Marijuana Advocacy Group Launches Holiday Campaign To Send Letters Of Support To People Still Incarcerated For Cannabis

Holiday cannabis letter drive. Say it out loud and you can almost hear the stamp peel, the pen scratch, the quiet revolt of kindness. The Last Prisoner Project’s annual holiday cannabis letter drive isn’t about policy white papers or press conferences. It’s about connection. It’s about the people still doing time for marijuana while the legal cannabis market booms outside their cell windows. Thousands remain incarcerated for nonviolent cannabis offenses in a country where weed is increasingly a taxable commodity. This campaign slices through the noise of cannabis taxation debates and marijuana policy reform chatter to deliver something rare in the justice system: a human voice saying, “You matter.”

For seven years, the organization has run this letter-writing campaign like a seasonal lighthouse for those stranded in the dark. The mechanics are beautifully simple. Through the group’s online portal, you can send a message directly or learn how to locate addresses and mail letters to people serving time for cannabis across the United States. It’s not lobbying. It’s not a petition. It’s presence—especially during the holidays, when the distance from family stretches like cold taffy. As acting executive director Stephanie Shepard, who served nearly a decade for a first-time, nonviolent cannabis conviction, has said, isolation hits hardest this time of year. A few written lines can puncture that loneliness. The campaign even encourages hosting small drives at workplaces, house parties, shop counters, or wherever you can set out some envelopes and invite people to do something tangible for cannabis incarceration survivors. It’s the sort of low-friction, high-impact action that reminds this movement what it’s actually about.

The letters aren’t empty Hallmark fluff. For people inside, they can be lifelines. Philip Feng, who spent nearly two years in prison for a nonviolent cannabis offense, put it plainly when describing life on the other side of the walls: the world grows quiet, then quieter, until you start to believe you’ve been erased. A single note can shatter that silence. It says someone out here still sees you. That’s not theory; that’s lived truth. As Feng has shared in describing the power of this holiday letter-writing campaign, even one message can restore a sense of value and help carry a person through the hardest weeks of the year. If you’re looking for a way to make a dent in the harm of marijuana criminalization without waiting for a committee hearing or a governor’s pen, start here. Pen. Paper. Perspective.

Of course, the broader canvas of cannabis reform remains messy, stitched together by policy wins, half-measures, and stubborn gaps. The same week one state unveils a blueprint for adult-use sales, another person somewhere is denied clemency. Progress zigzags. Lawmakers draft bills promising expungements and equity, and too many still stall out. Advocates at the Last Prisoner Project have called that disconnect—a legal cannabis market humming alongside cannabis prisoners—a hidden crisis. Yet reform keeps nudging forward. Veterans advocacy and access questions continue to spark headlines, not least when the federal government says no to funding unconventional treatments; for a deeper dive on that tension, see VA Rejects Psychedelic-Focused Veterans Group’s Grant Application For Suicide Prevention Program. States experiment with frameworks and timelines: one roadmap setting the table for a regulated retail era is detailed in Virginia Marijuana Commission Unveils Plan To Legalize Adult-Use Sales Under New Pro-Reform Governor. Medical markets evolve, sometimes quietly, sometimes with a jolt; consider the expansion covered in Texas Officials Approve Nine New Medical Marijuana Business Licenses As State Expands Patient Access. And the equity conversation is finally maturing past slogans, with ideas like employee ownership moving from theory to policy proposals—see the argument for shared stakes in Minnesota Should Allow Marijuana Businesses To Offer Employee Stock Ownership Plans, Lawmakers Say (Op-Ed). These threads don’t tidy up the contradiction of people still locked up for marijuana, but they map the terrain where advocacy—yours, mine—still matters.

So here’s the ask, simple and personal. Take ten minutes. Use the holiday portal. Write to someone sitting in a concrete room because our laws took longer to change than the culture did. Keep it direct. Share a story from your corner of the world. Mention a book or a song. Tell them what you cooked last weekend. Avoid making promises you can’t keep, and skip the policy lectures; this is about human contact, not conversion. The cannabis industry will continue to argue over tax rates, licensing caps, and interstate commerce while advocates push for clemency and expungement. But tonight, you can help someone feel less erased. And if you’re looking to explore the legal side of the plant while supporting voices for reform, consider visiting our shop for thoughtfully curated options: https://thcaorder.com/shop/