Videos of Act I & Act II of 4/20 Theater

Group photo taken after Act II of 4/20 Theater by Ben Droz

Group Photo taken by Ben Droz after Act II


A big thank you goes out to all the tokin’ thespians who helped write and act in our inaugural rendition of 4/20 Theater! We had a great time acting out our feelings towards the current state of cannabis reform. We hope that by 4/20/24 cannabis will be fully legalized!

Below are our two Facebook livestreams:

ACT I


Watch Act I on Facebook


ACT II


Watch Act II on Facebook


+ Click here to read the 4/20 Theater Script
+ Click here to read our News Advisory
+ Click here to read our Press Release
DCMJ Presents 4/20 Theater on 4/20/23

News Advisory: “4/20 Theater” Takes to the Street to Highlight the Lack of Progress on Cannabis Legalization

DCMJ Presents 4/20 Theater

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Adam Eidinger, Press@DCMJ.org, 202-744-2671

Monday, April 17, 2023

Attn: Morning TV Bookers, DCMJ spokespeople are available for morning interviews at the White House or in studio on 4/20/2023 beginning at 7:00 am.

“4/20 Theater” Takes to the Street to Highlight the Lack of Progress on Cannabis Legalization

New Play Calls Out President Biden and Congress For Their Continued Inaction

WASHINGTON, DC– As Americans gear up to celebrate the annual cannabis holiday of 4/20, DC Marijuana Justice (DCMJ) is taking their message to the streets with “4/20 Theater.” This newly-written, two act play uses guerrilla theater to draw attention to the ongoing struggle for cannabis legalization and highlights the annual political theater surrounding America’s only illegal holiday. This week across the United States, there will be large and small gatherings including smoke-ins, where cannabis users gather to consume cannabis socially, as well as speeches from politicians highlighting progress, even though the plant remains federally illegal. 4/20 Theater is the only known theatrical protest that has been organized across America for April 20th, 2023.

“The public is tired of annual political promises around the 4/20 holiday that have proven to be elaborate dog and pony shows,” says Adam Eidinger, co-founder of DCMJ and proposer of Initiative 71, which legalized cannabis in the District of Columbia. “Elected officials must actually legalize cannabis or at the very least ‘deschedule’ it by White House executive order in order to make amends for their failed policy that has locked up tens of millions of Americans, disproportionately Black and Brown people, for no good reason for over 50 years.”

WHO: Members of DCMJ, Students For Sensible Drug Policy, and Freedom Grow
WHAT: 4/20 Theater, a two act play about cannabis reform in America
WHERE & WHEN:
ACT I, 10am, 4/20/23, Pennsylvania Ave, North of the White House
ACT II, 4pm, 4/20/23, Third Street, between Madison Dr. NW and
Jefferson St. SW, on the National Mall

The script for 4/20 Theater can be found on DCMJ.org  It was written by members of DCMJ, Maryland Marijuana Justice, and Virginia Marijuana Justice using portions of both real and fictitious speeches from elected officials.  Authors and actors are available for interviews at the performances.

ABOUT DC MARIJUANA JUSTICE  Since its founding in 2013, DCMJ has led the nation in creative and high-profile cannabis reform activism. After introducing and passing DC’s Initiative 71 in 2014, which voters legalized the possession and cultivation of cannabis, DCMJ organized three large seed giveaways that provided all adults and Congressional staffers the means to grow cannabis for themselves, deployed giant 51-foot inflatable joints outside the Capitol, the White House, the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Times Square in New York City, the 2016 Presidential Debates, Annapolis Statehouse and Boston’s Freedom Rally, as well as distributing over 10,000 joints of District of Columbia homegrown cannabis at the Inauguration of President Donald Trump, and attempting to distribute 1,227 joints at the congressional “Joint Session” in 2017, where U.S. Capitol Police unlawfully arrested seven DCMJ activists (All charges were dropped the following day). On April 20, 2021, DCMJ distributed more than 4,200 joints at vaccination sites across the District of Columbia in conjunction with its “Joints For Jabs” cannabis giveaway, which was spontaneously adopted around the U.S., including by the State of Washington. DCMJ demands cannabis be removed from the Controlled Substances Act and all Americans are given the right to grow cannabis in the safety and privacy of their homes.

