A national organization and a Michigan-based nonprofit are partnering to raise $30,000 in support of people currently or formerly incarcerated for cannabis-related crimes, hoping to bring an element of justice for those jailed for offenses that would now be legal in Michigan.
The Denver-based Last Prisoner Project has teamed up with the Redemption Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the Redemption Cannabis brand founded by Ryan Basore, to launch the Michigan Cannabis Prisoner Release Campaign, which seeks to secure the release of nonviolent “cannabis prisoners” in Michigan. That includes Michael Thompson, who remains in prison in Muskegon after a 42- to 62-year sentence in 1994 for selling 3 pounds of marijuana to an undercover informant. The fund aims to provide legal and other financial support to cannabis prisoners.
The campaign — which also includes the Cannabis Caucus of the Michigan Democratic Party and FORCE Detroit and has support from more than two dozen private cannabis businesses and groups — comes amid a rapidly shifting legal landscape for cannabis. Michigan voters approved a cannabis legalization ballot measure in 2018, while four more states — South Dakota, Montana, New Jersey and Arizona — approved recreational cannabis in the Nov. 3 election. Fifteen states have now voted to approve or passed legislation legalizing recreational marijuana.
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