![](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Craig-and-Cheri-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Imagine being sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for a non-violent cannabis crime you were circumstantially connected to. You\u2019re separated from your family and friends for the better part of two decades. You watch as state after state legalizes cannabis, yet you remain behind bars. It\u2019s a story too sad, too infuriating, too agonizingly\u00a0unjust<\/em>\u00a0for words. This is the very real story of Craig Cesal; a former cannabis prisoner-turned-campaigner who\u2019s using his knowledge of life on the inside to help others with stories like his to regain their freedom.<\/p>\n In 2002, Cesal co-owned a towing company near Chicago that recovered and repaired trucks for a rental company. At a checkpoint in Laredo, TX, US border agents discovered 1,500 pounds of cannabis hidden in secret compartments inside one of the trucks he repaired. In 2003, Cesal was convicted of leasing vehicles to smugglers and was handed a life sentence without the possibility of parole on drug conspiracy charges\u2014even though he had no prior convictions.<\/p>\n When Cesal was initially incarcerated in a maximum-security prison, he says he was angry and depressed. But there was no point dwelling on his fate and feeling sorry for himself\u2014that\u2019s not his style. \u201cI quickly realized that emotion wasn\u2019t productive,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Cesal says he started using his time to help his fellow prisoners achieve their freedom, finding value and purpose in helping inmates write their legal appeals. Soon, campaigning for prisoner justice became his focus.<\/p>\n \u201cThey put me in a county jail in a poor mountainous area of rural Georgia,\u201d Cesal says. \u201cI was one of only a handful of people among some 600 inmates who could actually read and write. I became the guy to read and write their letters and especially explain their legal documents.\u201d So began Cesal\u2019s daily fight \u201cto get all of us prisoners<\/a> what we were entitled to in the justice system,\u201d he says. \u201cIn the long haul, it gave me value for the inmates and the warden because instead of inmates burning cellblocks down, I could now lead a protest within the rails. And the wardens respected that, as much as they didn\u2019t like it [laughs<\/em>].\u201d<\/p>\n And that\u2019s how Craig Cesal passed the endless months and years of his unimaginable life sentence.<\/p>\n \u201cI lived better than most,\u201d he admits wryly. \u201cI\u2019d walk through the food line and I might have had a concurrent sentence removed for the guy serving the hamburgers. Or I might have been fighting for a lower sentence for the guy putting the vegetables on the plate. So, my meals were usually heavier than the others.\u201d<\/p>\n When COVID-19 struck in 2020, Cesal finally had his first taste of freedom in nearly two decades.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Bureau of Prisons could assign home confinement to the inmates who had less than two years left on their sentences, were also shown to be non-violent while in prison and be susceptible to COVID,\u201d he says. \u201cI aggravated the warden so much\u2014as a lifer, I wasn\u2019t qualified for home confinement. But Cheri Sicard<\/a> led an army of people harassing the warden, harassing the Director of the Bureau of Prisons in Washington, DC\u2014even the attorney general himself. The warden then told me, \u2018We\u2019re sending you home. I know it\u2019s not legal, but it will only become an issue if you commit another crime\u2014and I don\u2019t think you will.\u2019 That gave me the tools to fight for clemency under the Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n Cesal was granted clemency by the former president in his final hours in office. Other men would put the prison experience behind them and forget the ones left behind. But Cesal isn\u2019t most men. He teamed up with the lawyers and allies that fought for his freedom to help his fellow cannabis prisoners who remain behind bars to form the nonprofit,\u00a0Second Chance Foundation<\/a>, which specializes in fighting for cannabis prisoners\u2019 freedom.<\/p>\n \u201cMy full-time job is seeking clemency and relief for the cannabis offenders that are mainly in federal prison as well as state prisons where you know that there might be an avenue of relief for them,\u201d he says. \u201cRight now, we\u2019re representing 267 federal marijuana prisoners hoping for President Biden\u2019s clemency. He\u2019s promised to give them clemency and we\u2019re doing everything to hold him accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n Cesal says he communicates daily with at least 30 prisoners, including their families and legal representatives. He\u2019s exceptionally good at what he does\u2014and doing it on a shoestring budget.