I’m from Salt Lake City, Utah. I started a career as a music producer in the mid-90s and founded my own record label. I worked with some of the biggest, and am still working with, some of the biggest names in the industry, including Snoop Dogg, Tupac Shakur, his recording group, Tory Lanez, Ty Dolla $ign, and many more. In 2002, I had just signed a major record deal and then was indicted for roughly $900 worth of cannabis. Over the course of about three days, I sold $300 worth to an informant on three occasions totaling $900. I was indicted and convicted in court and ultimately sentenced to a 55-year prison term.
“Mine was a sentence so unjust, even the judge, who was a conservative George W. Bush appointee, found it to be so absurd that he called on the president to pardon me as he was sentencing me and later walked away from the bench and became my number one advocate.”
So, 13 years later—Bush didn’t pardon me. Bush didn’t reduce my sentence. When Obama got elected, we felt like we had a shot. I think it was Obama’s last year in office. We had accumulated so much support from the entertainment industry. We had people like Alicia Keys, Bonnie Raitt, Snoop, Mike Epps, and many more. Along with political figures like Corey Booker and Senator Mike Lee, even the Koch brothers stepped up and helped me, and ultimately I was released in early 2016 by President Trump.
I hit the ground running and started advocating for other people who were like me, sitting in prison with no hope. Most people in prison don’t have entertainer friends or political figures, or billionaires fighting for them. I knew when I got out; I had to step up and be that voice. I have this unique, unlikely allies’ platform. I need to use this to its potential, and I didn’t want to just get back in music and just say, forget y’all. So, I decided to step up and be their voice.
Valerie: That’s amazing. You’ve been put in one of the most unlikely positions that you as a hip-hop artist who, we know, there’s an image that comes with that and cannabis use, are actually allied with a very conservative group of people who want to partner with you. What has that been like for you? How do you manage the two worlds?
Weldon: Yeah, so when I first got these conservative supporters, it was a shock to me. I felt like, why would someone like Charles Koch or Senator Mike Lee fight for someone like me who used to be in a gang and made gangsta rap music? I think it was really my judge. My judge is very conservative, and he made sure that the world knew how he felt about this case, and people like Senator Mike Lee and Charles Koch care about people. So, when I got out, I knew I had to bring these two sides together because you can’t cut with one scissor blade. We can’t pass laws with one party.
When I got out, I started connecting people. I brought Snoop Dogg in with the Koch’s, and we were doing stuff with Mike Lee and other people on the left, along with Corey Booker. And because of that coalition, we passed the First Step Act.
The First Step Act was the first federal bipartisan and comprehensive criminal justice reform since 1970. It reformed the law that allowed prosecutors to seek a 55-year sentence for a non-violent cannabis charge. We addressed draconian mandatory minimum drug statutes when we reformed that law.
Right now, we are, for the first time in history, close to ending cannabis prohibition. And again, we can’t do it with one party. We have to engage Republicans, and given that no one has done that yet and I have these connections over there, I decided to bring them to the table. We formed the Cannabis Freedom Alliance with Charles Koch, his network, and the people in hip hop, so we can bring everyone together and really get this done. If we’re just pitching to our own people, we’re not getting anything done. It’s just talking, and that’s all it’s been so far. So that’s why I really want people out of prison. I’m not doing it for political reasons. I don’t care about any of that. I want my people out of prison, and I want cannabis to be legal, and I want everyone to have access to it. So, in order to get that done, we have to work with the other side, and that’s what we started.
Valerie: Tell me a bit about what you feel has changed since you guys were able to pass the First Step Act?
Weldon: Well, since the First Step Act passed, I think sixteen or seventeen thousand people have been released early because of that law, especially with a provision called compassionate release. The provision that we passed allows judges to look at the COVID crisis and take into account people’s potential and the consequences of contracting COVID in prison and allows judges to sentence individuals rather than impose mandatory sentencing.
Also, another byproduct to that bill is that we’ve also convinced judges that individuals with marijuana convictions who likely would not be charged today, because of state laws that have changed, to revisit those sentences and look to see if the sentence made in 2000 or 1996, that may have been just to that judge, now can no longer be supported by current circumstances.
So the First Step has done so much, but it was just the first step, and that’s why it was called the First Step Act. So we’re working on the second and third steps. But our major push right now is passing the MORE Act, or some version of it, that ends federal prohibition. We can’t have a system where, you know, millionaires and corporations and mainly white entrepreneurs are profiting while mainly people of color remain incarcerated. That’s such hypocrisy, and we need to change it. So I think ending federal prohibition is the first step in that direction.