###

Click here to download a copy of this press release

4/20 Theater After Party

Join DCMJ for our 4/20 Theater After Party!

….Do you have plans for 4/20 evening?

NOW YOU DO! 

Get ready to celebrate cannabis freedom in style at the ultimate 420 after party!

Join DCMJ, the masterminds behind Initiative 71, at the DC Activist Art House on Thursday, April 20, 2023 from 7:20 PM until midnight.

You won’t want to miss this electrifying evening of live entertainment, infused foods, and a gong session by the talented Mary Gellen. Groove to the sounds of LoverSnack from San Diego servin’ up Afro-beats & thumpy treats as you soak up the fragrant atmosphere of the nation’s capital.

Hosted by Adam Eidinger, the original proposer of Initiative 71, this event promises to be a night to remember. Whether you’re a cannabis enthusiast or simply looking to have a good time, you’ll love the relaxed, inclusive vibe of this after party.

While entry is free for DCMJ volunteers, we kindly suggest a $20 donation at the door to help us offset the cost of the event. So grab your friends, spread the word, and get ready to celebrate the power of cannabis freedom with DCMJ! See you there!

WHO: DCMJ volunteers and cannabis crusaders
WHAT: 4/20 Theater After Party
WHEN: 7:20pm-11:59pm, 4/20/23
WHERE: 2627 Evarts St. NE

Click Here to RSVP on Facebook!

4/20 Theater Script

ACT I will be performed outside of the White House on Pennsylvania Ave. NW at 10:00am on 4/20 and ACT II will be performed that afternoon at 4:20pm on the 3rd Street sidewalk on the National Mall. If you would like to participate in DCMJ’s 4/20 Theater, please sign up! For more information about 4/20 Theater, please read our recent news advisory.

DCMJ Presents 4/20 Theater

Roles for Act I:

Narrator

News Anchors
Claire Skies
Ron Burgundy
Stephen Colbert
Tucker Carlson

Activists
Woody
Willie
Mary – Kris Furnish
Jane – Rosina Memolo
DEA Agent
Agent Smith

Politicians
Old Biden
Young Biden
Ghost of Richard Nixon

Props:
White House mirror, remote for TV, couch, prison bars, tables, bong and weed

Volunteer Roles:
Stage set up (2)
Sound person (1)
Prop handler (1)
Video (2)
Photos (1) 


ACT I

Script + Stage Direction in Italic bold

Staged in front of the White House, Willie, Woody, Mary and Jane are sitting on the couch watching TV. Woody has a remote in his hand pointing at the White House like it’s a TV and clicking the buttons. Willie holds a sign that says “Fade In” lays it down, lights a joint and passes it back and forth a few times taking hits. TV Prop

NARRATOR: DCMJ is proud to present 420 Theater 
Continue reading

Press Release: Cannabis Activists Predict More “4/20 Theater” in 2023

You might not realize it, but you are both an audience member and a participant in the annual 4/20 Theater. You see, every year around the cannabis community’s favorite holiday, we get a bunch of performative speeches and statements from elected officials about cannabis reform. This year we are going to highlight the annual dog & pony show  with our own 4/20 Theater and we’ve written a press release below for you to read, share, and, hopefully, sign up to participate. Our next 4/20 Theater Zoom Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 13 at 8pm and all tokin’ thespians (YOU!) are invited!

DCMJ Presents 4/20 Theater

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Adam Eidinger, Press@DCMJ.org, 202-744-2671

Tuesday, February 28, 2023

Cannabis Activists Predict More “4/20 Theater” in 2023

Protest Street Theater to Expose President Biden and Congressional Inaction

WASHINGTON, DC – April 20th, better known as 4/20, is the day cannabis consumers celebrate the cannabis plant in our society, but every year the holiday passes without the federal government taking action. Across the United States there are large and small gatherings including smoke-ins, where cannabis users gather to consume cannabis socially.  Every year there is, without fail, a news cycle around 4/20. American politicians, aiming to remain relevant to the cannabis community of voters, will issue press releases and statements highlighting their ongoing support for cannabis reform. However, repeatedly at the federal level nothing gets done – no new laws get passed, people still get arrested, billions of dollars are wasted on policing, and cannabis continues to remain the most consumed illegal substance in America.

