical, unfortunately,” Cesal says. Twenty years later, on January 20, 2021, Cesal received clemency. The Last Prisoner Project hired him as a Program Associate the day he walked out of prison.
“They were instrumental in convincing President Trump to grant clemency to me and 11 other marijuana lifers,” he said. “I had no faith in it. I didn’t believe it until I walked out of the front gate of the prison.”
Meanwhile, LaChapelle, a former high-end hospitality professional, was charged for depositing profits from unregulated cannabis sales into her bank account. She was tried in North Carolina—a state she had never even been to—and sentenced to 87 months in jail, all of which she served. An attractive young woman with a solid résumé, she landed a position as a sales and catering coordinator at the Omni, which was in line with her career path before going to prison. Because she was working in California, she wasn’t required to include any past criminal charges on her application. However, with a quick Google search, a co-worker found her case online and reported her to Human Resources. She was fired immediately.
“It reminded me that I have a résumé, I have a degree. I have experience, and I still got fired,” LaChapelle said. “So, for the men who come out of prison, for the people who look the part of a felon—because I don’t look like a felon, even with all that going for me, I was fired—what does that say about our second chances?”
Raising Awareness
As businesses are built and cannabis becomes more deeply woven into our daily culture, Steve DeAngelo and the Last Prisoner Project team are working hard to ensure that the very people who introduced the plant to our culture are not forgotten.
“For me this is a global issue. We take it everywhere. The Last Prisoner Project is part of an overall approach that I have,” DeAngelo said. “I want the cannabis industry to be more of an engine of change and justice than an engine of wealth creation and concentration of money and power. That’s what I really want.”
As made evident by last week’s turnout at MJ Unpacked and MJBizCon in Las Vegas, there is a huge amount of opportunity in this burgeoning industry. But the onus is on the consumer to engage and stay informed rather than simply having your product of choice delivered to your door, sitting back and indulging.
“We have this amazing opportunity with cannabis to really do something different and build an industry that spreads wealth widely and empowers people who are usually disadvantaged. We can do that,” DeAngelo says. “If we cannabis consumers insist on that and vote with our dollars and educate ourselves, then that can happen. If we don’t do that, if consumers don’t do that, if we don’t engage, it’s just going to be another fucking industry that makes money for some rich people who have more money than they need already.”
Bill
O’Reilly eyed my brother and me like a hungry lion looking over a couple of
lambs. He twisted his face into the trademark O’Reilly sneer and scolded us
with a tone of triumph: “Come on, you know what the ruse is, you know what the
scam is.”
I’d
known the comment was coming. It’s standard procedure for hostile journalists.
They all think medical cannabis is a fraud.
My own cannabis recommendation is technically for chronic pain, but I used it for many other purposes. Some were unquestionably therapeutic, like helping me sleep. Others, like shaking off nervousness or sadness, seemed borderline. But there were some that just didn’t fit my definition of medical use, like enhancing the enjoyment of a meal or a piece of music.
Like
most people, I used to be locked into an outdated illness concept of human
health that views us as either sick or healthy. If we are sick, we go to the
doctor, who writes a prescription or recommends a procedure, after which we are
supposed to recover and go back to being healthy — if we’re lucky.
But
over the last few decades, it has become evident that human health actually
operates on a spectrum of wellness. That spectrum occupies the space between
perfect health and acute sickness, and it is where most humans spend the
majority of their lives.
The
best ways to preserve and enhance wellness are safe and non-invasive. We have
learned that diet, exercise, acupuncture, chiropractic, meditation and other
holistic healing techniques are effective alternatives to pills and operations.
That’s why so many gyms and yoga studios have opened in the United States; why most grocery stores have an organic section; why insurance policies often cover chiropractic, acupuncture, and nutritional counseling — and why integrative treatment centers for cancer have experienced explosive growth.
Over the years, many patients confided in me that they appreciated the protection of the law California’s Prop 215 but didn’t really consider themselves sick or injured. Non-patients also frequently approached me with comments like, “You know, Steve, I totally support everything you are doing to help patients. I believe in medical cannabis, and I smoke weed myself — but I’m not sick; I just like to get high.”
I would
respond by asking for details. When and why do you use cannabis? What specific
benefits does it provide? How has cannabis made your life different?
A
composite of the answers I received would run something like this:
“Without
cannabis, I’d get home feeling irritated from a long day at work, a hassle with
a boss or a coworker, a hot rush-hour commute, whatever. My back might be
aching, and I wouldn’t feel like playing with my kids or talking to my wife.
I’d often have a sour stomach and not much appetite. Dinner wasn’t very
appealing and sometimes gave me heartburn or indigestion. After dozing off in
front of the TV, I’d wake up and sometimes not be able to go back to sleep. In
the morning I could be tired, and not feel like going to work or doing much of
anything.
