Ben Cohen, one of the founders of Vermont-based Ben & Jerry's ice cream, has launched a cannabis nonprofit whose mission it'll be to combat the war on drugs—at least as far as pot-related convictions and laws.
Ben's Best Blnz, or B3, already has a colorful website detailing its social-justice mission as well as the many ways it's partnering with growers of the organic weed it's offering, which uses no pesticides and only organic fertilizers, is all soil-grown, and which focuses on terpenes, "because the terpenes make the music."
Related: What Are the Real Effects of Weed on an Adolescent Brain?
Current products on offer include "Blended SloSmokes," resin vapes, and high-THC buds. The website says that it is advocating for releasing people serving prison time for non-violent pot crimes, looking to get criminal records expunged for those types of crimes, and aiming to get pot off the Schedule 1 list of drugs that also includes heroin. The website points out, "Black people have been arrested at 4x the rate of White people. We don't want people continuing to suffer for a crime that is now legal."
On top of all that, the nonprofit will invest all profits to the Last Prisoner Project, The Vermont Racial Justice Alliance, and grants to Black cannabis entrepreneurs.
CBS News reports that in addition to direct sales, B3 will also partner with for-profit companies that will pay royalties to use its formulas, packaging, and trademarks. Cohen says he will not take a salary from the nonprofit and that everything it makes after expenses will go to the causes and grants mentioned on its website.