Gary Chambers Pushes for Marijuana Legalization in Louisiana

Social justice advocate and Louisiana Senate candidate Gary Chambers is out to “Do good, seek justice,” Isaiah 1:17.

The 36-year-old publisher, consultant, and community organizer has worked for criminal justice reform, health care access, and economic equity for minority businesses. He supports the Green New Deal, Medicare for All, and a $15 per hour minimum wage. This year, Chambers hopes to pull off a Raphael-Warnock-like upset by becoming the first black person elected to Congress by Louisiana since Reconstruction more than 150 years ago.

Louisiana has some of the toughest laws against marijuana in America. In Chambers’ new ad, he looks directly into the camera, lights up a blunt, and declares, “Every 37 seconds, someone is arrested for possession of marijuana.” With the ad, which shares alarming facts about Louisiana’s criminalization of weed, Chambers seeks to de-stigmatize and legalize marijuana, forgive those arrested due to outdated laws, and assert that “policing cannabis isn’t making us safer” in a state ravaged by crime and lack of jobs.

Today, more than 60% of Americans believe that pot should be legal for medical and/or recreational use; 18 states and D.C. have legalized small amounts; and, 27 states have decriminalized marijuana. Chambers shares, “Since 2010, police have arrested 7.3 million people, half of all drug arrests, for weed; black people are four times more likely to be arrested than white; states waste $3.7 billion a year enforcing the laws; most of those arrested aren’t dealers, but “people with small amounts of pot – just like me.”

Chambers uses pot to address other failures, saying, “Politicians have been smoking our tax resources to benefit only a few – they’ve left us in ashes because they won’t change on a host of issues.”

Find out more and support Chambers’ campaign at ChambersForLouisiana.com.