“With
cannabis, everything is different. I’m happy to see my family and have as much
fun playing with my kids as they do. I forget about my aching back, and
reuniting with my wife is a pleasure, not a chore. Dinner smells and tastes
great, and I never have a problem with digestion. After dinner, the wife and I
put the kids to bed, and then we have some extra special intimate time
together. I curl up next to her, sleep soundly till morning, and wake up
refreshed and ready for the new day. Cannabis makes my life a lot better, but
I’m not sick and I wouldn’t die or end up in the hospital without it. I’m not a
patient; I just like cannabis.”
Over time I realized that the same description of symptoms presented to the average MD would probably result in a diagnosis of anxiety, insomnia, depression, arthritis, low libido, erectile dysfunction and acid reflux. Every night a parade of ads promoting a variety of pharmaceuticals for exactly these conditions marches out of our TV sets — and most of them have a list of side effects like something out of a Stephen King novel.
For
most people, cannabis is a better alternative. Its power to preserve and
restore homeostasis throughout the brain and body makes cannabis effective for
almost every condition advertised on TV, and its side effects are mild and
transitory. It also has a wide range of more unique benefits that are
frequently overlooked, or mistakenly characterized as “getting high.”
These
include its ability to extend patience and promote self-examination; to awaken
a sense of wonder and playfulness, and openness to spiritual experience; to
enhance the flavor of a meal, the sound of music, or the sensitivity of a
lover’s touch; to open the mind and inspire creativity; to bring poetry to
language and spontaneity to a performer; to catalyze laughter, facilitate
friendship, and bridge human differences.
When I first shared this interpretation with my father, he gave me his “don’t BS me” look. Dad was already using cannabis for pain and insomnia, so he didn’t outright challenge me — but I could tell I had strayed too far into New Age woo-woo territory for his comfort. So on our next visit, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that my father had noticed an increased desire to write his memoirs — to do something creative — after his evening dose of THC-rich tincture. After his grief had subsided enough to date again, Dad very discreetly let me know that he’d also discovered its ability to enhance sensuality and intimacy.
These
are not the attributes of an “intoxicant,” which is defined by Merriam-Webster
as a substance that can “excite or stupefy… to the point where physical and
mental control is markedly diminished.” They are the attributes of a wellness
product that enhances and facilitates some of the most meaningful parts of the
human experience.
Different
cultures have used a variety of methods and substances to achieve enhanced
states of mind, but all pursue it by one means or another. Each one has
developed its own set of cultural norms and language to assess and regulate
appropriate use, but there’s never been a drug-free society in all of history.
Since
the passage of legalization in Colorado and Washington, the term “recreational
use” has become the catchall phrase to describe all consumption of cannabis
that is not “medical.” Lacking any commonly accepted definition, “recreational
use” has in effect become a code word to describe “just getting high” — or
intoxication. This is unfortunate, because the phrase obscures more than it
illuminates, and it perpetuates misconceptions about cannabis that have kept it
illegal for decades.
I
didn’t come to this realization quickly or easily. When I first heard the term
“recreational use” it sounded like a step forward — and it was, compared to
words like “addiction” and “dependency.” It also provided a convenient contrast
to “medical use” after that phrase entered the modern lexicon in the 1990s —
but the more I used the language, the less comfortable I felt with it.
Neither
medical nor recreational fully or accurately described the way I saw most
people using cannabis. I suspected there was a third category but didn’t know
how to analyze or describe it. It’s taken a lifetime of activism and probing
questions by the likes of Bill O’Reilly to collapse the fallacy and crystallize
my thoughts into a coherent thesis.
Today,
I believe there is no such thing as the recreational use of cannabis. The concept
is equally embraced by prohibitionists and self-professed stoners, but it is
self-limiting and profoundly unhealthy. Defining cannabis consumption as
elective recreation ignores fundamental human biology and history, and devalues
the very real benefits the plant provides.
Dennis Peron, the man who opened the first cannabis dispensary in the U.S., has been derided for saying that all marijuana use is medical. I would make the same point a bit differently: the vast majority of cannabis use is for wellness purposes. The exception to the rule is misuse; any psychoactive material can and will be problematic for some percentage of the population — cannabis included.
The
downsides of cannabis pale in comparison to those of other substances, but they
still need to be taken seriously and looked at carefully. The lessons learned
with alcohol — that it shouldn’t be marketed to kids, or promoted as part of a
glamorous lifestyle — should be integrated into our new approach with cannabis.
We also
need to recognize that the chemistry and effects of the plant are qualitatively
different than those of alcoholic beverages. When accurately viewed in the
context of science and history, cannabis emerges as a medical and wellness
product with a huge range of applications. One day “recreational” cannabis will
seem as quaint as “medical” alcohol was after the end of liquor prohibition.
TELL US, how does cannabis improve your
wellbeing?
Originally published in the print edition of Cannabis Now. LEARN MORE
