| Minimum government, maximum freedom—that’s the slogan of the Libertarian Party. That’s also the hope of many advocates pushing for cannabis legalization at the federal level.
That said, there was no conundrum surrounding the selection of a name for a quartet of prominent national advocacy groups that officially joined efforts earlier this week: The Cannabis Freedom Alliance coalition launched Tuesday to end the prohibition, criminalization and overregulation of cannabis in the United States. The coalition includes Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the Koch brothers’ primary political advocacy group and one of the most influential organizations in conservative politics.
David Koch was the Libertarian Party’s vice-presidential candidate in 1980—when he and running mate Ed Clark received 1.1% of the vote—while Charles Koch funds and supports libertarian organizations. The Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank, is also a steering member of the Cannabis Freedom Alliance quartet.
With bigwig influencers like the Koch brothers on board, federal legalization could receive the extra thrust it needs in the Senate for passage of the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, which would remove cannabis from the list of scheduled substances under the Controlled Substance Act. While Democrats now represent 50 votes in the upper chamber, drawing 10 Republican senators on board could dismantle the possibility of a filibuster.
But the whole idea of the Cannabis Freedom Alliance took root when a trio of strange bedfellows connected on a Zoom call last summer: rapper and cannabis enthusiast Snoop Dogg; billionaire Charles Koch; and criminal justice reform advocate Weldon Angelos, as first reported by Politico.
Angelos, the founder of Mission Green/The Weldon Project, a nonprofit that advocates for the release of individuals incarcerated for cannabis offenses, and a steering member of the Cannabis Freedom Alliance, told Politico that he knew Koch’s position on drugs was very libertarian but did not know that he supported the legalization of all drugs.
Angelos was 25 when he was sentenced to 55 years in federal prison for three counts of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime involving cannabis, but he was released in 2016, after serving nearly 13 years, when a federal court granted him a reduction in sentence, according to the nonprofit Families Against Mandatory Minimums.
While the push for federal and state-by-state cannabis legalization has long been bolstered by nonprofits like the Drug Policy Alliance and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML)—both left-leaning organizations—and is more often supported by Democrat lawmakers, the shifting tide of public acceptance for cannabis coupled with awareness continue to bring Republicans across the aisle. In Pennsylvania, state Sen. Dan Laughlin (R) said in February he didn’t know what would stand for more freedom than the adult-use bill he sponsors.
If the new Cannabis Freedom Alliance coalition has the reach to sway more lawmakers, like Laughlin, to supporting federal legalization, then cannabis reform stands a chance of gaining 60 votes in the U.S. Senate this Congress. Proponents should take all the help they can get.
-Tony Lange, Associate Editor | 