In this blog, we share some new videos produced as part of our Blaksox - Transform allyship about a growing UK cannabis legalisation movement which centers on promoting social and racial justice.

The Blaksox - Transform allyship seeks to ensure that Black voices are amplified as we move towards drug law reform in the UK. This is a key focus of our new campaign to accelerate cannabis reform in the UK.

Legalisation of cannabis and other drugs is not an end in itself. Issues of social and racial justice must take centre stage to ensure that new legal industries help to build a fairer and more equitable society.

Kassandra Frederique, Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance:

At a community event held in Hackney London last year, Kassandra Frederique, executive director at the Drug Policy Alliance, described the legalisation and regulation of cannabis as an almost unique opportunity to stop the harms and injustices that continue to be inflicted on Black communities through discriminatory law enforcement and policing under drug prohibition.

The Blaksox - Transform allyship is committed to ensuring drug policy debates focus on the needs of those most impacted, and that future policy is created to empower these communities.

Legalisation must serve as a force for good and serve as an opportunity to create positive change, rather than perpetuating harm, for Black communities.

WE NEED A MOVEMENT

Viv Ahmun from Blaksox Explains:

When cannabis is legally regulated in the UK, Black leadership needs to be in the driving seat of this process.

Legal cannabis is a potentially lucrative industry - in terms of generating profit and tax revenue. We have an opportunity and, we would argue, a moral responsibility to actively ensure these benefits accrue to the marginalised communities disproportionately harmed by prohibition - significantly UK Black community - and that regulation does not simply recreate the inequities of prohibition by serving privileged individuals who felt few negative effects of prohibition, yet are in pole position to benefit from new legal markets.

As legal cannabis markets have been rolled out across the United States, a key developing theme has been the role of social equity programmes and equitable licensing policies that seek to promote access to the market for marginalised or impacted communities. The aim of these programmes is to ensure that marginalised and disproportionately impacted communities are able to profit from legal cannabis sales.

For example, this report proposes 14 social equity principles to ensure a just, fair, and equitable UK cannabis market. To ensure these principles effectively address the systemic harms caused by drug prohibition, it is essential that Black communities play a central role in shaping and leading an inclusive, grassroots-driven policymaking process. Such an approach will ensure that the reforms genuinely reflect their needs, lived experiences, and aspirations.

Last year, we went to Massachusetts to learn more about how legally regulated cannabis is working out in practice. We met Devin Alexander, who was arrested while he was at high school for minor possession of cannabis, now he is a legitimate cannabis entrepreneur. Here’s his story:

The tangible successes of these measures has so far been limited, but practice is evolving, and social equity needs to be a central policy focus going forwards in the UK.

Such policies need to be designed with Black communities to guarantee that they are genuinely the beneficiaries. If social and racial justice is prioritised, the emerging cannabis industry should create real opportunities for the Black community to be part of a new, economic power.

Fighting for Black rights

For years, Transform has been working globally on designing cannabis markets that work in the best interests of society, we deserve to have the same in the UK.

We have launched a crowdfunder to raise £50,000 to take these conversations forward and to build a movement to legalise UK cannabis. The goal is to protect our young people, promote health and social justice, and reduce crime.

We will work with experts and impacted communities to co-develop a model for adult-use cannabis regulation in the UK, a roadmap for how to deliver it, alongside analysis of the economic opportunities of a regulated market.

If you care about social and racial justice your support can make a real difference. Please consider donating and joining us in shaping a safer, fairer future.

Be a part of the movement. Be a part of the Blaksox and Transform allyship.

You can view all the videos in the series here.