Cannabis Brand ironically thanks Richard Nixon for war on drugs
The guest column-style ad in the NYT and Washington Post calls out the disgraced president's Controlled Substances Act of 1970.
As the 37th U.S. president, Richard Nixon’s checkered term in office includes secret wiretaps, bungled break-ins and resignation under a cloud, just ahead of impeachment.
But to the modern cannabis industry, “Tricky Dick’s” lasting legacy is the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, which outlawed weed and effectively spawned the destructive, decades-long war on drugs.
So it’s ironic—by design—that multistate operator Green Thumb Industries is “celebrating” the policy and the disgraced POTUS behind it in a high-profile campaign in the New York Times and the Washington Post.
“Thanks, Dick, for the mess you left us,” Green Thumb’s CEO and chairman Ben Kovler writes in an advertorial placed in both papers. “It’s high time we clean it up.”
The ad, written in the style of a guest column, will run as a special wrap-around in today’s edition of the Washington Post, with distribution planned to the White House staff.
Leaning into controversy
The effort, pegged to the 50th anniversary of the federal rule, flexes Green Thumb’s activist muscle at a time when cannabis companies are becoming increasingly vocal on issues like social justice and legal reform. They’re also recruiting the public to step in and pressure their elected officials for change.
“To build a better future, we believe it’s important to confront the past, even if some of it is controversial,” Kovler told Adweek.
“Thanks, Dick” launches days after senior leaders at Massachusetts-based conglomerate MariMed re-created the Boston Tea Party to protest lopsided IRS tax rules for cannapreneurs. The stunt, known as the “Boston THC Party,” took place on a tall ship with executives in colonial costumes, timed for the 250th anniversary of the famous tax revolt.
Policy’s origin story
Also digging into history, Kovler recaps some of the origin story of the Controlled Substances Act and the subsequent trillion-dollar war on drugs in his thought-leader piece.
“Originally hailed as a righteous crusade on drugs, the policy has proven to be a politically motivated failure that continues to haunt us today,” Kovler writes. “Decades of evidence and damning revelations have exposed this ill-conceived legislation and its devastating effect on individuals and communities nationwide.”
One of those “damning revelations” is top Nixon aide John Ehrlichman’s published 2016 interview in which he admitted the war on drugs was “deliberately designed to target Black people and hippies,” per the ad.
The reverberations continue today, with 1.5 million drug arrests annually, which disproportionately impact people of color and “squander resources and perpetuate social injustice.”
Focusing on current data, Kovler notes that cannabis is now legal for medical use in 38 states, three territories and Washington D.C., with the industry adding more than 428,000 full-time jobs and $3.7 billion in tax revenue to the U.S. economy in 2022.
Rewriting wrongs
The “celebration,” which features an informational website and a petition, aims to mobilize consumers to call on the Biden administration to reschedule cannabis.
President Joe Biden said last fall that “no one should be in jail for using or possessing marijuana.” While pardoning federal cannabis prisoners, he directed federal agencies to study rescheduling or de-scheduling the plant from its current Schedule 1 status, where it’s on par with heroin.
An administrative review could be complete by year’s end, according to a recent Marijuana Moment interview with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, with cannabis leaders skeptical but hopeful.
Enlisting consumers to add their voices to the debate could give the issue a momentum boost, with Kovler writing that “we can learn from our mistakes, rectify the damage caused by Nixon’s ill-conceived and targeted legislation and embrace a sensible, compassionate approach to cannabis.”
As a brand-building component of “Thanks, Dick,” Green Thumb has created in-store education and activations at its Rise dispensaries. The programs will include giveaways and 19.70% discounts at retailers in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia.
