Cannabis reform took center stage at Yale as students hosted a speaker series focused less on legalization itself and more on what comes after it. Organized by the Yale Undergraduate Prison Project alongside cannabis advocates, the event explored how marijuana policy intersects with justice, equity, and incarceration.
Rather than rehashing whether cannabis should be legal, speakers dug into who actually benefits from legalization — and who still gets left behind. Panelists discussed racial disparities in past enforcement, ongoing barriers for marginalized entrepreneurs, and the challenges of building a fair cannabis industry in a post-prohibition world.
Student organizers framed cannabis as an entry point into broader conversations about mass incarceration and social policy, drawing in audiences who might not otherwise engage with those topics. With legalization now in place in Connecticut, the discussion highlighted a growing push to make sure reform is more than symbolic — and that the legal cannabis era doesn’t forget the people most harmed by the old one.
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