WASHINGTON, April 06, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, the Cannabis Freedom Alliance (CFA) launched to end the prohibition, criminalization, and overregulation of cannabis in the United States. The CFA aims to do so in a manner consistent with helping all Americans achieve their full potential and limiting the number of barriers that inhibit innovation and entrepreneurship in a free and open market.
Steering Membership includes prominent national advocacy organizations Americans for Prosperity (AFP), Mission Green/The Weldon Project, the Reason Foundation, and the Global Alliance for Cannabis Commerce (GACC). Weldon Anglos of Mission Green/The Weldon Project and Randal John Meyer of GACC serve as co-Coordinators for the Coalition.
Weldon Angelos stated, “Ending cannabis prohibition and incarceration is a moral imperative. For too long, cruel laws punishing non-violent cannabis offenses have destroyed the lives of individuals throughout this country—myself included. It is high time that Congress and the President right this wrong and allow those harmed by cannabis prohibition the chance to participate in the cannabis industry like the millionaires and billionaires doing so now. But we can’t do this alone. We need both sides to come together on this, which is why we launched this coalition.”
The CFA is aimed at accomplishing four core values through federal legislative reform:
- Federal De-Scheduling and Criminal Justice Reform. Seek the complete removal of cannabis from the Schedules of the Controlled Substances Act to bring an end to cannabis criminalization, and allow innovation, industry, and research to thrive.
- Reentry and Successful Second Chances. Seek to ensure individuals who were formerly incarcerated or current grey-market operators are given a second chance in society and have an equal ability to contribute to the cannabis market during its transition from an illicit to legal market.
- Promoting Entrepreneurship in Free and Open Markets. Seek federal and state regulatory frameworks for cannabis which promote public safety while ensuring low barriers to entry and non-restrictive occupational and business licensing is the norm. Market rules must not allow control by crony interests or inhibit small companies and entrepreneurs through unnecessary limitations or overregulation.
- Competitive and Reasonable Tax Rates. Seek to ensure the total tax burden – federal, state, and local combined – imposed on cannabis businesses should not raise costs so as to incentivize the continuation of illicit markets.
“For too long, the criminalization of cannabis has hurt Americans, from individuals’ unnecessary involvement with the justice system to the damage dealt to communities by the expensive and failed ‘War on Drugs,’” said Brent W. Gardner, Chief Government Affairs Officer for Americans for Prosperity. “Americans for Prosperity is excited to work alongside our partners to bring cannabis businesses into the light, replacing black and gray markets with a free and fair legal framework that improves public safety and emphasizes entrepreneurship and equal opportunity. In this context, cannabis commerce will become a way for Americans to lift themselves up, rather than a barrier holding them back.”
Reason Foundation Vice President of Policy Dr. Adrian Moore noted, “We are excited to work together on the twin goals of ending the failed prohibition of cannabis, with all the costs to lives, liberty and the economy that come with it, and ensuring that cannabis black markets are replaced with free, fair and competitive legal cannabis markets.”
GACC Board Chairman Rezwan Khan added, “GACC is excited to join together to help bring about the end of cannabis prohibition. We look forward to ensuring a vibrant and competitive legal cannabis industry that restores the harms of those adversely impacted by prohibition.”
For more information on the CFA or to join our efforts, please visit our website at cannabisfreedomalliance.org or email us at info@cannabisfreedomalliance.org.
About the Cannabis Freedom Alliance:
The Cannabis Freedom Alliance (CFA) is a coalition of advocacy and business organizations seeking to end the prohibition and criminalization of cannabis in the United States in a manner consistent with helping all Americans achieve their full potential and limiting the number of barriers that inhibit innovation and entrepreneurship in a free and open market. For more information on the CFA, please contact info@cannabisfreedomalliance.org.
About the Americans for Prosperity:
Through broad-based grassroots outreach, Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is driving long-term solutions to the country’s biggest problems. AFP activists engage friends and neighbors on key issues and encourage them to take an active role in building a culture of mutual benefit, where people succeed by helping one another. AFP recruits and unites activists in 35 states behind a common goal of advancing policies that will help people improve their lives. For more information, please visit www.AmericansForProsperity.org.
About The Weldon Project/Mission Green:
Mission Green is an initiative of The Weldon Project that brings together individuals impacted by the criminal justice system and unlikely allies from all sides of the political spectrum to push for criminal justice solutions. The organization works directly with lawmakers, celebrities, advocacy groups, incarcerated individuals, and the White House on a broad range of criminal justice issues. Notably, TWP helped pass the historic, bipartisan criminal justice reform legislation called the First Step Act which was signed into law in December 2018. TWP launched the Mission Green initiative to focus exclusively on individuals incarcerated for cannabis-related offenses in the criminal justice system. The Mission Green campaign is led by people who have been directly impacted by prohibition and have lived through the issues that advocacy organizations are working to address. The people most affected by the current justice system are in a unique position to bring about transformative change. For more information, please contact Weldon Angelos at weldon@theweldonproject.org.
About the Reason Foundation:
Reason Foundation is a nonprofit think tank dedicated to advancing free minds and free markets. Reason Foundation produces respected public policy research on a variety of issues and publishes the critically acclaimed Reason magazine and its website. For more information, please contact Dr. Adrian Moore at adrian.moore@reason.org.
About the Global Alliance for Cannabis Commerce:
The Global Alliance for Cannabis Commerce (GACC) exists to provide policymakers and legislators with the guidance necessary to take the nascent cannabis industry from the grey market into a global provider of medical and adult-use cannabis products. GACC advocates in front of government policymakers and legislators in order to legalize and regulate the cultivation, manufacture, distribution, or use of medical and adult-use cannabis products globally. For more information, please contact Randal John Meyer at randal@globalcannabiscommerce.org.
CONTACT
Weldon Angelos
weldon@theweldonproject.org
Randal John Meyer
randal@globalcannabiscommerce.org