a study by the Prison Policy Initiative in 2014, people who have been incarcerated in the past often earn up to 41% less than their non-incarcerated counterparts, and that’s just the beginning. Many of these ODNOKD RSQTFFKD SN Ƽ MC RDBTQD GNTRHMF employment, and in some situations, their families are torn apart by state agencies taking custody of their children.
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year ago here in Oklahoma, we were still celebrating the passage of State Question 788, and rightly so: one of the most conservative states in the nation, and one that has been anything but an ally to the medical cannabis movement, passed one of the most liberal medical laws by a popular vote, and by doing so, gave thousands of Oklahomans freedom to choose medical cannabis. No more do patients who simply want a natural choice for their health have to skulk in the shadows of society. Rather than fear the consequences of being caught with a plant, they’re able to simply live their lives. Freedom is a beautiful thing, and for cannabis patients who have waited decades for it, a soothing reward after a hard-fought battle that continues in other states today. For many of those who have been involved with or advocated for cannabis
While it may seem like many of these problems belong to the past, they remain a reality for thousands of people across the country, and here in the Sooner State. )TRS SGQDD SN ĆĽ UD XD@QR @FN EQNL
2016, 24,696 Oklahomans were arrested for a cannabis possession related charge. Half a decade later, Oklahoma has 129,000 license-carrying patients. We’ve come an incredibly long way in a dramatiBy: Kayla Johnson cally short length of time, and there’s still HM SGD O@RS RDUDQ@K CDB@CDR SGD Ƽ FGS SN VNQJ SN AD CNMD 6DŗUD Ƽ M@KKX @BGHDUDC get to where we are now, with medical the freedom for patients to choose the legalization in over thirty states, medicine they need and even the freecontinues to have an impact on their lives dom to grow it for themselves if they today. For years, in many states across the wish. For some Oklahomans, however, country, cannabis was (and still is in some whether they faced false charges or prisplaces) treated harshly, and those who on time for choosing a plant, that freeused it even for medicinal purposes were dom is stained by the continued stigma branded addicts, and more often than not, surrounding their prior charges. For them, criminals and felons. Go into just about justice in the form of a clean record and a any city in any state, and chances are, fresh start is a new level of freedom, one XNTŗKK Ƽ MC RNLDNMD VGNŗR ADDM @QQDRSDC that should be available to all. in the past for cannabis, and there’s a good possibility that person served six months or more in prison. Some of these About the Author people have faced misdemeanors for two Kayla Johnson is a medical ounces. Others have faced felonies for cannabis and veteran caregiver far less, and all of them have faced the advocate, and a contributor for Herbage stigma of being a cannabis criminal. In the war on drugs, cannabis patients have often been the collateral damage, and that damage is lasting. According to
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don't let your business blend in.
Magazine and The Oklahoma Chronic. Johnson works to share the stories of the everyday patients and industry, and educate the public on real patients versus stigma.