Valerie: You’re a huge proponent of social equity; that’s the biggest thing you are advocating for, as we know that imprisonment and issues of that kind are slanted to the minority. I’m interested in knowing what the second step and the third step are. I think people hear the First Step Act passed, and it’s like, oh, great, we did it. But what would be your ultimate outcome from all the reform that you’re working on?
Weldon: Yeah, I mean, like I mentioned, the biggest reform for me is ending prohibition nationwide. Not only just in the federal system but in each state as well, and social equity is huge. It’s huge for me and my home state, Utah. You know, Utah is terrible with social equity. There’s nothing in the state itself, which is why private companies and corporations need to step up and enact social equity provisions. My organization, The Weldon Project, and our initiative, Mission Green (https://www.theweldonproject.org/missiongreen), have done so much for the cannabis industry. We’ve gotten dozens of people out of prison through presidential clemency, through the court system. We’ve changed laws. We’ve brought the needle further in this movement, and we’re not getting any support locally. So I think, you know, the state needs to step up. However, there are a few individuals who are moving in that direction. Bijan Sakaki, who owns Beehive Farmacy, is working closely with me. He informed me that he would like to bring my social justice cannabis brand here to Utah. I’m really excited about working with Bijan, that’ll be huge to have my own brand in Utah, where this whole thing started. I mean, my case originated here, you know, I’m from Utah. My story has done a lot for the movement, not just nationwide but also here in Utah, with regard to the medical marijuana ballot and everything else. So I’m really happy to have that be possible.
Valerie: So what do you think about Congress really making marijuana federally legal? What’s your take on it?
Weldon: It’s real, and it’s really happening. I feel like it will happen in the next 13 months because we at the Cannabis Freedom Alliance know how to get it done. We know the key is to get those 10 to 12 Republicans that we need to pass it through the Senate. The MORE Act has already been passed in the House. So we’re 10 to 12, maybe 13 people away from ending prohibition, and we launched the Cannabis Freedom Alliance to get those Republicans. We partnered with Charles Koch, who is worth fifty billion dollars. I think he spent six hundred million every election cycle, and he’s very influential with Republicans, so he was a key ally and Senator Mike Lee out of Utah because he supports states’ rights. The MORE Act empowers states to make their own marijuana laws. I really feel like we’re that close; we’ve been working really hard. We’ve been convincing more Republicans, every week, we get another Republican who agrees to support this. So it’s real, and it’s going to happen soon. But the real work starts when the federal government ends prohibition, then we shift our attention to the states because they’re still going to be states like Idaho that don’t want to legalize. So we’re going to have this disparity where all the states around Idaho are legal, but in Idaho, you’ve got people facing and serving years. I know a guy right now facing a 5-year mandatory minimum for some pounds of cannabis. Under state law, he’s probably facing 10-years. So, you know, it’s unjust that we have a system like that.
Valerie: With prohibition ended, what do you think as a country we owe to those people in prison for something that now has suddenly become free for everybody to use?
Weldon: I definitely feel like a lot of people hate this term, but I feel like reparations are due for individuals who lost their lives over cannabis. The government lied. Prohibition was built on a lie. Everyone knows that it should have never been criminalized. People who have served years in prison need some kind of reparation, whether it’s tax money from marijuana sales or whether it’s licensing opportunities, job opportunities, something in the industry. We need to get more people who are directly impacted by prohibition into the industry and make up a part of the ownership, and the industry needs to support this. I just heard of a guy, a company in Illinois that’s filing a lawsuit to squash the social equity program. These are the kind of people we’re dealing with in this industry. They’re even fighting interstate commerce right now as we speak. They’re fighting interstate commerce because it doesn’t support their business model. So everyone needs to stand up and really fight for what’s right, and that’s social equity and social justice.
Valerie: I think about the impact of patient voices, which fits perfectly into the equity movement. What would you say is the end all be all takeaway from what you’ve experienced and what you’ve created? You’ve done so much work to change the focus and give an understanding and a platform to a life story that a lot of people don’t really have. So what do you want people to know?
Weldon: My story really just spotlights the injustice of our current system, the way we treat drug crimes versus crimes of violence. You know, my judge said it best, he said Congress has essentially said that murder, rape, terrorism are all bad, but drug dealing is far worse. It makes no sense, and it shows that there is really a racial element to the drug war because Congress has made these laws much harsher than murder, kidnapping, and terrorism. So, I think that’s self-evident that this was a war on people. It’s crazy to think about it when you see the kinds of people I was incarcerated with, people that were in there for a tiny bag of crack this big and got life in prison. But somebody just murdered somebody; actually, I got sentenced the same day as a second-degree murderer. He got like 11 or 17 years, or something around there. That was his maximum sentence; mine, minimum 55-years. So it just shows you how insane the war on drugs is. If you’d like to get involved or learn more, go to The Weldon Project.
