110922-news-election 17.JPG (copy) CU Regent Wanda James gives a victory speech at a Democratic watch party Nov. 8, 2022. Did CU Regent and marijuana retailer Wanda James break Board of Regents policies and state law to advance her own business interests — at the expense of the institution she’s sworn to serve?
That’s the question at the heart of a legal memorandum to the board’s leadership. It regards James’ crusade to terminate a public health education program mandated by the Legislature and funded with $4 million in marijuana tax revenue.
In 2021, lawmakers directed CU’s School of Public Health to research high-potency THC and educate the public about its impact on the developing brain and mental health. CU’s researchers systematically reviewed over 60,000 scientific articles showing how today’s high-potency marijuana can affect youth under 25 and pregnant mothers. With Initium Health, the school launched the “Tea on THC” campaign to raise public awareness.
James co-founded the nation’s first Black-owned legal medical-marijuana dispensary in 2009 and later opened her recreational pot shop, Simply Pure, and she helped Govs. John Hickenlooper and Jared Polis shape state marijuana policy.
In January, the self-described “pothead” who “get(s) elevated daily” alleged on social media that the campaign featured “troublesome images” that “weaponiz(ed) Black babies, Black boys, and Black men.”
The awareness campaign merely had depicted a child in utero and at subsequent stages of life. In one series, the child was Black and in another, White.
James also claimed the campaign pushed a “false and dangerous narrative that cannabis stunts brain development,” demanding its website TeaOnTHC.org be “taken down immediately.”
Also covering the flap was the pot industry publication Green Market Report, which quoted James saying she had spoken with Polis and his team about “pulling funding…for this.” Days later, budget director Mark Ferrandino sent a letter to the Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee advocating a slate of budget cuts, including to “fully eliminate” the project’s funding — a big shift from the governor’s November request to halve it.
In a bipartisan action last month, Board of Regents Chair Callie Rennison, a Democrat, and Vice Chair Ken Montera, a Republican, requested a legal […]
CU regent & pot purveyor Wanda James — under scrutiny | Jimmy Sengenberger
