The roots of Medicine Box have always stemmed around activism. Borne out of the Northern California medical cannabis movement, the early products we sold were political by their very nature. And even though we've pivoted to hemp and mushrooms, they still are. Standing up for nature and plant medicine shouldn't have to be a fight, but in this day and age, both are under attack. That's why we've embraced several notable social and environmental causes — causes that you support every time you purchase either our Medicine Box 1CaB Healing Suite of Botanical Formulations or our Mind's Eye nootropic herbal-mushroom encapsulated blends.
Before we dig into the details, we figured we'd briefly share how we got here. If anything, it should show you that if you stand up, take risks and fight back, the payoff for both you and your community is definitely worth it. Since then, we've moved onto building a natural presence. But it's in the northern shores of Lake Tahoe and the bohemian enclaves of Nevada County where our products were born and our mission took shape.
The Measure W Victory
Back in 2016, just as California was gearing up to vote for cannabis legalization, the Nevada County Board of Commissioners leveled a countywide ban on all outdoor cannabis cultivation, and limited indoor cultivation to 12 plants per property. At the same time, the Commission okayed a ballot measure — Measure W — which would allow the citizens of Nevada County to vote up or down on the emergency regulations that June 7th. That gave the local medical cannabis community an opportunity to get to work.
WE knew that the cultivation communities of both Nevada and neighboring Placer County contributed a LOT to the economies and overall wellness of our friends and neighbors. One of our staunchest supporters was Forrest Hurd, whose son Silas found relief for his crippling seizures through a strain with roughly equal parts THC and CBD. Through that, Hurd began the Caladrius Network, which donated cannabis grown by local cultivators to catastrophically-ill children, and saw the difference it made in their lives as well. For him and them, Medicine Box fought to send out a clear message to bring medical cannabis out of the shadows, along with many other dear friends and collaborators.
And we WON with 59.45% of the vote. That experience gave birth to the Nevada County Cannabis Alliance, which negotiated with the Commission to create manageable outdoor regulations that have kept greedy corporate interests out of the county, and kept the industry, as it were, in our community. However, we learned that education was key to beating back misinformation that always develops around plant medicine. And we also have to spread the love and support around. This gave rise to our Healing of the Nations initiative.
Healing of the Nations
Living here in Lake Tahoe, we're quite aware that the natural beauty of the land and the water accounts for so much of what makes this place special. However, in 2019, the Desert Research Institute in Reno discovered microplastics in the lake water for the first time ever. Since most of the water in Tahoe derives from snowmelt, this concerns us particularly. Back in the day when we were selling tinctures, our droppers had plastic, so we knew that we had to offset that somehow, if we were going to use it at all.
Enter rePurpose Global, a social enterprise which conducts a series of Impact Projects in seven countries and three continents. Our One to One Impact Guarantee funds the recovery and reuse of one pound of low-value packaging waste in waterways throughout the world. Currently, we're funding Project Pavitra Parvati, which seeks to rid the once-pristine city of Dehradun of its rampant plastic pollution. Situated in the foothills of the Himalayas, Dehradun's struggle reminds us very much of our own here in the shadows of the Sierra Nevada, so we're more than happy to help assist rePurpose Global in restoring Dehradun to its pristine state.
Atop that, we also added our Top Dollar Last Prisoner Pledge, where we grant financial support for every 1CaB/Mind's Eye product we sell to the Last Prisoner Project. Founded by cannabis pioneer Steve DeAngelo, LPP works toward freeing every last one of our brothers and sisters serving a non-violent cannabis-related prison sentence. In addition, LPP aids in rehabilitating those that are freed, so that the injustice delivered unto them by our War on Drugs (one that is STILL being waged by those in charge, unfortunately) may be unraveled, by us.
Finally, we have our Shift Advocacy Series. As a part of our ongoing Shift webcasts, we often invite guests like Operation E.V.A.C., which hosts valuable outreach amongst our veterans using counseling, mindfulness and plant medicine, and the Lakota Sovereignty Project, to speak about their advocacy. We also donate 5% of that month's sales to their efforts as well.
All of these worthy endeavors help more than just ourselves. Our brand has always been about healing at its core; with our Healing of the Nations Initiative, we're taking on individual and collective well-being at the same time. After all, you can't have one without the other.