Drug Policy Activist
Kevin Cranford, Jr.
Bringing Awareness to the Cause
As an activist, I've created, organized and executed two national awareness campaigns. The first was the 2015 #GoGreen project. This social media campaign encouraged users to change their profile pictures to green on April 20th to bring awareness to cannabis policy reform. I was able to build a network of 50+ state, regional, and college NORML chapters, as well as other cannabis reform organizations and personalities. This was accomplished by contacting them all one by one to pitch the idea. The campaign was a success, with thousands of social media users Going Green.
In 2016 I created the East Coast Unity Cypher. That spring Cannabis activists passed a 3 foot torch, modeled after a joint, from Maine to Miami Florida to bring awareness to east coast efforts to reform cannabis policy. This idea was birthed from a desire to bring east coast reformers together and to get the word out about a big year in cannabis policy. Once the idea was formulated, I began organizing my network of activists to execute this project. By creating smaller planning groups up the coast and drafting a torch bearer tool kit-- a formal proposal complete with a press release, directions, and torch maintenance information-- I was able to leverage my time and my contacts to make this project tangible. The Unity Torch was lit April 14th 2016 in Portland, Maine and put out May 7th in Miami, Florida. Pictures and videos can be seen on social media using the hashtags #unitytorch #unitycypher