The harm caused by the endless performative actions by politicians will be highlighted by DC Marijuana Justice (DCMJ) this April with their new protest strategy called 4/20 Theater

“The public is tired of annual political promises around the 4/20 holiday that have proven to be elaborate dog and pony shows,” says Adam Eidinger, co-founder of DCMJ and proposer of Initiative 71, which legalized cannabis in the District of Columbia. “Elected officials must actually legalize cannabis or at the very least ‘deschedule’ it by White House executive order in order to make amends for their failed policy that has locked up tens of millions of Americans, disproportionately Black and Brown people, for no good reason for over 50 years.”    

As a community group, DCMJ is inviting members of the public to participate in the planned 4/20 Theater to be performed at the White House and Capitol Hill on April 20, 2023. There will be a series of Zoom meetings through March and early April where the script and ultimately casting and rehearsals will take place for what is expected to be a no holds barred portrayal of how national political leaders exploit the cannabis issue but rarely change a thing while people continue to be incarcerated for the plant.  The next Zoom is scheduled for Thursday, April 13 at 8pmMembers of the public and the media can register to attend by signing here.

“It’s a tragedy that elected officials have gotten away with faking reform, so we decided it’s time we shine a bright green spotlight on the federal government’s 4/20 theater of the absurd,” said Nikolas Schiller, co-founder of DCMJ. 

ABOUT DC MARIJUANA JUSTICE  Since its founding in 2013, DCMJ has led the nation in creative and high-profile cannabis reform activism. After introducing and passing DC’s Initiative 71 in 2014, which voters legalized the possession and cultivation of cannabis, DCMJ organized three large seed giveaways that provided all adults and Congressional staffers the means to grow cannabis for themselves, deployed giant 51-foot inflatable joints outside the Capitol, the White House, the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Times Square in New York City, the 2016 Presidential Debates, Annapolis Statehouse and Boston’s Freedom Rally, as well as distributing over 10,000 joints of District of Columbia homegrown cannabis at the Inauguration of President Donald Trump, and attempting to distribute 1,227 joints at the congressional “Joint Session” in 2017, where U.S. Capitol Police unlawfully arrested seven DCMJ activists (All charges were dropped the following day). On April 20, 2021, DCMJ distributed more than 4,200 joints at vaccination sites across the District of Columbia in conjunction with its “Joints For Jabs” cannabis giveaway, which was spontaneously adopted around the U.S., including by the State of Washington. DCMJ demands cannabis be removed from the Controlled Substances Act and all Americans are given the right to grow cannabis in the safety and privacy of their homes.

###

Click here to download a copy of this press release

INVITE: First 4:20 Zoom Sesh of 2023 (1/31/23)

See you at the first 420 Zoom Sesh of 2023!

Throughout 2023 DCMJ is hosting periodic online gatherings. Our next 4:20 Zoom Sesh is scheduled to commence at 4:00pm on Tuesday, January 31, 2023. We’d love for you to join us!

To join the 4:20 Zoom Sesh, please click here to register (required!). You can help spread the word by RSVPing on Facebook and inviting some of your friends.

We will send out a reminder email with the Zoom link and passcode to everyone who registers about one hour before the 420 Zoom Sesh begins. Questions or suggested Agenda items? Please email 420ZoomSesh@DCMJ.org

Press Release: DCMJ Statement on the Release of Brittney Griner

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACTS:
Adam Eidinger, Press@DCMJ.org
202-744-2671

Ken  Bazinet, Ken@DCMJ.org
202-660-2449

Thursday,  December 8, 2022

DCMJ Applauds President Biden For Negotiating the Release of Brittney Griner and Calls on President Biden to Free the 2,800 Federal Cannabis Prisoners Before Christmas

WASHINGTON, DC – DC Marijuana Justice, Maryland Marijuana Justice, Virginia Marijuana Justice, and New York Marijuana Justice (DCMJ, MDMJ, VAMJ, NYMJ, collectively known as “the MJs”) are pleased to hear that WNBA basketball player Brittney Griner has been released from Russian prison. After having been tried and convicted of possessing a small amount of cannabis oil at a Russian airport earlier this year, she was released in exchange for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout. We are happy that she is on her way back to the United States in time for Christmas, but call upon President Biden to release all domestic cannabis prisoners before Christmas.

