Journalist Reports on Dark Side of Last Prisoner Project
Lynn Lyman, former California director of the Drug Policy Alliance and co-founder of the nonprofit group Los Angeles Regional Reentry Partnership (LARRP), is one such person. “What LPP is doing is so problematic because they are coming into a space and soaking up the very scarce resources that exist.” LARRP has only raised $7,500 from the cannabis industry, despite the racially charged summer of 2020 and being led by two African American men who personally spent time in federal prisons. Lyman calls George Floyd’s killing a “racial awakening moment” that made it “even more obnoxious that this white organization has ramped up their ability to grow off of this movement instead of supporting grassroots efforts.”
She also notes how donations from outside the cannabis industry dropped off after talk of the billions the industry would make. Donors moved funds to other causes, expecting the industry to more than make up with donations of their own. Instead the donations simply stopped, or ended up in the hands of LPP.
According to it’s 2019 tax filing, eight months after its founding in April, LPP had raised a little over $240,000, spending $90,000 on executive director and general counsel Sarah Gersten, and $54,579 on Director Mary Bailey. Leaving approximately $100,000 for other listed expenses, such as professional fundraising fees, advertising, and travel. LPP’s 2020 filing is expected to be much larger, as the bulk of their fundraising has taken place over the past year.
LPP’s board consists of not only DeAngelo, but Melissa Etheridge, Jim Belushi, and Damian and Stephen Marley. Belushi, who started his own brand ‘Belushi Farms’, hosted a $1,000 dollar a plate cannabis dinner which raised $30,000 dollars alone. While grassroots advocates welcome the attention to the cause, and understand how celebrities attract more money, they are concerned that the attention and resources are being used more for corporate branding and advertising, than actual social justice.
Jane West, an advocate with a cannabis lifestyle brand, questions how LPP manages to run so many different and varied programs when their staff primarily consist of celebrities with little to no experience with the actual work.
The report even questions LPP’s beginnings. Two months before the founding of LPP a prison reform activist named Weldon Angelos called a meeting of cannabis professionals in Los Angeles to discuss his idea for an NPO called the Weldon Project, which would make the release of those imprisoned for drugs it’s mission. Angelos served part of a 55 year sentence, before being granted clemency by Obama then a pardon by Trump. DeAngelo was one of the cannabis professionals in attendance at the meeting.
After showing interest in becoming a board member for the cannabis specific part of the Weldon Project, known as Mission Green, former volunteer Stephanie Le sent DeAngelo details of their program, before DeAngelo declined and started LPP.
Le says in a surprise move LPP then contacted Mission Green asking to work with them, but she became suspicious, “I started to get really uncomfortable because they were asking me really specific questions like ‘Who are the first 10 hires for Mission Green and can you give us their contact info?’” She states she also gave DeAngelo an idea for a Mission Green sticker project that co-branded with cannabis companies, which LPP then used.
Other reported suspicious incidents also include meetings involving DeAngelo where new ideas are expressed, or information is shared with DeAngelo, by grassroots organizations, prior to LPP suddenly coming up with a new program that mimics theirs.
DeAngelo called for unity in an effort to accomplish “great things” and stated that, “We all need to get together and figure out how to work together without stepping on toes and disrespecting each others’ hard work.”
Conservative Group Applauds Biden's ONDCP Pick
In the email, written by President and co-founder of SAM Dr. Kevin Sabet, he expresses how honored he was to work with LaBelle during her time as ONDCP Chief of Staff under the Obama administration. SAM then claims to be ‘hitting the ground running’ and announce they have sent LaBelle a comprehensive roadmap for drug policy.
“Chief among” their ideas for drug reform include removing criminal penalties for marijuana and replacing them with “directions to brief interventions, and, if necessary, treatment.” Also expressed is the belief that “sensible policies, like increasing research, removing barriers to data gathering, and reforming federal laws in these areas are tangible policy outcomes that can be accomplished without the establishment of a commercial marijuana industry.” and that “Furthermore, given the widespread five-alarm fire that we are seeing with increases in substance use, the position of Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy must be re-elevated to its former status as a Cabinet-level position, with the Director’s position on marijuana mirroring that of the President-Elect.”
SAM concludes by stating they are also urging Biden to “immediately implement a public awareness campaign seeking to discourage young people from using marijuana and educating parents on today’s high potency marijuana.”
