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A $68 Billion Cannabis Market While People Remain in Prison
The Cannabis Industry Is Worth Billions. So Why Are People Still in Prison?
A $68 Billion Cannabis Market While People Remain in Prison
The cannabis industry loves to celebrate growth: new markets, new licenses, new brands and billions of dollars in sales. But during the latest episode of The Rotation with Suncoast NORML, one question cut through all the business talk:
How can America celebrate a cannabis economy worth an estimated $68 billion while people remain behind bars for the same plant?
Bill Levers, CEO of Freedom Grow and co-founder of Beard Bros. Pharms and Beard Bros. Media, joined Suncoast NORML Political and Policy Director Gary Stein, Executive Director Chris Cano and Deputy Director Carlos Hermida for a wide-ranging conversation about the health of the cannabis market, the failures of legalization and the people prohibition has left behind.
The episode covered California's transition from medical cannabis to adult use, Florida's tightly controlled medical marijuana system, excessive taxes, corporate consolidation, home cultivation, federal rescheduling and cannabis potency myths. But its clearest message was simple: legalization cannot be called justice while nonviolent cannabis prisoners are still serving extreme sentences.
Bill Levers on Going From Legacy Cannabis to the Regulated Market
Levers has experienced the instability of cannabis regulation firsthand. He explained that he and his brother operated legally in California's medical cannabis system, only to see the rules change with the arrival of adult-use legalization.
Their cultivation license was no longer enough under the new framework. Rather than disappear, they pivoted into media and manufactured products. That experience shaped Levers' skepticism toward regulatory systems that claim to create legal opportunities but impose costs and barriers that small operators cannot survive.
In his view, many early medical cannabis systems were designed around patients and small businesses. Once adult-use markets turned cannabis into a conventional profit-driven industry, compassion became easier to sacrifice.
That tension ran throughout the episode. Cannabis reform was supposed to replace prohibition with something fairer. Instead, many states built markets defined by limited licenses, high taxes, expensive compliance requirements and political influence.
Florida's Cannabis Market Was Built to Benefit a Few
Florida became a major focus of the conversation because its medical cannabis system shows what happens when access is restricted from the beginning.
The panel discussed Florida's vertically integrated structure, licensing delays and the enormous cost of entering or remaining in the market. Although Florida has close to one million registered medical marijuana patients, the state has repeatedly fallen behind the number of licenses contemplated under its own laws.
The problem is not simply the number of licenses. It is who can realistically afford one.
When licensing fees, financial-assurance requirements, construction costs, cultivation infrastructure and regulatory delays are added together, independent operators face an enormous disadvantage. Meanwhile, companies with access to investors, lobbyists and political relationships are better positioned to survive.
Levers warned that this pattern can eventually remove the small, mission-driven businesses that helped normalize cannabis. Once those operators are gone, large alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceutical or consumer-product companies could enter a market whose rules have been rewritten in their favor.
The result would be legalization without real competition—and an industry increasingly disconnected from the patients, advocates and legacy operators who made reform possible.
Cannabis Is Taxed Like a Sin and Regulated Like a Threat
Levers also described how taxes accumulate across California's legal supply chain. A cannabis product can encounter taxes and fees when a facility is built, when licenses are issued, when the product moves through distribution and again when it reaches the consumer.
Those compounded costs make it harder for licensed businesses to compete with unregulated sellers. They also raise prices for patients and consumers.
This creates a basic policy contradiction. Lawmakers say regulation will improve safety, testing and accountability. But when taxes and compliance costs push prices too high, consumers have a stronger incentive to remain outside the regulated market.
A functional cannabis market should reward responsible operators, protect consumers and provide room for small businesses. It should not treat every stage of the supply chain as another opportunity to collect a special tax.
Freedom Grow Supports People Prohibition Forgot
The most powerful portion of the conversation centered on Freedom Grow, a volunteer-driven nonprofit that supports people incarcerated for nonviolent cannabis offenses and the families affected by their imprisonment.
Levers clarified that Freedom Grow was founded by Stephanie Landa, who served federal prison time after growing cannabis in Oakland. Her experience revealed a painful reality: prison is even more punishing when a person has no money for commissary or basic necessities.
Freedom Grow now supports roughly 225 to 250 incarcerated people at a time, according to Levers. Its work includes:
Depositing commissary funds for people incarcerated on nonviolent cannabis charges
Supporting prisoners in court and reminding the system that they have not been forgotten
Helping children of incarcerated parents with school supplies and holiday gifts
Fulfilling modest family requests, such as sending flowers to a prisoner's mother
Providing reentry grants after release
Helping returning citizens look for employment, including work in the cannabis industry
These are not abstract policy goals. Commissary money can mean toothpaste that does not taste like chalk, clean socks or another basic item that a prison does not adequately provide.
