As consumers and businesses across the U.S. gear up for the 4/20 holiday on Sunday, ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s is drawing attention to the “tens of thousands of people who will spend their 4/20 in prison for the same cannabis-related activity.”
This year the company—which has regularly used 4/20 to highlight justice-related cannabis matters—has partnered with the advocacy group Last Prisoner Project (LPP) to urge state governors to grant relief to those behind bars for marijuana.
“This 4/20, the need for cannabis justice is at an all-time HIGH,” Ben & Jerry’s said about the new effort.
The groups are also encouraging supporters to take action, recommending they reach out to their state governors to call for clemency, sign petitions to free people incarcerated for cannabis crimes, spread the word using the #420ForFreedom on social media and attend a Washington, D.C. event—the Cannabis Unity Week of Action, held April 29 through May 1—aimed at promoting broader marijuana legalization.
The company says that as “cannabis businesses will rack up sales, public figures will use their platforms to highlight cannabis culture, and millions of Americans will take advantage of their freedom and consume with friends and family” on 4/20, it’s crucial that advocates continue pushing to right the wrongs of prohibition.
“When we say legalization without justice is half baked, we mean that legalization while people, disproportionately Black and Brown, are still sitting in prison for cannabis or reeling from the detrimental impacts of having a cannabis conviction on their records is simply not justice fully realized,” Palika Makam, Ben & Jerry’s U.S. activism manager, said in a statement.
Sarah Gersten, executive director of LPP, pointed to incarcerated individuals such as Antonio Wyatt, who is serving time in Kansas, and Robert Deals, currently behind bars in Arizona.
“It is unacceptable that while legal cannabis generates billions in tax revenue, states still incarcerate people like Antonio Wyatt and Robert Deals, who are serving time for the same thing,” Gersten said in a statement. “Governors have the power to right this wrong, and we’re calling on them to act now.”
A press release about the effort notes that 84 percent of Americans are in support of releasing people still behind bars for marijuana offenses, citing an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) poll.
Ben & Jerry’s also dove into the issue of restorative justice in the cannabis industry in a recent episode of the company’s Into the Mix podcast.
In addition to support from Ben & Jerry’s, the 420 for Freedom campaign is also backed by dozens of cannabis-related companies.
Pushing for justice on 4/20 is a regular thing for the ice cream maker. Last year, Ben & Jerry’s teamed with ACLU to similarly encourage fans to pressure state governments for cannabis clemency.
“It’s not enough to decarcerate people convicted for cannabis-related offenses. To truly achieve cannabis justice, we also have to do what’s necessary to ensure people are no longer haunted by these convictions,” Makam said at the time. “Countless people are still incarcerated and continue to be burdened by convictions for cannabis-related offenses even in states where cannabis is legal.”
ACLU and Ben & Jerry’s also paired up for 4/20 in 2023, asking people to send a pre-written letter to their governor that implores them to provide the state-level relief to those who’ve been criminalized because of cannabis. The groups undertook similar efforts in earlier years, as well.
For 4/20 in 2019, Ben & Jerry’s published a detailed blog post digging into issues such as racial disparities in the legal industry, disproportionate arrest rates in states like Colorado and Republican former House Speaker John Boehner’s evolving stance on cannabis—from prohibitionist to marijuana firm board member. It also called out the legal cannabis industry’s problematic willingness to profit while failing to acknowledge the criminal justice reform work that’s still to be done.
Around the 4/20 holiday in 2022, meanwhile, the company called on supporters to pressure the U.S. Senate to approve a House-passed bill that would have ended federal prohibition.
“The Black and Brown community have borne the high cost of cannabis prohibition and the system of mass incarceration that it has fueled, while white men reap the financial benefits of the legalized cannabis industry,” Chris Miller, global head of activism strategy at Ben & Jerry’s, said at the time. “That’s why the Senate must immediately pass legislation that begins to right the wrongs of the decades long war on drugs by legalizing cannabis and expunging records while restoring equity to the booming legal cannabis industry.”
As for other advocacy around 4/20, a group of former cannabis prisoners who received clemency from President Donald Trump during his first held term an event outside the White House on Thursday, expressing gratitude for the relief they received and calling on the Trump administration to grant the same kind of help to others who are still behind bars for cannabis.
As for actual reform at the federal level, a White House spokesperson recently told CNN that the administration currently has “no action” planned on marijuana reform proposals, including those like rescheduling and industry banking access that Trump also endorsed on the campaign trail last year.
The White House has also said that marijuana rescheduling is not a part of Trump’s drug policy priorities for the first year of his second term—a disappointment for advocates and stakeholders who hoped to see him take speedier action.
Former officials with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also recently said that, without proactive advocacy for marijuana rescheduling from Trump personally, the process could stall indefinitely.
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