Politics
Today My Cannabis Brand Launches In West Virginia, Where I Spent Years Behind Bars For Growing Medical Marijuana (Op-Ed)
“Legalization is progress, but we won’t be satisfied until every cannabis prisoner is set free.”
By Ryan Basore, Redemption Cannabis and The Redemption Foundation
A little over a decade ago, I was sitting in a federal prison in Morgantown, West Virginia, serving time for growing medical cannabis in compliance with Michigan’s state law. I wasn’t a trafficker. I wasn’t running guns or laundering money. I was a state-licensed caregiver using cannabis to help people with debilitating conditions. Then I became one of the thousands targeted during a time when the federal government treated medical cannabis providers like public enemies.
Today—July 11—my cannabis brand launches in the same town in which I spent years behind bars for growing medical cannabis.
As traumatic as that experience was, I knew I couldn’t let it deter me from doing what’s right. That’s what led me to found Redemption Cannabis, one of Michigan’s top-selling cannabis brands and one that supports those still serving time for nonviolent cannabis offenses.
Together with partners like Trulieve and Altvm, we provide cannabis products to patients and consumers across states like Michigan, Maryland, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and now West Virginia, where I once wore prison tans. It’s a redemption story I’m proud of, but it’s also a privilege that too many others have been denied.
Despite widespread legalization across a majority of U.S. states, many in the U.S. remain incarcerated for cannabis offenses. Their “crime”? Often the same actions that built today’s billion-dollar cannabis industry. Legalization has crept forward, but justice has not.
I launched the Redemption Foundation in 2019 to change that. Through our programs, we’ve helped fund over 2,000 free expungements and provided direct financial support to federal cannabis prisoners across the country.
One of our core efforts is our commissary program, which puts up to $300 a month, the maximum allowed, on the books of people incarcerated for non-violent cannabis offenses. For someone earning $14 a month in prison wages, that support isn’t just helpful. It’s life-changing.
We also partner with organizations like the Weldon Project’s Mission Green and the Last Prisoner Project to expand our reach and impact. The goal isn’t just release, it’s restoration. That means helping people return to their communities, access housing, find jobs and reclaim their dignity.
But here’s the hard truth: Unless federal law changes, we will keep seeing these contradictions. The Controlled Substances Act still classifies cannabis as a Schedule I drug, a substance with high risk for abuse with no currently accepted medical use. Until that changes, people will keep getting sentenced, even as legalization spreads.
Even expungement isn’t enough. In many states, it isn’t automatic. People need attorneys, paperwork, court appearances and other resources that are rarely made accessible to them just to be able to live a normal life. They struggle to find work, obtain housing or move on with their lives. Meanwhile, a lucrative industry has emerged around cannabis, the foundations of which were put in place by pioneers who continue to suffer behind bars or remain locked out of the legal industry.
Those of us who now enjoy the ability to consume and profit from legal cannabis owe our freedom to the people who took risks when it wasn’t safe or legal to do so. We have to recognize that our prosperity is a result of their sacrifice.
That’s why 10 percent of all Redemption Cannabis licensing revenue goes to supporting those still incarcerated and to securing their release. When you buy our products, you’re not just consuming, you’re contributing to the pursuit of justice.
Redemption isn’t just our brand name. It’s our mission.
Legalization is progress, but we won’t be satisfied until every cannabis prisoner is set free.
Ryan Basore is the founder of Redemption Cannabis and the Redemption Foundation, which supports cannabis prisoners and fights for restorative justice in the cannabis industry. He previously served a federal sentence for medical marijuana cultivation in Michigan.
Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.
