Twenty people joined Dedan Waiciuri and Jaelyn Miller for Emancipate’s first-ever webinar about our Don’t Plead to Weed (DPW) campaign on 4/20, an exciting launch to what we plan to be the first of many educational events about DPW.

In the webinar, Dedan and Jaelyn broke down both the historical foundations of the War on Drugs and weed criminalization as well as the present-day legal landscape that led to the DPW campaign. Currently in North Carolina, the only real difference between legal hemp and illegal marijuana is the THC concentration, which the state’s crime lab can only determine by outsourcing an expensive chemical test. When community members or attorneys know their options and force the state to pay for that test, it can be the difference between incarceration for weed possession and freedom; the state would often rather spend its resources solving real crimes. 

Keep an eye out for future webinars or in-person DPW events. The audience for this first one had unanimously positive feedback. And in the meantime, you can always find out more at our website →