Legalization made room for brands, tax revenue, and respectability. For Frank Rogers, still serving time on a federal marijuana conspiracy case, it still hasn’t made room for freedom.
The cannabis industry has transformed faster than almost anyone predicted. What once operated as an underground economy defined by secrecy, risk, and survival has evolved into a multibillion-dollar global market. Legal cannabis companies now employ tens of thousands of workers, operate technologically advanced cultivation facilities, and generate billions in annual tax revenue for state governments. Cannabis conferences fill massive convention halls across the country while investors debate expansion strategies and entrepreneurs launch brands with marketing budgets that dwarf the resources of the illicit markets that once dominated the plant’s economy.
Yet beneath the excitement surrounding legalization and industry growth lies a reality that is far less comfortable to discuss. While licensed dispensaries open their doors across North America and governments collect billions in cannabis taxes, there are still people sitting in prison cells for nonviolent cannabis offenses committed during the height of the War on Drugs. Their lives were interrupted by policies that modern society increasingly recognizes as excessive and misguided, and many remain incarcerated for conduct that would today be considered a legitimate business activity in multiple states.
Frank Rogers is one of those people. A federal prisoner who has already spent more than a decade behind bars, Rogers represents a reality that the modern cannabis movement often struggles to confront. Advocacy groups estimate that roughly 32,000 people remain imprisoned nationwide for cannabis-related crimes, including people in federal custody and many more in state prison systems.
Frank Rogers’ story is not simply about one man serving time for cannabis. It reflects the enduring legacy of prohibition and the long shadow cast by decades of drug war policies that continue to …
Read More
Author: Bill Levers / High Times
