Potcast 132: Activate Your Activism
How might you activate your activism right now in a way that feels good for you? The passing of young CBD activist, Charlotte Figi, calls for more lightworkers to join the cannabis movement. Today’s guest on the potcast is no stranger to cannabis activism. Andrew DeAngelo shares his experience walking the walk and gives us practical advice for creating change in our communities. We talk activism, politics, and inspired action.
‘After the Show’ Notes
Andrew DeAngelo is a cannabis industry leader with a proven track record of enacting systemic social change and developing best practices in cannabis. Over two decades as an activist, Andrew worked on a variety of voter initiatives that legalized medical and adult-use cannabis in San Francisco, Washington D.C, and the State of California. As a co-founder and advisor to Harborside, Andrew has pioneered legal cannabis business processes and provided groundbreaking political engagement and thought leadership to the cannabis community — leading the design and development of gold-standard cannabis retail by innovating many “firsts” for the industry. This includes: introducing CBD medicines to heal severely epileptic children, implementing the first lab-testing program in the history of cannabis dispensing, creating child-resistant packaging for edibles, standardizing inventory tracking, initiating senior outreach, and successfully preventing the federal government from seizing Harborside in forfeiture actions against the company in 2012.
Andrew is co-founder and Treasurer of the Board for the non-profit Last Prisoner Project (LPP) and a founding Board of Directors member of the California Cannabis Industry Association (CCIA) where he served from 2013 to 2020.
CONNECT WITH ANDREW DEANGELO: @andrew_deangelo on IG | @Andrew_DeAngelo on Twitter
YOUR ACTIVISM BLUEPRINT
I’m all about working smart, not hard. So, when I ask, “How might you activate your activism right now in a way that feels good for you?” Take into consideration your workload, personal and family obligations, and the things you simply enjoy doing. Are there ways for any of those things to overlap?
For activism to be effectively sustainable, we must find clever ways to build it into our existing routines and favorite activities so that it’s a joyful experience that feeds us as much as it benefits the cause.
And deepen your understanding of your community beyond the local six o’clock news.
Check out your city’s .gov website and find the listing for your city officials: your mayor, your city council members, city attorney, administrator… Start following all of them on social media. If you’re already on Insta or FB or Twitter, you might as well add them to your community field of vision. They’ll be talking about initiatives they’re pushing sprinkled in with posts that will give you a sense of them as a person. In between selfies and funniest, smartest, most amazing kid ever moments, if they’re smart, they also use their social platform to engage with their constituents. So do that.
Be curious and start a dialogue if you’re inspired. Ask smart questions. Be kind. And remember that activism is bridge-building, so drop the ego and always look for points of connection with that person who doesn’t see things like you do.
Speak to someone’s heart; don’t try to reason with them. Share your personal success stories with cannabis, as well as those of other medical cannabis patients, and those who are denied access to the plant medicine.
While you’re perusing your city’s website, check out the current initiatives, programs, upcoming city meetings, and community activities. Add those city council meetings and events to your calendar.
Challenge yourself, your friends, and your family to attend the next one. Do it all together! Grab a bite, a beer, a bowl, or whatever after and discuss what you experienced and heard and what you think about it. What was missing from the dialogue?
Find and join existing cannabis groups and organizations. Be mindful not to fragment your community which will water down your collective voice. There’s power in numbers and necessity in compromise; so don’t be rigid.
That right there is the beginning of activating your activism.
It can go anywhere you take it from there. Because you, my friend, are a powerful creator. And we are most powerful close to home - so get to work in your community in whatever way feels good and inspire others to join you along the way. Let’s continue Charlotte’s web of activism and blanket our world with planet medicine, light, and love.
Kumbaya and cannabis,
Jo
LAST PRISONER PROJECT
As the United States moves away from the criminalization of cannabis, giving rise to a major new industry, there remains the fundamental injustice inflicted upon those who have suffered criminal convictions and the consequences of those convictions.
Through intervention, advocacy, and awareness campaigns the Last Prisoner Project will work to redress the past and continuing harms of these unjust laws and policies.
Sign the petition below to urge the President and the Federal Bureau of Prisons to take the necessary steps to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus on our incarcerated communities.
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