What many people do not know is that when Fortuna returned to Boulder Colorado from Tokyo Japan five years ago we dreamed of crafting small batch cannabis infused chocolate truffles. Made with heirloom Mexican cacao and Colorado grown cannabis our truffles would be edible cultural reflection.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

US regulations regarding the specific uses of cannabis has been weaponized against communities of color, initially immigrant refugees fleeing the violence of the Mexican Revolution in 1910. Taxes and sentencing continued reinforcing a systemic racial bias rewarding cultivation by white industry and criminalizing use by people of color. The ensuing policy surrounding the 'War on Drugs' decades later has resulted in further tragedy for families and communities on both sides of the current US/Mexico border. ⠀

The American Civil Liberties Union has recently released a research report titled - 'A Tale of Two Countries, Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform' ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

"The criminalization of marijuana and the “War on Drugs” more broadly has been a misinformed and racist government campaign that continues to result in the criminalization of millions of Americans. Pursued under the guise of public safety and reducing marijuana consumption, this decades-long debacle has been an abject failure — it has harmed communities, needlessly derailed lives, and wasted taxpayers’ valuable dollars. Both public opinion and sage public policy have called for an end to marijuana prohibition. In response, several states have legalized or decriminalized marijuana use in recent years. As of March 2020, 11 states and Washington, D.C.7, have legalized the recreational consumption of marijuana, and in 2019, Hawai‘i became the 15th state to reduce the criminal consequences of marijuana-related offenses.

It is critical that states’ legalization schemes must be equitable and grounded in racial justice. Legalization must come with processes for clemency, re-sentencing, and expungement to reflect the change in law. The benefits reaped from emerging legal marketplaces should be shared with the communities most harmed by the War on Drugs. Racial profiling can lead to the aggressive enforcement of minor offenses in communities of color. Local, state, and federal governments should work with community members to limit the role of police in communities of color"⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

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Cannabis Justice is Social Justice.⠀