“Brittney Griner was unjustly imprisoned, a pawn used by Russia’s Putin, so it is remarkable the President slammed-dunked, gaining her freedom by releasing one of the worst people on earth who had zero moral equivalency to Griner and her ‘crime.’ With President Biden on the path to cannabis legalization, he can now show the same enthusiasm for freedom for thousands of Americans in federal prisons for cannabis offenses,” says Adam Eidinger, co-founder of DCMJ, and organizer of the “Free Brittney” demonstration outside of the Russian Embassy in Washington, DC on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2022. Eidinger asks, “Why is releasing Russian arms dealers morally OK when we won’t release American cannabis farmers in federal prison?”

“The weapons that Viktor Bout sold invariably led to hundreds if not thousands of deaths, the same can’t be said for the federal cannabis prisoners who got locked up for growing cannabis plants in the US,” says Kris Furnish, co-founder of MDMJ, which recently helped pass Question 4, which will legalize cannabis cultivation and possession in Maryland. “The United States government is showing that one cannabis prisoner in Russia is more important than thousands of American cannabis prisoners,” concludes Furnish.

By most estimates there are about 2,800 federal cannabis prisoners who were not pardoned in October because they were convicted of charges more serious than simple possession. In some states cannabis oil is legally treated as hash oil and has stiffer penalties than simple possession of unprocessed cannabis.

“The Griner family will get a special present this year, but so many families won’t receive the gift of presence,” says RachelRamone Donlan, co-founder of VAMJ. “There are thousands of families across the United States who wish they were as lucky as Brittney, and President Biden has the power to bring all of the cannabis prisoners home for Christmas.”

ABOUT DC MARIJUANA JUSTICE
Since its founding in 2013, DCMJ has led the nation in creative and high-profile cannabis reform activism. After introducing and passing DC’s Initiative 71 in 2014, which voters legalized the possession and cultivation of cannabis, DCMJ organized three large seed giveaways that provided all adults and Congressional staffers the means to grow cannabis for themselves, deployed giant 51-foot inflatable joints outside the Capitol, the White House, the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Times Square in New York City, the 2016 Presidential Debates, Annapolis Statehouse and Boston’s Freedom Rally, as well as distributing over 10,000 joints of District of Columbia homegrown cannabis at the Inauguration of President Donald Trump, and attempting to distribute 1,227 joints at the congressional “Joint Session” in 2017, where U.S. Capitol Police unlawfully arrested seven DCMJ activists (All charges were dropped the following day). DCMJ will distribute more than 4,200 joints at vaccination sites across the District of Columbia on April 20, 2021 in conjunction with its upcoming “Joints For Jabs” cannabis giveaway. In 2018, 2019, and 2021, aligned organizations MDMJ, VAMJ , COMJ, and NYMJ were formed to advocate for cannabis reform in Maryland, Virginia, Colorado, and New York. In 2021, DCMJ conceptualized and launched the “Joints for Jabs” coronavirus vaccination incentive program that was spontaneously adopted around the U.S., including by the State of Washington. DCMJ demands cannabis be removed from the Controlled Substances Act and all Americans are given the right to grow cannabis in the safety and privacy of their homes.

###


Click here to download a PDF of this Press Release

Press Release: Feds Cannabis Banking Must Not Come Before Cannabis Civil Rights

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACTS:
Adam Eidinger, Press@DCMJ.org
202-744-2671

Ken  Bazinet, kennethrbazinet@gmail.com
202-660-2449

Wednesday,  December 7, 2022

Feds Cannabis Banking Must Not Come Before Cannabis Civil Rights

Congress Will Kill Legalization in Favor of a Backroom Deal on Big Pot Banking Bill
Plan is to Keep Harris Amendment in Force, Again Overturning Will of D.C. Voters
DCMJ and Allies Warn Legalization is Dead Without a Vote on the MORE Act

