social justice

  • Shaleen TitleFormer drug dealers should be recruited and trained to produce safe, legal cannabis if the UK decides to legalise marijuana, the head of an American programme overseeing the sale of the narcotic has urged.The Commissioner in charge of legal cannabis sales in Massachusetts has said Britain should follow her state’s example of recruiting ex-drug dealers and people from communities involved in what was once the underground market for marijuana. Shaleen Title, along with two other US experts on drug liberalisation, revealed that a project is under way in their state – which legalised the drug in 2016 – to retrain former cannabis dealers to enter the now legal marijuana industry.

  • kamela harris cannabisJoe Biden has selected Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) as his vice presidential running mate. She has evolved significantly on marijuana policy over her career. Though she coauthored an official voter guide argument opposing a California cannabis legalization measure as a prosecutor in 2010, she went on to sponsor legislation to federally deschedule marijuana in 2019. Harris is the chief Senate sponsor of the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act—a comprehensive piece of legalization legislation that includes various social equity and restorative justice provisions. Advocates will be watching to see if she continues to advocate for the reform move as she’s on-boarded to the Biden campaign. (See also: 67% of Americans are ready to end federal cannabis prohibition)