JUST SAY NO… TO THE WAR ON DRUGS.
Cannabis and its cousin hemp have been grown and used in myriad ways since early 1900s. Sometime between 1900 and 1930s, a very xenophobic time in the US, though we’re doing pretty well on that front again now, cannabis was reframed and even renamed, marihuana, or marijuana in order to create a false and menacing connection between Mexicans, and people of color, especially Jazz musicians, most of whom were black.
By 1937, Harry Anslinger, formerly a Prohibition leader, was head of a newly formed Department of Narcotics and the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was passed making the plant illegal. Hindsight makes it clear that Anslinger’s primary interest was in undoing the social connection that black and white people were making through music, art, and culture. Cannabis prohibition and the propaganda created to malign the plant were part of a strategy to keep black and white people apart; especially white women and black men.
The social unrest, police brutality and mass incarceration in 2020s America is directly related to what was happening under Anslinger 70 years ago and was exacerbated by presidents Reagan and Clinton through the War on Drugs campaign which was based on a false narrative and has caused disproportionate and generational harm to communities of color.
FROM 8 MINUTES AND 46 SECONDS TO 8 DOLLARS AND 46 CENTS.
On May 25, 2020, a white police officer squeezed the life out of a black suspect, while bystanders witnessed and objected. The knee on George Floyd’s neck during the last 8 minutes and 46 seconds of his life broke America, and erupted the world. Though not the first black man to suffer the wrath of white supremacy and police brutality, the killing was so egregious, the officer so nonchalant as he looked directly at the phone capturing his every move, that the deed was dubbed a public lynching. Everyone knew what “8:46” signified in the Summer of 2020 and every protest included 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence; thousands kneeling in unison, fists in the air, thinking: Damn, 8 minutes and 46 seconds is a long, very long, amount of time. It was harrowing.
Six months later, a lot of people had forgotten. They remembered George Floyd, but not the number. Granted a lot was going on, including more abuses of power, and an ongoing pandemic, we don’t think that’s okay. It’s not our intention to trigger trauma or harp on the pre-existing evils that resurfaced that day, but we also don’t want to shy away from an opportunity to remind people to remember.
The way we see it, it was those 8 minutes and 46 seconds that shifted many otherwise dormant moral compasses and should be remembered, same as numbers like 9/11 and more recently 1/6.
This level of donation, $8.46 per pack sold, is unprecedented, as is our commitment to supporting Impact/Justice and other organizations working to end mass incarceration and helping returning citizens.
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On June 11, 2020, Dave Chapelle became the first comic to do a set before a live audience, after lockdowns began due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. He called it: “8:46”.
OUR BEEF
while Black Americans make up ONLY 13% of our population, they account for more than 40% of our incarcerated citizens
SOURCE: Prison Policy Initiative
The US has the largest population of captive human beings on Earth. Around 2.2 million. In the 1970s that number was closer to 200K. A disproportionate number of this incarcerated population are Black and Brown. We believe that over the last 50 years, an intricate relationship has developed between the prison industrial complex and corporate America’s addiction to cheap labor, making mass incarceration a key hurdle in the fight for racial justice and equity. Michelle Williams’ seminal 2010 book, The New Jim Crow, presented a convincing case for Mass Incarceration as the new Jim Crow, and in her 2020 forward she reiterated how cannabis and the false War on Drugs continue to contribute to this societal plague.
since 1970, the number of incarcerated people in the u.s. has jumped from 200K to 2.2M
CURRENT BENEFICIARY
Impact Justice focus on three big issues — preventing system involvement to end unnecessary contact with the justice system; improving conditions and opportunities for those who are incarcerated; and supporting successful re-entry which is key to minimizing recidivism rates.
ART & CONTEXT
Original art, commissioned from a thoughtful watercolor artist, based in Michigan, with a buttoned up day job. In this work, created amidst a pandemic and national civic unrest in June 2020, Sinclair Chase Korte intricately and meditatively represents his own fist, as well as the international symbol of the fight for justice; truth to power.
In addition to this collaboration, Sinclair is contributing proceeds from the sale of his prints to Black Lives Matter.
Racists and trolls have commented on his IG feed, calling his drawings “ugly watermelon hands” and worse. Please drop by to counterbalance them with your love, see more of his beautiful work, and reach out to Sinclair directly here.
“We know that cannabis has therapeutic qualities, and that the US government has their own marijuana research laboratories which shows that the Schedule-1 classification of cannabis has more to do with politics than science.”
— DR. CARL HART
Columbia University, Chief of Dept. of Psychology