WASHINGTON, DC – During the lame duck session of the 117th Congress, education and advocacy organization District of Columbia Marijuana Justice (DCMJ) calls on Senate Democrats to pass the MORE Act, not the SAFE Banking Act. The SAFE Banking Act will do nothing for the average cannabis consumer and only helps the fat cat cannabis industry executives move massive amounts of money across state lines. Moreover, the passage of the SAFE Banking Act does nothing to remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act, which will allow the federal budget rider sponsored by Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) that prevents the creation of a retail cannabis market in the nation’s capital to remain in place for another year, possibly two. Voters in Washington, D.C. approved full legalization in 2014, but the Harris rider has prevented the D.C. government from passing legislation to reduce penalties for any Schedule I substance, including the taxation and regulation of retail cannabis sales.

If the Senate were to pass the MORE Act, the Harris rider would become moot because his rider only concerns Schedule I substances listed in the Controlled Substances Act and the MORE Act would fully remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act. The SAFE Banking Act is seen by cannabis consumers as a means for corporate cannabis conglomerates to get a leg up over legacy businesses.

“There is no marijuana justice in the SAFE Banking Act. How does Congress justify allowing the cannabis industry to have access to the federal banking system at the same time it doesn’t allow voting age Americans to have access to legal cannabis under federal law? It’s like legalizing money laundering,” said DCMJ co-founder Adam Eidinger.

“But the true irony here is Congress fully intends to give the cannabis industry a big gift at the same time it tells D.C. voters to ‘go to hell, your vote doesn’t matter.’ It’s hard to grasp the Democratic congressional leadership allowing corporate rights to supersede civil rights, but that is the path they are on,” Eidinger added.

At the center of the problem is a group of Republican senators, who say they will back the industry getting to use federal insured banks, but they won’t support an outright legalization bill that includes sweeping criminal justice reforms and equity guarantees. At the very least, Democrats should demand a public up or down vote on SAFE Banking in the Senate so everyone can be on the record. Instead, the plan at the moment is to attach SAFE Banking as a rider to the Pentagon budget, omnibus budget bill, or a continuing resolution just as Congress does in the case of the Harris Amendment, which is also tacked on to the federal budget.

“The MORE Act is what the majority of Americans want. The Senate Democrats should pass the MORE Act today,” said DCMJ co-founder Nikolas Schiller, who also co-founded New York Marijuana Justice in Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s home state. “If Congress passes the SAFE Banking during the lame duck session, we can kiss good-bye any hope for federal legalization until after the 2024 elections. The true legalization advocates in Congress will lose the little leverage they have to try to find more votes for full legalization over the next two years. The House already passed the MORE Act, so Sen. Schumer should act now.”

Kris Furnish, who co-founded Maryland Marijuana Justice (MDMJ) added, “The American people will not get the freedom to choose to use cannabis, and once again the will of the voters of the District of Columbia will be rejected. This is not what the leadership promised cannabis voters before last month’s elections. We were led to believe we would get a vote on outright legalization. We’re sick of being lied to by our elected leaders. We elected them believing they are fighting for us, but clearly they are not loyal to their constituents.”

Co-founder of Virginia Marijuana Justice (VAMJ) RachelRamone Donlan called it “disgraceful for Congress to sell out full legalization for an industry give-away, but it is unconscionable to do so while you ignore the will of D.C. voters by once again passing the Harris cannabis prohibition rider at the same time.”

ABOUT DC MARIJUANA JUSTICE
Since its founding in 2013, DCMJ has led the nation in creative and high-profile cannabis reform activism. After introducing and passing DC’s Initiative 71 in 2014, which voters legalized the possession and cultivation of cannabis, DCMJ organized three large seed giveaways that provided all adults and Congressional staffers the means to grow cannabis for themselves, deployed giant 51-foot inflatable joints outside the Capitol, the White House, the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Times Square in New York City, the 2016 Presidential Debates, Annapolis Statehouse and Boston’s Freedom Rally, as well as distributing over 10,000 joints of District of Columbia homegrown cannabis at the Inauguration of President Donald Trump, and attempting to distribute 1,227 joints at the congressional “Joint Session” in 2017, where U.S. Capitol Police unlawfully arrested seven DCMJ activists (All charges were dropped the following day). DCMJ will distribute more than 4,200 joints at vaccination sites across the District of Columbia on April 20, 2021 in conjunction with its upcoming “Joints For Jabs” cannabis giveaway. In 2018, 2019, and 2021, aligned organizations MDMJ, VAMJ , COMJ, and NYMJ were formed to advocate for cannabis reform in Maryland, Virginia, Colorado, and New York. In 2021, DCMJ conceptualized and launched the “Joints for Jabs” coronavirus vaccination incentive program that was spontaneously adopted around the U.S., including by the State of Washington. DCMJ demands cannabis be removed from the Controlled Substances Act and all Americans are given the right to grow cannabis in the safety and privacy of their homes.

