“Transforming Spaces” is a series about women driving change in sometimes unexpected places.


Jam the towel under the door. Open the window. And hide the bong.

For decades, college students have found ways to mask the pungent aroma of marijuana smoke on campuses. Wanda James, however, did not always feel a need to hide. A 1986 graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder, Ms. James would sit on the steps outside her dorm and roll joints with her friends.

It would be decades before Colorado became one of the first two states in the country to legalize recreational cannabis, but on campus, James never worried.

“The worst that would happen is they would tell us to put it away, or they might take it from us, and that was the end of it,” Ms. James recalled of the campus police.

Fast forward 40 years: Ms. James, a former Navy lieutenant, is a member of her alma mater’s Board of Regents — and a prominent advocate of racial justice in the changing cannabis landscape.

It wasn’t until after college that Ms. James realized she had been living in something of an alternate reality with her cannabis use. She learned how the United States’ marijuana laws have led to Black Americans’ being sentenced to prison at a higher rate than white Americans despite near equal usage rates, setting her on the mission to which she has dedicated her life.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.


Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.


Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Source: | This article originally belongs to Nytimes.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like

Bill Allowing News Media to Band Together Against Big Tech Gets Another Shot

Newspapers, TV stations and other news outlets that have seen their revenue…

Frolicking pandas, horses and dogs: Videos of animals playing in the snow

Pandas and horses and dogs, snow my! Animals large and small across…

Former Microsoft Employee Alleges Bribery Scheme in Middle East and Africa

Microsoft Corp. said this week that it had fired some employees and…

Biden poised to wind down executive actions next week to focus on Covid relief

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is planning to wind down his initial…