Legendary cannabis activist John Entwistle headlined the first ever Full Spectrum Conference, a digital event specifically covering the challenges and complexities facing the LGBTQ community within the world of cannabis.
The two-day event in January featured numerous speakers and social opportunities, but it was Entwistle’s rousing keynote that linked the history of cannabis activism with the steps that still need to be taken to solidify the progress of legalization.
“We’re fighting for a better world, dammit,” he said.
Entwistle started his speech with the story of John Sinclair, who was arrested in 1969 in Detroit for offering two joints to an undercover narcotics officer. The resulting 10-year prison sentence became a rallying cry for the cannabis movement of that era and a lasting symbol of “how bad it was, once upon a time,” Entwistle said.
“This is where we came from,” he said, describing the “unbridled hatred” for cannabis consumers in past decades. That hatred became even more pronounced as the cannabis movement became intertwined with the gay rights movement and the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s.
Entwistle co-founded the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club — often recognized as the country’s first dispensary — in 1994 with his late husband, Dennis Peron. Entwistle, who was instrumental in writing California’s Proposition 215, the first bill to legalize medical marijuana in the United States, has watched the modern movement from its earliest days to the present, where more than a dozen states have legalized cannabis for adult use and 37 states now allow medical marijuana.
But while the progress has been tremendous, he believes the modern industry is being taxed to death and “killed with red tape.” Consumers are suffering because of high prices and continued over-regulation, he said, and cautioned that everything can still be taken away at the whim of the federal government.
“Victories are not always won right at the finish line,” he said, giving the example of abortion, a right that is still being fought over almost 50 years after the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.
To keep progress moving in the right direction, cannabis activists across the country need to “be loud, vocal and focused,” he said in a call to action.
— Garrett Rudolph