Shaleen Title on Cannabis Equity, Advocacy, and Passing the Torch

Shaleen Title has a long view of legal cannabis. The founder and director of the drug policy think tank Parabola Center, Title is an attorney who has been writing, passing, and implementing equitable cannabis laws for over 20 years, while testifying before legislative bodies around the world about restorative justice. She also co-founded THC Staffing, the first-ever recruiting firm to focus on inclusion in the cannabis industry, and was a founding member of the Cannabis Regulators of Color Coalition. Boston Magazine’s Power List dubbed Title “the people’s weed watchdog” — an apt handle for the tenacious, brilliant activist.

Now, after two decades as a leading voice in the legal cannabis movement, Title is stepping back from drug policy work. We caught up with her to ask what’s next for her, and what she thinks legalization could look like in a new era of politics.

Mary Jane Gibson: When did your commitment to drug policy work begin? What about it appealed to you?

Shaleen Title: I got involved through NORML and Students for Sensible Drug Policy when I was in law school. Early on, I wanted freedom for me and my friends to use cannabis; then it became more about social justice and curbing corporate greed. Everyone’s looking for belonging and connection, to feel like you can use your skills to help people. Drug policy work provided me with that.

MJG: Can you give us an overview of how you see federal legalization unfolding?

ST: Well, I think federal legalization is inevitable because, for the first time, we had both presidential candidates endorse it. And of course, President Trump endorsed Amendment 3 in Florida. I think it’s only a matter of time — but we have no idea who will control it, and who will benefit from it. It will be a matter of which communities are the most persuasive, when the time comes. I’m using the term communities broadly; it could be corporations and lobbyists. But in the past, patients and consumers have been more persuasive when it comes to drug policy reform than corporations have been. I don’t think it’s as straightforward as ‘whoever has the most money is going to have the loudest voice.’

MJG: Do you have a sense of how things might look under the second Trump administration?

ST: I don’t think we’re necessarily going to see a lot of reform around marijuana under the Trump administration. In the short term, I’m concerned about whether we might see a crackdown. I think the smartest thing — the one thing that the entire industry and movement could probably unite on — is to strongly oppose criminal enforcement for anyone involved with marijuana.

MJG: How do you foresee things playing out between federal and state-level legalization?

ST: All we’ve ever seen is legal marijuana without interstate commerce; I think we don’t realize how much protection that has provided for small, craft, and social-equity businesses. If Congress descheduled marijuana altogether, we would immediately see interstate commerce, which would result in a race to the bottom. The largest companies would flock to states with the least worker protections and the least restrictive consumer protections, manufacture there, and then export to other states. It will be critical for the states to be able to choose to protect small businesses by providing some kind of gradual transition for a defined period. Congress could make that happen, as long as they do it explicitly.

MJG: There are several pieces of legislation in play at the federal level. Do you see them coming together in a coherent way, or do we need to clean the slate and write something new?

ST: My guess is that what ultimately passes will include different pieces of the bills that have been introduced. The most comprehensive is the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA). Unless something else gets introduced, that will probably be the skeleton that other pieces get added to.

MJG: You feel like the bones of the CAOA are the best option?

ST: Yes — but I struggle to call it the best option, because it doesn’t address interstate commerce in any way. In my opinion, it also doesn’t prevent excessive corporate consolidation in any meaningful way.

MJG: Does it do any good for policymakers to address social equity concerns at the federal level?

ST: Yes, absolutely. The Parabola Center did some research on the beliefs Americans hold around legalization. I wanted to ask about social equity, because I thought it might be associated with ‘wokeness.’ I expected that maybe 50 percent of people would support it. Surprisingly, 68 percent of people said they support legalization and ending arrests, which aligns with national polls — and in our study, 68 percent of people also said they support social equity when defined as trying to repair some of the harms caused by the war on drugs.

That result is very telling. People were very clear: legalization should benefit workers, patients, and consumers, not large corporations, pharma, tobacco, or alcohol. If we want to maintain the popularity of legalization, and align it with what people want, it has to include social equity.

Also Read: Jason Gann: From Wilson to Weed Crusader

MJG: You’re stepping back from your work in drug policy. What’s next for you?

ST: Myself, Shanel Lindsay, and Laury Lucien run Parabola Center. We’re all women of color who had a role in the implementation of cannabis legalization in Massachusetts. We’re lawyers, and have all been cannabis entrepreneurs. We felt well-suited to talk about the future of legalization, and we saw a strong need for federal policy rooted in racial justice and preventing corporate monopolies. I feel very proud of the expertise we’ve brought together, and the unique projects we’ve undertaken.

But as of the end of this year, I’m not going to engage in drug policy advocacy anymore. I want to pass the torch to fresh voices and perspectives. Legalization is something new now; it can’t be what we were doing 12 years ago. There’s an urgent need for a new, more effective message, because the old approaches aren’t working.

I want to work directly with students; I’m more interested in guiding the next generation of leaders than being a leader myself. And, if we want to keep up our sense of helping others, there’s a lot we can do. What has always worked is bringing people together, and fostering a sense of connection and belonging. The best way to achieve that is to get off our phones—something I’m working on myself—and connect with each other in our communities.

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