A new political action committee aimed at electing and educating officials with the aim of ending federal marijuana prohibition launched on Tuesday\u2014with a veteran cannabis lobbyist at its helm.<\/p>\n
The Better Organizing to Win Legalization (BOWL) PAC\u2014pun totally intended\u2014is working to build a coalition of other organizations to develop a more targeted approach to legalization in Congress. Some of the ways it hopes to achieve that is by supporting candidates and elected officials who will fight for reform, defeating those who continue to serve as roadblocks and encouraging groups that ostensibly back legalization to be more proactive in the fight.<\/p>\n
BOWL PAC<\/a> is being led by Justin Strekal, who recently departed NORML as its political director<\/a> after five years working on Capitol Hill to change federal cannabis laws. He told Marijuana Moment in a phone interview on Monday that his unique experience both in the cannabis lobbying space, as well as his involvement in other progressive causes, will set the group up for success.<\/p>\n (Disclosure: Strekal supports Marijuana Moment\u2019s work through a monthly pledge on Patreon<\/a>.)<\/p>\n We’re so excited to launch today and begin the process to finally deliver on marijuana policy reform. <\/p>\n For far too long, congressional prohibitionists have not been challenged for what they are: enablers of a senseless and racist status quo.<\/p>\n \u2014 The BOWL PAC (@TheBOWLPAC) February 8, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n \u201cI tend to do a whole lot of outreach with other groups that feel comfortable saying that they support marijuana legalization already, but they are not actively engaged in this as a core issue,\u201d he said, adding that BOWL PAC will be \u201cworking to bridge that gap and educate other organizations to get more engaged in this effort.\u201d<\/p>\n The 2022 election will be an early challenge for the group. Strekal said that the political landscape will become clearer as summer approaches, at which point the organization will \u201cengage tactically in a number of races to ensure that voters, who may or may not be motivated to go to the polls, will know that through their choice of candidates that legalization is on the battlefield.\u201d<\/p>\n The new outfit has not yet announced details about its fundraising or initial targets for campaign contributions.<\/p>\n For now, however, BOWL PAC has already initiative an online petition<\/a> to demand that President Joe Biden make good on his cannabis campaign pledge, citing his comments about he belief that nobody should be in jail over marijuana and imploring him to grant clemency to those still behind bars over the plant.<\/p>\n As the late Paul Wellstone would often say, “we all do better when we all do better.”<\/p>\n Here at BOWL PAC, our mission is to help candidates and organizations that want to do more to #LegalizeIt<\/a> get it done.<\/p>\n \u2014 The BOWL PAC (@TheBOWLPAC) February 8, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n That adds to the chorus of organizations, advocates, celebrities and lawmakers who have been making that specific call throughout Biden\u2019s first year in office<\/a>.<\/p>\n Strekal said that the decision to form a PAC was deliberate. It offers resources that he says were underutilized at NORML.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is why I thought it would be a worthwhile use of my time and skills and relationships to launch this new effort because, at the end of the day, there have not been a robust deploying of resources in the political realm when it comes to supporting reformers and defeating prohibitionists,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Proposed Washington State Ballot Initiative Would Decriminalize Drug Possession And Expand Recovery Services<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Veteran Marijuana Lobbyist Launches New \u2018BOWL PAC\u2019 To Fight For Legalization And Elect Pro-Reform Politicians<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A new political action committee aimed at electing and educating officials with the aim of ending federal marijuana prohibition launched on Tuesday\u2014with a veteran cannabis lobbyist at its helm. The Better Organizing to Win Legalization (BOWL) PAC\u2014pun totally intended\u2014is working to build a coalition of other organizations to develop aContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52792"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52792"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52793,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52792\/revisions\/52793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Veteran Marijuana Lobbyist Launches New \u2018BOWL PAC\u2019 To Fight For Legalization And Elect Pro-Reform Politicians<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"