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter nearly two decades of being a jailhouse lawyer, I know how to game the system\u2014and how to beat it,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve helped a couple of inmates over the last few months walk out of prison who are now at home with their families. I wrote and filed their legal motions, and both were granted. It\u2019s so rewarding\u2014I always feel I have to get results from the Biden administration.\u201d<\/p>\n Cesal says clemency is one of the few things in the US Constitution that came from the King of England. \u201cThere are two kinds of clemency,\u201d he says. \u201cOne is a pardon, which does away with the conviction on the person\u2019s record. Another one is commutation, where the president has the power to reduce (or eliminate) the actual prison sentence. My prison sentence was reduced from life without the possibility of parole in prison to time served; yet, I still had five years of supervised release, which is our federal government\u2019s fancy term for \u2018parole to serve.\u2019 That\u2019s why the president may commute people\u2019s sentences in federal prison, but there\u2019s no federal expungement law. So, all those records still exist, which means it\u2019s still evident when somebody applies for employment or housing. Former prisoners can walk in with this piece of paper from the president and say, \u2018I\u2019ve been pardoned,\u2019 but in most cases, it\u2019s kind of meaningless when seeking employment or housing.\u201d<\/p>\n Cesal believes a presidential expungement provision\u2014where all prison records can be erased\u2014is a crucial part of federal legislation and cannabis justice reform.<\/p>\n \u201cI want President Biden<\/a> to develop a special program for cannabis offenders that relies on dealing with activists like me who actually understand the system,\u201d he says. \u201cSome people would say the removal of a prisoner wouldn\u2019t be considered by our clemency system to be a marijuana inmate. One obvious example is sometimes it\u2019s easier to prove the person was spending proceeds from marijuana sales, therefore, it\u2019s technically \u2018money laundering,\u2019 than to prove when and where they sold the cannabis. This means people are in prison for spending the proceeds from cannabis sales, not for possessing cannabis specifically. I want those sentences to go away. Several people I know are currently serving 20 years for that.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, Cesal really knows how the prison system works, how things can be improved and how to play the game. He recently started working with elected officials from his home state of Illinois as part of a \u201cstudy committee that looks at recommended changes to a lot of cannabis laws here in Illinois,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n To help fund the Second Chance Foundation and continue to fight for clemency without the help of major donors, Cesal has taken up a second job. Ironically, he says, working with the recently retired deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons and\u00a0START-OPP<\/a>, a support service that \u201cworks with employers and justice-involved individuals to create successful reentry outcomes,\u201d according to its website.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re from totally opposite ends of the arena and yet here we are working on specialty operations,\u201d he says of the retired deputy director. \u201cWe\u2019re bringing training programs into prisons that inmates can do over the course of their last year in prison. If they complete the program, they\u2019re guaranteed a job with one of these big companies the day they walk out and taste freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n Cesal becomes eager to tell a story.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I got out of prison, I didn\u2019t own anything but the clothes I was wearing,\u201d he says, amused by the memory. \u201cI went to Target to buy socks, underwear and other necessities. I walked in and I realized I had no idea what size underwear I wore [laughs<\/em>]. In prison, you don\u2019t get to pick a size. I\u2019d been inside for 19 years and my weight had fluctuated by about ten pounds. I honestly didn\u2019t know what size I wore. And, of course, you can\u2019t try them on, so I had to buy two sizes. That\u2019s something nobody else would ever consider.\u201d<\/p>\n There are more serious matters, too. Cesal says his social security number was terminated while imprisoned and he had to endure months of arguments with the Social Security Administration (SSA), trying to convince them that he was, in fact, very much alive.<\/p>\n \u201cThe SSA doesn\u2019t maintain their own database, they rely on the three big credit unions,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd since I didn\u2019t have any credit, I was technically considered \u2018dead.