By Stephanie Shepard, Executive Director, Last Prisoner Project
As legal cannabis becomes a multibillion-dollar industry, people are still serving decades, even life, in prison for the same plant. That is not progress. It is unfinished business.
Every year on 4/20, millions of people celebrate cannabis culture. Legalization expands, new markets open, and the industry keeps growing.
But while the legal cannabis economy thrives, there are still people sitting in prison cells serving decades, and in some cases life sentences, for cannabis offenses.
If legalization is going to mean anything, it has to include justice.
If legalization is going to mean anything, it has to include justice.
That is why Last Prisoner Project is proud to partner with High Times. Together, we want to shine a light on the people who were left behind, the families still carrying the weight of prohibition, and the work still required to bring them home.
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To learn more, support Last Prisoner Project’s work, or help bring the last cannabis prisoners home, visit this donation page.
Across the United States, people remain incarcerated for cannabis-related offenses tied to the same plant that now fuels a legal industry worth billions.
That includes people like Ismael Lira, who has been serving a life sentence since 2006 for a cannabis-related conviction. According to Last Prisoner Project, Lira was sentenced for possession with intent to distribute marijuana despite there being no eyewitnesses and no physical seizure of the alleged cannabis involved in the case. Nearly two decades later, he remains behind bars for a nonviolent cannabis offense while legal cannabis businesses operate openly across much of the country.
Michael Woods is also serving a life sentence tied to cannabis. His case reflects the brutal penalties imposed during the height of the War on Drugs, when conspiracy charges and mandatory …
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Author: High Times Contributors / High Times