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Click here to download a PDF of this Press Release

Press Release: Don’t Be A Turkey, Pardon Cannabis Prisoners

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACTS:
Nikolas Schiller, 202-643-3878
Kris Furnish, 720-607-8369
Press@DCMJ.org

Thursday, November 17, 2022

Don’t Be A Turkey, Pardon Cannabis Prisoners

“Marijuana” Reform Groups Call on President Biden to Pardon Over 2,800 Federal Cannabis Prisoners, Not Turkeys.

PRESIDENT BIDEN, Pardon Cannabis Prisoners, not Turkeyes!WASHINGTON, DC – Pardoning turkeys before Thanksgiving has been an annual tradition at the White House since the Kennedy administration. This year DC Marijuana Justice (DCMJ), Maryland Marijuana Justice (MDMJ), Virginia Marijuana Justice (VAMJ), and New York Marijuana Justice (NYMJ) call on President Biden to show some grace for the 2,800 people serving time in federal prison for cannabis “crimes” and pardon cannabis inmates instead of pardoning turkeys.

“There are people serving life sentences for cannabis, and we want the President to honor his commitment to release everyone in prison for cannabis now,” says Adam Eidinger, co-founder of DCMJ and proposer of Initiative 71, which legalized cannabis in the District of Columbia in 2014. “These prisoners should be freed and allowed to come home for the holidays.”

Very few Americans are federally charged with “simple possession of cannabis” and none were serving time when the executive order was announced. “Just like the annual turkey pardon is ceremonial, so was President Biden’s recent marijuana pardon announcement in October,” said Kris Furnish, co-founder of MDMJ.  

“The turkeys that President Biden will pardon have names. So do the thousands of cannabis prisoners stuck in both federal and state jails.” says Nikolas Schiller, co-founder of DCMJ and founder of NYMJ. “We call on the President to go one step further and pardon Americans for all cannabis offenses such as distribution and cultivation. It’s these prisoners who need President Biden’s pardon the most,” concludes Schiller.

Cannabis reform advocates, including members from the Marijuana Justice Groups, Students for Sensible Drug Policy and the Last Prisoner Project, gathered outside the White House last month to call on President Biden to do more but the administration has done nothing further. Advocates believe that President Biden’s performative inaction is condemnable because the majority of Americans agree that cannabis should be federally legal, and people are serving unjustly long sentences for nonviolent cannabis “offenses”. 

“Pardoning turkeys instead of humans is offensive,” says RachelRamone Donlan, co-founder of VAMJ, who helped pass legalized cannabis in the Commonwealth. “There are thousands of human beings locked inside of cages, some serving life sentences for what is now legal, and it’s time for them to come home.”  

The power of pardoning has been used since George Washington, and was originally intended to right a wrong. It’s not a joke to those that desperately hope President Biden will keep his promises. 

“Although the American ceremony of pardoning turkeys is typically seen as a warm, lighthearted and well-loved, seasonal tradition, please remember families are missing their loved ones at the dinner table on Thanksgiving Day because they are incarcerated, as our president mocks a power that could ultimately unite these families,” said Eidinger. “There is nothing that we want more than to see President Biden keep his promises so that families can reunite and be together on Thanksgiving Day and everyday.”

Last year, at the annual turkey pardon, President Biden made the following remark concerning COVID, however, it rings true for bringing cannabis prisoners home.

“In all seriousness, it’s important to continue traditions like this to remind us how from the darkness, there’s light and hope and progress and – that’s what this year’s Thanksgiving, in my view, represents. So many of us will be gathering with our loved ones for the first time in a long time. And we’ll be reconnecting with traditions, with our tables and our hearts full of grace and gratitude for everyone who made it possible.” 

