How innovators are responding to the world’s biggest challenges. — Serial entrepreneur and philanthropist Jeffrey M. Zucker talks weekly with innovators creating transformational social impact. They discuss their journeys in philanthropy, business, and life.
https://www.peoplearetheanswer.com
episode 4: S5E4 (episode 44): Mason Tvert on cannabis being safer than alcohol led to legalization
In this episode, Mason and Jeffrey discuss how Mason got into cannabis policy, the late, great Steve Fox, the stunts they pulled to get media attention, how legalization impacts so many other policies, his work at VS Strategies, and more…
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/zM9JXjVXL5k
Learn more:
Recording date: 11/14/22
Vicente Sederberg LLP - https://vicentesederberg.com/
VS Strategies - https://www.vsstrategies.com/
Marijuana Policy Project - https://www.mpp.org/
Students for Sensible Drug Policy: https://www.ssdp.org/
Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition - https://www.ccjrc.org/
Mason Tvert is a partner at VS Strategies based in Denver. He also serves as communications adviser to Vicente Sederberg LLP.
Mason has been working to change public policies and public attitudes regarding cannabis since 2005. He has been called "The Don Draper of Pot" by Politico Magazine, "marijuana's top evangelist" by The Boston Globe, and one of the "100 Most Influential People in Cannabis" by High Times magazine. In 2012, The Denver Post named him Colorado's "top thinker" of the year in politics and government, and High Times recognized him as "Freedom Fighter of the Year," for the outsized role he played in Colorado's historic legalization initiative and efforts that led up to it.
Prior to joining VS Strategies, Mason served as director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, the nation's largest marijuana policy organization, where he managed strategic communications, media relations, and online outreach in support of reform efforts at the federal, state and local levels. While at MPP, he co-directed the successful 2012 initiative campaign to regulate marijuana like alcohol in Colorado and worked on several other state and local campaigns, including the successful legalization initiatives in Alaska, Nevada, Maine, and Massachusetts. He also coordinated communications efforts that contributed to the adoption of medical cannabis laws and decriminalization policies in several state legislatures around the country.
Previously, Mason co-founded and served as executive director of Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) and its 501(c)(4) advocacy arm, the SAFER Voter Education Fund, which laid the groundwork for the successful legalization effort in Colorado and facilitated the passage of cannabis-related student referendums on more than a dozen college campuses around the U.S. He led two successful local ballot measure campaigns in Denver, including the 2005 initiative that made it the first city in the world to remove all penalties for cannabis possession.
Mason has done thousands of media interviews and appeared in hundreds of local, national and international news outlets. He has contributed columns to several publications, and he is a co-author of the book, "Marijuana is Safer: So why are we driving people to drink?"