Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, has launched a new nonprofit selling cannabis goods, with proceeds going to charitable organizations.
According to its website, Ben’s Best Blnz, or B3, promises to “sell Great Pot and use the power of our business to Right the Wrongs of the War on Drugs.”
The nonprofit is business plan is collaborating with for-profit companies who pay a royalty to use B3’s formulations, packaging, and trademarks.
After expenses, the entire royalty profit will go towards their social mission of releasing people convicted of nonviolent cannabis-related crimes, expunging their criminal records, advocating for marijuana to be removed from the federal government’s Schedule 1 list, which includes drugs like heroin, and investing in Black-owned cannabis businesses.
The website explains precisely how the company’s income will be shared by percentage, with 80% going to grants for Black cannabis entrepreneurs. In addition, B3 has created a low-interest financing fund for BIPOC-owned cannabis enterprises.
The remaining proceeds will be donated to the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance and the Last Prisoner Project, which attempts to release those convicted of cannabis charges from prison.
“The War on Drugs (as coined by President Richard Nixon) has targeted lower-income Black and Brown people through overpolicing, discriminatory prosecution, and discriminatory sentencing,” according to the website. “That is why, despite using marijuana at the same rate, Black people are four times more likely than Whites to be arrested.”
In addition to releasing those convicted of cannabis charges, B3 hopes to promote sustainability by cultivating cannabis organically and using little plastic packaging.
According to the website, Ben Cohen will not be paid by B3.
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