Unlike COVID, which we have very little power over, President Biden has full power to bring cannabis prisoners home.

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Click here to download a PDF of this press release

Yesterday, Marijuana Moment wrote about how the White House touted Biden’s Marijuana Pardons Among ‘Top Accomplishments’ For Administration. That’s some tofurky malarky!

We decided to take the graphic that the White House published and do a little Photoshop to remind him there is still more work to be done! Notice that unchecked box above?

DCMJ’s Statement on President Biden’s Pardon Pledge

STATEMENT FROM DCMJ

ON

PRESIDENT BIDEN’S

CANNABIS PARDON PLEDGE

Today’s announcement by President Biden is a seminal moment for cannabis reform in the United States. We applaud the White House for taking steps to undo the harms of the drug war for some people convicted of simple possession of cannabis.

However, we also call upon the President to do more. Very few Americans are federally charged with simple possession of cannabis and even fewer remain behind bars. In fact, there is no one currently in federal jail for simple cannabis possession. We call on the President to go one step further and pardon Americans convicted of other nonviolent cannabis offenses such as distribution and cultivation. It’s these prisoners who need President Biden’s pardon the most.

With respect to working with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice on rescheduling cannabis out of Schedule I, we call on the President to work with Congress to completely remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act. Moving cannabis to Schedule II, where it would join cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine, will still perpetuate the failed war on drugs and continue to allow adults to be arrested for possession, consumption, distribution, and cultivation. Simply put, we want cannabis to be entirely descheduled. As a natural plant, we believe cannabis should have never been placed in the CSA.

Members of DC Marijuana Justice were instrumental in the drafting and passage of Ballot Initiative 71 in the fall of 2014 in Washington, DC. This ballot initiative was the first piece of legislation that legalized the possession, distribution, and cultivation of cannabis on the East Coast of the United States. Shortly before becoming law, Republicans in Congress passed a budgetary rider that prohibited the government of the District of Columbia from passing any new legislation that reduced penalties for any Schedule I substance.

Should the White House move forward with the removal of cannabis from Schedule I, the District of Columbia will be allowed to enact much needed local cannabis reforms. DCMJ looks forward to working with the Council of the District of Columbia in helping draft more robust legislation that will empower more Americans that were impacted by the failed war on drugs to become entrepreneurs in the budding cannabis industry.

Earlier this week DCMJ, along with our sister chapters in Maryland, Virginia, and New York, had called upon President Biden to release 100 cannabis prisoners this month or we would join Students for Sensible Drug Policy and the Last Prisoner Project in a series of demonstrations on October 24. This demonstration has not been canceled due to today’s announcement.

We are unaware of 100 cannabis prisoners being released at this time. Moreover, the demonstrations will continue to highlight the need for the White House to fully deschedule cannabis and the Democratic Party to take cannabis reform seriously. Like we seriously want Congress to pass full legalization and we seriously want to see the names of all cannabis prisoners who are being released.

From free joints at Trump’s inauguration, to Joints for Jabs outside Covid vaccine centers, to free cannabis seeds, DCMJ has been at the forefront of politically motivated cannabis distribution. In all the pounds of cannabis we have given away over the last 7 years, we didn’t get arrested for distribution because we used the plant as a form of free speech. Today there are many cannabis growers and entrepreneurs who remain locked up because they were not charged with simple cannabis possession, but with cultivation and distribution. They used the plant to help feed their families and to help terminally-ill friends, and are considered heroes to many cannabis activists. They deserve pardons too.


In less than two weeks, on Wednesday, October 19, are are linking up with our sister groups for a special Zoom Sesh. Today’s announcement will be one of our topics of discussion .Please put it on your calendar and join us!

WHO: Supporters of Releasing Cannabis Prisoners
WHAT: DCMJ / MDMJ / VAMJ / NYMJ Zoom SeshCivil Disobedience Edition
WHEN: 7pm EST, October 19, 2022
WHERE: Zoom (Click here to Register!)
WHY: President Biden needs to uphold his campaign promise and immediately release at least 100 cannabis prisoners

SOCIAL: RSVP on Facebook