Blog Layout

Just Cannabis – Episode 1: Intersectionality and the War on Cannabis

Mikelina Belaineh • Mar 01, 2023

Welcome to Just Cannabis, a new short-form podcast series from the Last Prisoner Project that examines the issue of cannabis justice through a series of interviews with directly impacted individuals and cannabis justice advocates. Just Cannabis hopes to support the efficacy of the cannabis justice movement by offering a new platform for critical and candid conversations about cannabis justice issues.


Today, in 2023, 88% of Americans support cannabis legalization. Almost every state has legalized or decriminalized cannabis in some form or fashion, an incredible and dramatic shift in mainstream culture and opinion. As the mainstream cannabis movement continues to gain momentum across the nation, the cannabis industry and government stakeholders are projecting revenues and profits while individuals, families, and communities continue to suffer from arrest, incarceration, and the collateral consequences that follow. 


The “War on Drugs” and the “War on Cannabis” that flows from it is complex, systematic, and firmly rooted in a foundation fertilized by 50+ years of propaganda and enforcement. If we hope to descale this War and transform our culture of racialized punishment, we must dismantle the systems that stand in its honor, divest from narratives of black criminality, and we must be dogged in our critical examination of the task at hand. 


In Season One of Just Cannabis we focus on highlighting the voices and narratives of womxyn who have been impacted by the criminalization of cannabis because, despite being the fastest-growing correctional population in the country, womxyn are consistently overlooked by both the criminal justice and cannabis reform movement. The ACLU put out a hugely influential and important report in 2020 detailing and explaining the racial disparities in cannabis arrests— making clear that cannabis is a racial justice issue, but it fails to mention womxyn even once.


 Meanwhile, women's incarceration rates climb at double the rate of men’s in state prisons across the country, and correctional facilities all over the country are struggling to house the ever-increasing number of womxyn, making overcrowding and inhumane conditions the new norm. We cannot fulfill our goals of equity and justice without understanding the experiences of directly impacted womxyn. 


A recent report by the Prison Policy Initiative shows that over half (58%) of all women in U.S. prisons are mothers, as are 80% of women in jails. Additionally, the report found that 1/3 of incarcerated womxyn incarceration identify as queer. These data points demonstrate how the issue of criminal justice, and thus cannabis justice, is an intersectional issue that requires us to consider not only the implications of race, but also gender and sexuality (see more detailed discussion in the Blog Post “Towards an Intersectional Lens on Cannabis Criminal Justice Reform”). 


The experience of arrest, incarceration, and re-entry is different for womxyn than it is for men. To overlook and exclude womxyn, is to turn away from lived experiences that are integral to understanding the whole cannabis justice story. 


Listening to Just Cannabis, you will hear from mothers and daughters who have been impacted by the criminalization of cannabis, as well as from advocates including LPP’s Executive Director, Sarah Gersten. By sharing their stories, Just Cannabis is helping to expose an injustice that all too often goes unacknowledged and unaddressed. In addition, by giving listeners more insight into critical context missing from many of today’s cannabis-related conversations, Just Cannabis is giving the public an opportunity to learn, heal and empower themselves to advocate for much-needed change. 


Our hope is that this podcast will spur the conversations and considerations needed for our country to take a more human-centric, anti-racist, and equitable approach to cannabis policy and its related criminal justice reforms. We hope this series inspires you to mobilize and organize around cannabis legalization, and we hope that it expands your understanding of today’s cannabis movement. To create a future different from our past and present, we must move with eyes and ears wide open– curious, critical, and questioning. 


Thank you for reading, we hope you listen in, and welcome to Just Cannabis.


Listen to Episode 1 on Spotify, Apple, or Amazon.



About the Author


Mikelina Belaineh serves as the Director of Impact at the Last Prisoner Project, and is the host/creator of Just Cannabis. Mikelina identifies as a queer, black, nonbinary abolitionist, and has dedicated themselves to organizing around issues of gender, sexuality, policing, and punishment. Mikelina graduated from Harvard Law in 2016, and has since spent their career interrogating, understanding, and addressing issues of mass incarceration. Mikelina has worked on issues of street and gang violence, womxyn’s incarceration, and cannabis justice. They bring experience as a non-profit leader, board member, researcher, scholar, and professor. 

