The Happy CannaDate: Mobilizing The Cannabis Vote in 2020

By Stu Zakim

2020 has been quite the year so far; the Covid-19 pandemic changing our worlds as we knew it and impacting all areas of our lives from work to romance to socializing with our fellow Happy Munkey family. It’s bound to go down as one of the worst years in history.

One way that we can end the year on a better note, rather HAVE to, is using our voice as a community to make sure people register and then vote November 3. As we get closer, we want to unite our Happy Munkey family to have a voice in deciding who goes to DC in January and who also reflects our lifestyle and culture. While Biden’s Cannabis policy is well known and out of touch with reality, he is a much better option than Trump and ideally will put someone from the community on his staff to represent and educate him as to the benefits of legalization.

But, the real impact is on the local level. In New Jersey specifically, we have a Senator, Corey Booker, running for re-election and is a known supporter of legalization, a Congressman from Newark, and a very important race in the second district where Amy Kennedy, wife of anti-legalization leader Patrick Kennedy, has received the Democratic Party endorsement over the other two candidates who are vocal in their support of legalization. The ballot initiative is a result of the State Assembly and Senate’s inability to pass a legislative bill in spite of Governor Murphy’s running on that policy.

Other states that have legalization on the ballot on November 3 include Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Idaho, Ohio, Rhode Island and South Dakota. We have compiled a list of who is running for what in each of those states and contact info which is available on the website and we encourage all of you to not only register and vote, but get all your friends out.

Trump is here because people couldn’t stand Hillary and a lot stayed home out of protest. We can’t afford that luxury again. We are planning to endorse a variety of “Cannadates” across the country and will soon be launching an Instagram program as we plan to use our voice to get the community out and help Biden and the other politicians to understand what a strong and powerful voting block we represent. And as many governors in legal states have learned, we are all about the culture, solving years of social injustice and inequity and ending the stigma against this harmless plant.