Steve DeAngelo (born June 12, 1958) is an American

cannabis rights Cannabis rights or marijuana rights (sometimes more specifically cannabis consumer rights or stoner rights) are individual civil and human rights that vary by jurisdiction. The rights of people who consume cannabis include the right to be free f ...

activist and advocate for

cannabis reform The legality of cannabis for medical and recreational use varies by country, in terms of its possession, distribution, and cultivation, and (in regards to medical) how it can be consumed and what medical conditions it can be used for. These ...

in the United States.

Career

DeAngelo is co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of Harborside Inc., a publicly-traded company on the Canadian Securities Exchange. The California cannabis company with a monopolized supply chain has dispensary locations in Oakland, San Jose, San Leandro and Desert Hot Spring - the second dispensary in California to feature a drive-thru. Harborside Health Center, was founded in 2006 as a non-profit medical cannabis dispensary and had more than 300,000 registered medical patients. In 2016, the company rebranded as Harborside Inc. in preparation for the new legal adult-use market in California. DeAngelo is also co-founder of

Steep Hill Steep Hill is a street in the historic city of Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England. At the top of the hill is the entrance to Lincoln Cathedral and at the bottom is Well Lane. The Hill consists of independent shops, tea rooms and pubs, and is popular ...

, Inc., the first commercial cannabis lab in the country, and co-founder of Arcview Group, the first cannabis investment firm. DeAngelo formerly served Arcview as vice president. DeAngelo is the author of ''The Cannabis Manifesto: A New Paradigm for Wellness''.

Last Prisoner Project

In 2019 Steve DeAngelo, Dean Raise and Andrew DeAngelo jointly founded Last Prisoner Project. The guiding principal is that no individual should be incarcerated for simple cannabis-related offenses. Last Prisoner Project has brought together a group of justice-impacted individuals, policy and education experts, and leaders in the worlds of criminal justice and drug policy reform, to work to end the fundamental injustice that is America's policy of cannabis prohibition.

Activism

Early on as an activist, DeAngelo was skipping school to attend anti-war demonstrations and eventually dropped out to join the

Youth International Party The Youth International Party (YIP), whose members were commonly called Yippies, was an American youth-oriented radical and countercultural revolutionary offshoot of the free speech and anti-war movements of the late 1960s. It was founded o ...

– also known as the Yippies. He went on to become the lead organizer of the annual Fourth of July Smoke-In in D.C., carrying the position for a decade. DeAngelo graduated summa cum laude from the University of Maryland. He also opened a legendary D.C. counter-cultural gathering place that became known as a refuge for local cannabis and peace activists during the Reagan-Bush era, including

William Kunstler William Moses Kunstler (July 7, 1919 – September 4, 1995) was an American lawyer and civil rights activist, known for defending the Chicago Seven. Kunstler was an active member of the National Lawyers Guild, a board member of the American Civil ...

Wavy Gravy Hugh Nanton Romney Jr. (born May 15, 1936), known as Wavy Gravy, is an American entertainer and peace activist best known for his role at Woodstock, as well as for his hippie persona and countercultural beliefs. He has reported that his moniker ...

, and author

Jack Herer Jack Herer (; June 18, 1939 – April 15, 2010), sometimes called the "Emperor of Hemp", was an American cannabis rights activist and the author of ''The Emperor Wears No Clothes''. Herer founded and served as the director of the organization H ...

. DeAngelo helped Jack Herer edit and publish the manuscript for his soon-to-be-famous book, “'' The Emperor Wears No Clothes'',” and became a lead organizer of the first Hemp Museum and Hemp Tour. He created his first cannabis business, Ecolution; the company was one of the first to ride an industrial hemp boom, manufacturing hemp clothing and accessories for retail sales in 50 states and 21 countries during the ’90s.

Bibliography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:DeAngelo, Steve 1958 births Living people Yippies Activists from Washington, D.C. American cannabis activists Businesspeople in the cannabis industry