Last Prisoner Project Supports the Reintroduction of the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA)

By Stephen Post • 02 May, 2024
This week, Senators Booker, Schumer, and Wyden reintroduced the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA), comprehensive legislation that would legalize cannabis federally, expunge cannabis records, and release cannabis prisoners. Here are just a few highlights to help breakdown this bill: CAOA, if passed, could finally decriminalize cannabis on the federal level. Federal courts would have 1 year to expunge or seal arrests, convictions, and juvenile delinquency adjudications for most non-violent federal cannabis offenses. They'd also be required to educate recipients on the effects of their expungement(s). Some federal cannabis tax revenue would be directed to organizations that help people secure state-level cannabis expungements. The Bureau of Prisons would have 60 DAYS TO RELEASE (and vacate the convictions of) individuals serving tiem for most federal cannabis-only offenses. Individuals whose convictions don't fall under those guidelines, or whose sentences were enhanced because of prior cannabis convictions, would be able to petition the court for a reduced sentence. The feds wouldn't be able to deny people federal public assistance because of cannabis use, possession, or convictions. They also would not be able to consider cannabis a controlled substance for the purposes of immigration proceedings. Read more about the CAOA here and read recent coverage in Filter Mag and Marijuana Moment of our 420 Unity Day where we joined with advocates to talk to Sen. Schumer and other lawmakers about the CAOA and other efforts to enact cannabis justice

DEA Moves to Officially Reschedule Cannabis

By Sarah Gersten • 30 Apr, 2024
Rescheduling is not legalization, and the existing penalties for cannabis remain unchanged. In October of 2022, President Biden made a series of historic cannabis-related executive actions , including initiating a review by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Justice on how cannabis is scheduled under federal law. In August 2023, HHS recommended rescheduling cannabis from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III drug and referred it to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) for final approval. Today, the DEA announced its decision to approve the HHS recommendation to reschedule cannabis to Schedule III. The proposal now goes to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), to review the rule. If approved by OMB, the proposed rescheduling would go to public comment before being finalized. This historic announcement is the culmination of years of advocacy by Last Prisoner Project (LPP) and other advocacy groups to push the federal government to better reflect the public’s view on cannabis. While the move is undoubtedly a step forward for the movement, it does not meet LPP’s goal to fully remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act and its associated criminal penalties. So then, what exactly does this schedule change mean for cannabis justice reform? While the action could result in some favorable tax and banking reform for the cannabis industry and more dedicated research for cannabis patients, there are no changes in how the criminal legal system punishes cannabis users. Rescheduling is a peripheral change that signals the reevaluation of cannabis, but not the release of cannabis prisoners or relief for those who continue to be burdened by the lasting consequences of the carceral system. In short, this announcement represents progress but not justice. Despite not achieving full legalization, we must use this historic moment to push the fight for cannabis justice forward by broadening the scope of Biden’s cannabis clemency action, working with Congress and certain administrative agencies to both provide retroactive relief and to reduce prospective cannabis criminal enforcement, and incentivizing states to provide broad retroactive relief, particularly in states that have adopted a fully legal cannabis market. Learn more about ways cannabis justice advocates can leverage this change to advance reforms in our recent memo . LPP is committed to continuing the fight for cannabis justice until everyone is fully free from the harms of the War on Drugs. This means advocating for cannabis to be fully descheduled. To ensure we keep the pressure on descheduling, retroactive relief, and full legalization, Last Prisoner Project helped organize the largest bipartisan group of cannabis advocates in Washington D.C. on April 18th, 2024 for our 420 Unity Day of Action to urge Congress and the President to take further action. Last Prisoner Project believes that complete descheduling is a necessary step towards correcting past injustices and creating a fair and equitable criminal legal system. We will continue to leverage the momentum achieved from our advocacy to ensure that individuals burdened with past cannabis convictions have their records expunged and all cannabis prisoners are released, regardless of the federal scheduling decision.

President Biden Grants Clemency to 16 Non-Violent Drug Offenders, But No Cannabis Offenses Included

By Stephen Post • 27 Apr, 2024
President Joe Biden made a statement Wednesday announcing a decision to pardon 11 people convicted of non-violent drug charges and commuted the sentences of five others. "America is a nation founded on the promise of second chances," he said . "We also recommit to building a criminal justice system that lives up to those ideals and ensures that everyone receives equal justice under law." Despite this positive use of his clemency powers, President Biden again failed to include any people still in prison at the federal level for cannabis offenses which is estimated to be at least 3,000 individuals. Even though he has provided record relief to almost 13,000 people with his expanded cannabis possession pardons, the President has failed to release a single person in prison for cannabis. Last Prisoner Project Executive Director, Sarah Gersten said, "While we are encouraged to see the President use his clemency power to commute the sentences of those incarcerated for drug offenses, we are hopeful that the administration will fulfill their promises both to use the clemency power more robustly as well as to commute the sentences of those still incarcerated for cannabis." "The Administration has made it clear that cannabis reform is a priority and one that will energize their electorate. To truly make an impact that will sway voters come November the president needs to take action to release the estimated 3,000 individuals still incarcerated for cannabis federally." We hope that President Biden recognizes that releasing people with cannabis offenses doesn't require legalization. They demand executive action. If he is looking for the next batch of candidates for clemency, we have already sent him a list of deserving individuals whose petitions are sitting with the Office of the Pardon Attorney. He simply needs to act on them. We recently rallied advocates at the White House on our 420 Unity Day of Action to demand their freedom and encourage the public to help tell Congress and the President to take further action.
Share by: