Our Mission
welcome to not pot!
you’ve now entered a chill af universe where friendly gummies roam free, and plants and humans are accepted for who we are.
but get ready to roll up your sleeves. there’s work to be done.
cannabis has deep, tangled roots in our country. the enforcement of cannabis laws reveals some of the united states justice system's starkest racial disparities: while cannabis use has been roughly equal among black and white americans, black americans are nearly four times as likely to be arrested for possession. what’s worse, even after cannabis was legalized in colorado, arrest rates for black and hispanic youth rose by more than 50 percent while arrests of white youth declined by 10 percent.
from slavery to the war on drugs, american systems have attempted to control and imprison men and women from marginalized communities.
but when it comes to pretrial discrimination, the united states justice system takes it to the bank (literally): if you can’t pay bail, you wait in jail. on average, 450,000 people sit in local jails every single night without being convicted of a crime—simply because they cannot afford bail. and even one night in jail can cause someone to lose their home, their job, and even custody of their children.
that’s !@#$’d up.
at not pot, we believe full cannabis legalization is a step in the right direction, but it’s not enough to correct the wrongs of our criminal justice system.
that’s why we’re proud to announce the not pot bail fund, a self-funded organization designed to combat mass incarceration—one human being at a time.
our contribution to the ecosystem is straightforward: through our network of partners, we help pay for someone’s bail every month. while seemingly simple, we believe that paying even one person's bail represents a bigger act of resistance against criminal injustice.
although we can’t claim to be able to reform the criminal justice system overnight (it’s complex, sensitive, and rooted in years of racial and gender bias), we look forward to a future in which policies are led by compassion and health instead of social or political agendas.
until then, let’s get to work. 💪
- kati, founder and ceo