By Stephanie Shepard, Executive Director, Last Prisoner Project
As legal cannabis becomes a multibillion-dollar industry, people are still serving decades, even life, in prison for the same plant. That is not progress. It is unfinished business.
Every year on 4/20, millions of people celebrate cannabis culture. Legalization expands, new markets open, and the industry keeps growing.
But while the legal cannabis economy thrives, there are still people sitting in prison cells serving decades, and in some cases life sentences, for cannabis offenses.
If legalization is going to mean anything, it has to include justice.
If legalization is going to mean anything, it has to include justice.
That is why Last Prisoner Project is proud to partner with High Times. Together, we want to shine a light on the people who were left behind, the families still carrying the weight of prohibition, and the work still required to bring them home.
Take Action
To learn more, support Last Prisoner Project’s work, or help bring the last cannabis prisoners home, visit this donation page.
Across the United States, people remain incarcerated for cannabis-related offenses tied to the same plant that now fuels a legal industry worth billions.
That includes people like Ismael Lira, who has been serving a life sentence since 2006 for a cannabis-related conviction. According to Last Prisoner Project, Lira was sentenced for possession with intent to distribute marijuana despite there being no eyewitnesses and no physical seizure of the alleged cannabis involved in the case. Nearly two decades later, he remains behind bars for a nonviolent cannabis offense while legal cannabis businesses operate openly across much of the country.
Michael Woods is also serving a life sentence tied to cannabis. His case reflects the brutal penalties imposed during the height of the War on Drugs, when conspiracy charges and mandatory minimum sentencing laws made life sentences possible even in nonviolent marijuana cases.
Rafael Hernandez-Carillo has spent more than 17 years serving a life sentence for a nonviolent cannabis offense in a maximum-security federal prison. Over that time, he has watched his children grow up from behind bars and become a grandfather. As he has written from prison, “A life spent in prison for a non-violent marijuana offense, that’s not just lost, it’s stolen.”
“A life spent in prison for a non-violent marijuana offense, that’s not just lost, it’s stolen.”
Rafael Hernandez-Carillo
Parker Coleman is serving a 60-year federal sentence for cannabis distribution, a punishment that for all practical purposes amounts to life in prison. He has already spent more than a decade behind bars and, without clemency, will likely not be released until old age.
These are not relics of some distant past. These are living examples of what happens when reform moves forward without repair.
Last Prisoner Project exists to confront that reality. Our work supports clemency efforts, resentencing, legal advocacy, record clearance, and direct assistance for people coming home after years, sometimes decades, behind bars. We work not only to free people, but to help them rebuild their lives.
To date, Last Prisoner Project has helped secure freedom equal to more than 360 years of prison time, delivered $11 million in legal services, helped pass 10 record-clearance laws, and distributed more than $3.8 million in direct financial support to people and families impacted by cannabis prohibition.
Support The Work
Donations help fund legal advocacy, clemency efforts, record clearance, and support for people rebuilding their lives after prison. You can contribute here.
That progress matters. But it is not enough.
The cannabis movement was built by people who took real risks. Long before cannabis became an accepted business category, people lost years of their lives, their families, and their futures to fight a system built on punishment and hypocrisy. Some of those people are still paying the price.
4/20 should be a celebration. But it should also be a reminder.
4/20 should be a celebration. But it should also be a reminder.
If you profit from cannabis, work in cannabis, consume cannabis, or simply believe that nobody should spend their life in prison for this plant, then this issue belongs to you too.
Through this partnership with High Times, we hope to keep these stories in front of the public, build pressure where it matters, and help ensure that cannabis justice is not treated like a side note to legalization.
Because no one should still be in prison for cannabis.
And because freedom means very little if it only reaches the people lucky enough to arrive after the laws changed.
To learn more, take action, or support Last Prisoner Project’s work, visit Last Prisoner Project’s donation page.
