By Kerry Cannon
With 33 states, and The District of Columbia, having legalized Cannabis, in one way or another, it would seem that Cannabis Prohibition is ending. Unfortunately, this could not be further from the truth.
New Federal data shows that Cannabis arrests actually rose in 2018. Approximately 91% of Cannabis arrests last year, were for simple possession. That’s 608,776 victimless possession arrests in 2018. Up from roughly 599,282 victimless possession arrests in 2017.
The majority of people in The US support Cannabis legalization. More and more states are legalizing. Yet arrest rates are not decreasing. Prosecutions are still happening, even in so called “legal states”. Countless people are still in prison over a plant.
Lance Gloor is serving a 10 year Federal prison sentence for legal medical Cannabis in Washington state. Before the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment became law in 2014, the federal government had tax payer funds that were used to prosecute state legal Cannabis pioneers. Lance Gloor is one of many who were prosecuted under federal law, while being compliant with state legal Cannabis laws.
Lance Gloor’s injustice haunted me. I have never met Lance in person. In fact, I’ve never heard his voice. I was able to attend one day of Lance’s federal trial as court support in 2015. The testimony given by the federal officer that day, did not convince me that Lance had done anything wrong or illegal. (Neither has anything I discovered doing my due diligence- researching Lance’s case and his character.) If anything, the testimony given that day, proved what a waste of tax payer $ prosecuting for Cannabis is. Lance Gloor was denied his constitutional right to an evidentiary hearing. What was presented to the jury as evidence, was a stretch of a story to portray Lance in a way that I’ve yet to see any actual evidence of.
Ultimately the jury judged Lance on violation of federal law. This resulted in a 10 year federal prison sentence. Had the jurors been aware of their Jury Nullification rights and exercised them, I’ve no doubt that Lance Gloor would have walked away from his trial a free man. A family would have never been torn apart over a healing plant.
I began working in the Cannabis industry a couple of years after Lance’s trial. Everyday at work, it was always in the back of my head that Lance is behind bars for doing what I was now collecting a paycheck for. I was connected with Lance’s mom Tracie Gloor-Pike on Facebook. After reading several of her pleas for the Cannabis Community to help her son, I knew I needed to do something to help.
After pondering ideas on how exactly I could help, it hit me. Wearing a safer shirt (safershirts.org) was my greatest activism tool. I was already a safer stenciler, who painted shirts in line with Jared Allaway’s ‘Marijuana is safer than __fill in the blank___ ‘ message. With the Seattle Cannabis Freedom March 2018 approaching, I made a “Free Lance Gloor” stencil, out of materials from the dollar store, and painted several shirts for The March. I wore one there and gave the rest away, in an effort to begin the #FreeLanceGloor public awareness campaign. It worked. Shortly after the movement to free federal Plant Prisoner Lance Gloor, took off. Mac Doc Codispoti (AKA Safer Stencils) gladly jumped right in to relieve me of stencil making duties. RIP Doc. We couldn’t have grown this movement without you.
I was the nobody, who decided to be the somebody, to do something about it. Beyond painting, and sending out Free Lance Gloor shirts, I began to encourage others who support Lance Gloor’s freedom, to hand write up a quick sign, with the 3 words “Free Lance Gloor” take a photo holding their sign, and upload to social media. The purpose to bring about greater public awareness, and to show support for Lance. Those hundreds of photos, along with photos of Activists in their Free Lance Gloor shirts, have been collected, arranged into photo collages, and sent to The White House.
Lance Gloor currently has a pending clemency petition at The White House. Public support is a huge part of the decision making process of granting clemency. If you find 10 years in Federal prison for legal medical Cannabis in Washington state to be unacceptable, please participate in any, or all, of the calls to action.
*****Call To Action*****
1) Call The White House comment line at 202-456-1111. Politely leave a message with a volunteer “I support the pending clemency of Lance Gloor. Thank you.” Or email your comment to https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Again, please be polite. This call is about our injustice that Lance Gloor pays the price for. Comments on different topics should be addressed in a separate communication. Thank you!
2) Write up a “Free Lance Gloor” sign. Take a photo of you with your sign and email to freelancegloorshirts@gmail.com
*All photos are likely to be submitted to the White House. Your face need not be in photo if you choose.
Prohibition will never truly end, so long as anyone remains caged for Cannabis. It is our duty to set Our Plant Prisoners free. Public support works. Every effort helps. Together we can, and we will, set Lance Gloor and every last Plant Prisoner free. One Team One Dream.