\u2019 Even walking into the office with my ID wasn\u2019t enough to convince them I was alive by their own procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n After studying up on the topic, Cesal found an obscure caveat that stated the SSA would accept a written prescription by a doctor as proof that he was \u201ca living, breathing person,\u201d he says. \u201cDoctors don\u2019t write those anymore, but I finally convinced one to write me a prescription for ibuprofen.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2019, Illinois<\/a> became the 11th state to legalize cannabis for adult use, a year before Cesal was in home confinement during the pandemic. He recalls his first encounter with a legal dispensary.<\/p>\n \u201cI had permission to leave the house for two-hour stints once a week with the GPS tag on my ankle,\u201d he says. \u201cOnce, I had to go to a doctor\u2019s appointment in Chicago. So, I\u2019m walking down the street and I stopped right in front of a cannabis dispensary. I watched all these people walking in and watched them walk out again carrying bags. I wanted to ask them, \u2018Is marijuana really<\/em> legal?\u2019 \u2018What\u2019s this thing on my ankle?\u2019 Because if I went in there and bought cannabis, I\u2019d violate my supervised release and get sentenced once again.\u201d<\/p>\n Adult use cannabis is part of a convoluted system, Cesal says, with multiple legal traps and pitfalls. \u201cEven in the states that they call marijuana legal, it\u2019s not. Illinois is putting more people in prison for cannabis distribution now than before they legalized it. Why<\/em>?\u201d he asks.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re only allowed to possess up to 30 grams of weed, and you\u2019re only allowed to sell under certain conditions,\u201d Cesal says. \u201cMany people think that since it\u2019s being bought and sold in these dispensaries, they can go grow and sell the plant, too. So, they grow some marijuana in the backyard. Next thing, they\u2019ve got a pound of marijuana sitting on the seat, get pulled over by the police and are doing five years in prison the very next day. Sadly, a lot of people get trapped by that. In fact, one of the people I\u2019m representing is sentenced to life imprisonment in California for cannabis\u2014and he\u2019s been in ten years already. And there are cannabis stores everywhere in California.\u201d<\/p>\n Today, Cesal is a very busy man.\u00a0<\/strong>When he\u2019s not working to obtain clemency for prisoners, help rewrite state laws, assist former felons to reintegrate into society or go to speak at the White House, he says he\u2019s trying to unify a still-fractured cannabis industry.<\/p>\n He says he believes the current laws aren\u2019t conducive to the industry and that the only way change at a federal level will ever happen is through cooperation and collaboration. \u201cI\u2019m hoping to unite the cannabis community,\u201d he says. \u201cWe need to work together to get these odious laws changed.\u201d<\/p>\n Craig Cesal doesn\u2019t do the work for glory or fame. He simply does it because it needs to be done. And he\u2019s the man to do it.<\/p>\n Visit\u00a0<\/em>secondchancefoundation.org<\/em><\/a>\u00a0to learn more about their advocacy work or donate to help other cannabis prisoners on their path to freedom. You can also email Craig Cesal directly at craig@secondchancefoundation.org.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Craig Cesal: From Felon to Cannabis Freedom Fighter<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Imagine being sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for a non-violent cannabis crime you were circumstantially connected to. You\u2019re separated from your family and friends for the better part of two decades. You watch as state after state legalizes cannabis, yet you remain behind bars. It\u2019s aContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":234,"featured_media":64363,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,7252,14878,3249,8885,16764,99,809,17108,16960,1051,14846,17109,16356,17110,17111],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64362"}],"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\/234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64362"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64364,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64362\/revisions\/64364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Craig](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Craig-and-Cheri.jpg\")
<\/a>A Second Chance<\/strong><\/h4>\n
The Fight for Clemency<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"Craig](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Craig-White-House-938x1024-1.jpg\")
<\/a>The Legal Cannabis Conundrum<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Craig Cesal: Changemaker\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n
\nRead More: Craig Cesal: From Felon to Cannabis Freedom Fighter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"