The American Cannabis Council (USCC) Announced on August 19 It has appointed Khadija Tripple to serve as the foundation’s new CEO. Tribble succeeds former USCC CEO Stephen Hawkins, who has led the USCC since it was first founded in February 2021.
“We thank Stephen Hawkins for his instrumental role in launching the USCC, and we are thrilled to welcome Khadija Tripple to the role of CEO at this critical juncture in the cannabis industry.” He said Jessica Billingsley, USCC President and CEO, Akerna. “She is greatly respected for her leadership, extensive experience and expertise and is well positioned to further our mission of ending prohibition and creating a fair and values-based industry.”
Triple Founded Marijuana matters In 2020, the organization acts as an incubator for cannabis education and advocacy. She also served as the Executive Director of the Marijuana Policy Trust, which helps develop and manage DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programs in the cannabis industry.
Tribble has often focused on fair and equitable policies on behalf of marginalized communities throughout her career, and she also works for the USCC DEI Task Force. She holds a master’s degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
“The USCC is focused on securing critical reforms in this congressional session,” Tripple says. High Times. “My main priority is to do the work to make it happen, with the understanding that the banking bill will make our industry broadly safer and more equitable, and erasure will meaningfully improve the lives of the countless Americans with cannabis records.”
Trippple continues, “These tangible gains are the stepping stones we need to reach our ultimate goal: comprehensive federal reform to eliminate cannabis while promoting an equitable and inclusive industry.”
USCC’s recent work
Earlier this year, the USCC launched a DEI task force with leaders in law, business, and civil rights, in partnership with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation to create an internship program for black college students and recent graduates at leading cannabis companies and institutions.
Stephen Hawkins, the former CEO of USCC, has safely left his role as the organization unveils a powerful briefing and advertising campaign in support of the SAFE Banking Act.
On July 27, Representatives Ed Perlmutter (R-North Carolina), Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon), as well as Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) joined Hawkins for a briefing in support of federal banking reform.
Dennis Brown, whose son Jordan was killed during an armed robbery of a dispensary in Tacoma, appeared in Washington One From two New video ads made by USCC during the event.
“My son Jordan was the absolute loss,” Brown says in the video. “He killed his life because we don’t give these companies the opportunity to use credit cards. It should have been all credit cards and no cash. My son graduated from college, he was an artist, he was working on his income, he was living a great life. He leaves a very big void in my life” .
The second video in the campaign shows small cannabis business owners in Washington state who have been targets of a rising crime trend.
The USCC calls itself “the voice of the regulated American cannabis industry,” with business members from many of the largest cannabis companies in the country, as well as leaders in cannabis policy and criminal justice reform.