Perhaps the biggest stain on the cannabis industry is that while it’s now legal in many states to grow and sell marijuana, our prisons are full of people unjustly incarcerated for marijuana related offenses.
That’s where Mellowphant comes in. Mellowphant is a high-end CBD-seller with a social justice twist. The “Mellowphant Pledge” is the company’s promise that for every item sold, 4.20% is donated to organizations fighting for cannabis reform. Here’s a brief look at the reform they’re working toward:
Justice for Prisoners
Cannabis justice is racial justice—according to the ACLU, although white and Black people use cannabis at similar rates, Black people are 3.6 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession. The history for this goes back to the Nixon era “War on Drugs,” which was aimed at criminalizing marijuana and other drugs because, as Nixon’s Domestic Affairs Advisor John Ehrlichman, “We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or Black.” This form of racial injustice has been heavily ingrained in our country for more than 50 years now, and progress on fixing this issue has been slow.
Mellowphant helps further the cause of racial justice through donations to nonprofits such as the Last Prisoner Project, an organization dedicated to freeing the more than 40,000 individuals incarcerated on marijuana charges. The Last Prisoner project works with cannabis industry leaders, criminal and social justice advocates, and policy and education experts to end the War on Drugs.
Marijuana Policy Reform
But what happens when prisoners are released? Although cannabis is recreationally legal in 18 states and allowed medically in 36 states, it is still considered a Schedule 1 drug under federal law. Schedule 1 drugs are legally considered drugs with “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse”, which we know is patently untrue of marijuana as it does have medically accepted uses and no evidence of addictive properties. Mellowphant donates to policy reform organizations that advocate to legalize marijuana federally as well as working with states that have legalized marijuana to help create automatic expunging of cannabis convictions.
Cannabis Business Equity
Individuals who have felony convictions for cannabis-selling charges often cannot obtain licenses to grow and sell marijuana upon their release, which is absurdly hypocritical when you think about how much money businesses and states make from marijuana sales now. Further, these felony convictions often severely limit employment opportunities. Cannabis equity seeks to make legal cannabis business ownership accessible to the individuals and communities impacted the most by cannabis criminalization. Through donations to organizations doing cannabis equity work, Mellowphant helps boost employment and business ownership for those unfairly affected by cannabis charges. If you’re looking for a business to support that puts their money where their mouth is, Mellowphant is doing fantastic work toward building a better cannabis community. Their CBD products are second to none, and their mission is one that every cannabis user should be interested in supporting