Mikelina Belaineh

“I turned my focus towards criminal justice work because it seemed like the most direct way to serve my community, and to create a world that I could feel safer in,” Belaineh says. “I found my way to cannabis legalization work because as I was working in criminal justice, I saw how cannabis criminalization was fueling the machine of mass incarceration.”

Seeing how the government set cannabis up as a tool for mass incarceration and was rarely discussed in that context only fueled their advocacy work.

“I believe that if we were to fully legalize and decriminalize cannabis and dedicate our talents and resources to descaling the war on drugs—we’d be taking a big step towards creating a healthier, more equitable, more just society,” they say.

Q&A

What initially drew you to cannabis legalization and criminal justice reform?

I started doing organizing and advocacy work as a teenager, working on Queer and Trans issues. I was young, black, queer, trans, and living in conservative rural Texas—advocacy, for me, was really about survival. My experience organizing as a young person led me to attending Harvard Law School, and the more I learned and experienced, I began to understand how the Criminal legal system was harming every single community I belong to. Mass Incarceration disproportionately impacts BIPOC folks, Queer and Trans folks, Womxyn, and immigrant communities… and I hold all of those identities simultaneously. I turned my focus towards criminal justice work because it seemed like the most direct way to serve my community, and to create a world that I could feel safer in. I found my way to cannabis legalization work because as I was working in Criminal Justice, I saw how cannabis criminalization was fueling the machine of Mass incarceration. Whether I was working in street and gang impacted communiites, or doing research in womxyn’s jails, I saw how cannabis was a gateway to incarceration, because that’s how the government set it up to be. And yet it wasn’t being named as a major criminal justice issue, it wasn’t really being talked about in context. I believe that if we were to fully legalize and decriminalize cannabis and dedicate our talents and resources to descaling the war on drugs—we’d be taking a big step towards creating a healthier, more equitable, more just society. Cannabis has also been a huge help to me personally, for PTSD and mental health related challenges—and I’ve seen it positively change the lives of people I love. The de-stigmatization is also important to me for those reasons.

What has been your biggest career milestone thus far?

My biggest “milestone” thus far has been creating the podcast Just Cannabis and putting it out into the world. I have always been a big believer in the power of truth-telling through storytelling, and as a researcher and an advocate I have experienced the ways in which stories can be used to help or hurt advocacy efforts. In the podcast, I interview folks who have been directly impacted by the war on cannabis, and then work with our team to share their stories with the world in a beautiful and creative way. My goal is to raise up the stories of impacted individuals who are normally silenced and overlooked and share them in a way that can be felt by those who listen. I believe that if we can create a deeper collective understanding of the cannabis justice issue—we can more easily create anti-racist, human-centric, healing solutions.

What do you hope your next milestone would be?

The next milestone I’m focused on is writing my first book. Outside of my cannabis specific work, I work at the intersections of Gender, Policing, and Punishment– this book is my first big attempt to communicate my personal story of gender, policing, and punishment and the insights that I’ve gained from a varied career in criminal justice work.