As Levers explained, even a $50 payment becomes a major fundraising commitment when it is sent to approximately 250 people. The organization depends heavily on small donations and volunteer labor to keep that support moving.
Decades in Prison for Cannabis
The sentences discussed during the episode expose the human cost hidden behind the industry's sales figures.
Levers referenced people who received sentences of 30, 40 or even 60 years in cases involving cannabis. Many federal defendants also received related financial charges because prohibition prevented them from using ordinary banking systems.
The contradiction is impossible to ignore. Licensed companies can now sell large quantities of cannabis every day, while people convicted under prohibition remain incarcerated for conduct that resembles activity taking place openly in legal markets.
That is why cannabis justice must include more than future legalization. It must include:
Release and sentence relief for people incarcerated for nonviolent cannabis offenses
Automatic expungement of eligible cannabis records
Reentry assistance and employment opportunities
Support for families harmed by incarceration
A meaningful pathway into the legal industry for people and communities targeted by prohibition
Anything less leaves the punishment in place while transferring the profits to somebody else.
Schedule III Is Not the Same as Cannabis Justice
The panel also challenged the idea that moving cannabis to Schedule III would resolve the failures of federal prohibition.
Rescheduling could change the business and tax environment for federally recognized medical cannabis activity. It would not, by itself, legalize adult-use cannabis nationwide, free people serving cannabis sentences or erase criminal records.
That distinction matters. A reform that improves conditions for licensed companies while leaving people in prison is incomplete.
Suncoast NORML continues to support federal descheduling and conviction relief because cannabis policy should address both access and the damage created by prohibition. Business reform cannot substitute for criminal justice reform.
Home Grow and Collaboration Over Competition
During The Rotation's “Hot Seat” segment, Levers was asked whether Florida should allow medical cannabis patients to grow at home. His answer was unequivocal: people should be allowed to cultivate a plant that helps them manage their health.
Home cultivation gives patients greater control over access, affordability and the products they use. It also reduces total dependence on a small number of vertically integrated companies.
When asked what the cannabis community should do next, Levers chose “collaboration over competition.” Small and midsize cannabis businesses face many of the same threats: regulatory capture, high taxes, consolidation and the loss of patient-centered values.
Working together is not merely a slogan. It may be necessary to prevent cannabis from becoming just another packaged product controlled by a few national corporations.
The Episode's Bottom Line: Patients and People Must Come Before Profit
This episode of The Rotation asked the cannabis industry to measure success differently.
Sales matter. Licenses matter. Jobs and tax revenue matter. But none of those numbers can tell the whole story.
A successful cannabis policy should also be measured by whether patients can afford access, whether consumers receive accurately labeled products, whether small businesses can compete and whether the people criminalized under prohibition are finally brought home.
The legal cannabis market did not appear out of nowhere. It was built on decades of risk taken by patients, growers, advocates, families and people who lost their freedom.
If the industry wants to celebrate a multibillion-dollar future, it has a responsibility to the people still paying for its prohibited past.
Watch The Rotation and Support Cannabis Justice
Watch or listen to The Rotation with Suncoast NORML for honest conversations about cannabis policy, public health, elections, business and justice in Florida and across the country.
You can also support Freedom Grow and learn more about its work helping people incarcerated for nonviolent cannabis offenses and their families.
Suncoast NORML is a volunteer-led organization. Membership supports cannabis education, advocacy and reform throughout the Tampa Bay area.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Bill Levers?
Bill Levers is the CEO of Freedom Grow and a co-founder of Beard Bros. Pharms and Beard Bros. Media. His work connects cannabis business, independent media, patient advocacy and support for people incarcerated on cannabis charges.
What does Freedom Grow do?
Freedom Grow supports people incarcerated for nonviolent cannabis offenses and their families. Its work includes commissary assistance, family support, court support, reentry grants and help finding employment after release.
Why are people still in prison if cannabis is legal in many states?
State legalization does not automatically change federal convictions, sentences from other jurisdictions or past criminal records. Relief generally requires separate action, such as clemency, resentencing, expungement or changes to federal and state law.
Would moving cannabis to Schedule III free cannabis prisoners?
No. Rescheduling alone would not automatically release people incarcerated for cannabis offenses or expunge their records. That is why advocates continue to call for descheduling, sentence relief and record-clearing policies.
Does Florida allow medical cannabis patients to grow at home?
No. Florida's medical cannabis program requires patients to obtain cannabis through licensed medical marijuana treatment centers. Home cultivation remains an important reform goal for many patients and advocates.
What is The Rotation?
The Rotation is Suncoast NORML's podcast covering cannabis policy, public health, elections, advocacy and industry issues. The show features candidates, experts, organizers and cannabis community leaders.
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