Several big marijuana companies are baking a new campaign that includes celebrities to enlist marijuana users to pressure Congress to legalize the plant federally.
The “Cannabis in Common” initiative launched Tuesday. The website makes it easier for supporters to email or call their congressional representatives and push for making marijuana legal.
State-licensed pot companies also plan to email their customers, put up posters in shops, add information to their apps and otherwise encourage consumers to get involved.
Legalizing cannabis is long past due, and if we make enough noise, we can make it happen,” actor Seth Rogen, co-founder of a cannabis company.
Comedian Sarah Silverman voiced another, animated promo.
“We just feel there’s a larger, untapped group of individuals that we would love to see weigh in,” said Steve Hawkins, CEO of the U.S. Cannabis Council, an industry-led coalition organizing the campaign with HeadCount, a voter registration group.
The new effort “reaches across all the peccadilloes that every weed interest brings to the table” in hopes of getting past the patchwork of state legislation, said Jeremy Unruh, a senior vice president of PharmCann Inc., which has dispensaries in six states.
“For us, it’s not just about getting federal legalization over the finish line,” says Maritza Perez of the Drug Policy Alliance, which convened the nonprofit-focused Marijuana Justice Coalition in 2018 to push for legalization coupled with other reforms.
“We have a very specific constituency that we are fighting for, and that’s people who have been impacted by prohibition.”
