In April, a prominent trio of advocates for legal weed announced a coalition designed to reform marijuana laws. Using Zoom, rapper/actor Snoop Dogg, criminal justice reformist Weldon Angelos, and billionaire Charles Koch gave us the scoop on the creation of The Cannabis Freedom Alliance.
The Alliance will lobby to convince lawmakers to legalize weed not just state-to-state, but on the federal level. The GOP continues to be a major obstacle to federal legalization. Of the 15 states to have given a green light to recreational use of marijuana, the majority of those states were Democrat-controlled Senate regions.
Angelos got the ball rolling by connecting to Koch’s network. Angelos wanted to get a feel of how the billionaire’s circle felt about federally legalizing cannabis.
Koch is a philanthropist and, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, is the world’s 15th rich individual. He is an adamant environmentalist. He took his father’s oil and chemical refining company and turned it into a producer of pollution control products, fibers and polymers, fertilizer, and consumer and forest services.
Angelos hopes the Alliance’s connection to Koch connects with Republicans. “With Koch’s influence, I think that’s likely a possibility.”
Angelos believes the fight isn’t just with the politicians but the larger cannabis companies. He believes many want weed to stay illegal to deter independent growers and outlets.
“A lot of big cannabis companies are fighting against things like interstate commerce because it doesn’t support their business model,” Angelos told POLITICO. “That’s another reason why” [the Alliance] “is a perfect ally on this because they support free and open markets.”
Angelos spent 13 years serving a prison sentence for trafficking marijuana. President Donald J. Trump pardoned Angelos in December 2020. Of the Alliance, Angelos said, “We can’t cut with one scissor blade. We need Republicans to pass” [a legalization bill].
Snoop Dogg is one of the most famous names in rap, movies, television, and smoking. Besides his current association with the Alliance, Snoop has also aligned with agri-tech company Seedo. The Israeli outfit designs small fridge-like units for cultivating plants with article intelligence.
The rapper has long contributed to programs ground in social responsibility but cannabis is special to the artist. In 2015, the artist launched his Leafs by Snoop line of marijuana and continues to be one of the industry’s great influencers.
But the major force behind the Alliance is Angelos. “Ending cannabis prohibition and incarceration is a moral imperative.”
Besides the three principles, other members steering the Alliance include Americans for Prosperity (founded by the Koch brothers), the Reason Foundation, Mission Green/The Weldon Project, and the Global Alliance for Cannabis Commerce.
In essence, the Alliance has four missions:
A rapper, a billionaire, and a reformed drug trafficker teaming to form a weed coalition to alter policies that have decimated BIPOC communities for decades.
The times they are a-changin’.
