To my fellow Americans:

We have a severe crisis in America today. We’re divided politically on many issues, we have a legal drug epidemic – the abuse of prescription opioids – that is spreading rampantly across the United States. We are losing our rights and privileges to affordable health care. And the gap between rich and poor is becoming larger each day.

We’ve become more full of hate and we are losing touch with who we are as Americans. Our system is severely broken.

Cannabis has the power to unlock many of the problems Americans are facing in 2017. Cannabis can help curb the opioid crisis that America is suffering from. Cannabis can provide job and economic growth to both small agricultural towns and metropolitan cities. Cannabis can provide a safe community where thought leaders gather, share ideas, and make the world a better place.

Cannabis is what America needs.

It is not a drug. It is medicine. Cannabis has saved thousands of lives, from veterans with severe PTSD, and children that could barely talk from having hundreds of seizures a day. Everyday cannabis is helping those suffering from cancer, Crohn’s disease, epilepsy, chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, insomnia, Tourette’s syndrome and eczema. Cannabis has provided hope to millions of people around the world. For many, cannabis is a miracle.

Cannabis is not part of the war on drugs. Nothing about cannabis is considered a drug. Cannabis does not make you stupid. It does not make you lazy. It does not make you crazy. It does not kill you.

Alcohol, tobacco, and prescription pills are drugs that have killed millions of people. Cannabis has never killed anyone, but has only provided hope to millions of people around the world. Yes, just like anything, cannabis can be abused — and that is why it must be regulated to ensure safe access.

Cannabis must be left in the hands of the people. Cannabis should not go into the hands of only pharmaceutical companies — who will charge exorbitant amounts of money for access to this free medicine.

My fellow Americans, we have to realize that we are not protected under this current administration. Although the United States of America has a patent on cannabis , it is a federal crime to use, possess, and sell cannabis.

By its federal illegality, the thriving cannabis business of 2017 is being punished. Cannabis businesses do not have access to banking in part because no bank wants to mess with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Cannabis businesses are not allowed to claim tax deductions such as payroll, rent or health care.

The federal government is not respecting our rights as citizens and our vote at the state level.

We are in the midst of a regime that wants to take away opportunity, freedom, and hope from the people. If we don’t act together soon, cannabis will be taken away from us.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has a personal vendetta against both cannabis and people of color, and wants to bring back 1984 and the war on drugs. Sessions wants to bring back arrests and federal sentencing for drug crimes.

Since his appointment as attorney general, the privatization of prisons has been reinstated – meaning  companies make money off of sending people to prison for crimes that should not result in harsh punishment. If the Cole Memo changes and the cannabis community is no longer protected by the Rohrabacher — Farr amendment, we must unite together to resist.

People such as myself have left the traditional corporate world, the Fortune 500 companies, or Wall Street to participate in this thriving cannabis community and industry. Billions of dollars worth of assets have been invested into the regulated cannabis industry with the intention of building a new, thriving industry.

Without your help, this could be lost overnight if the administration decides to act upon asset forfeiture.

It is our constitutional right to have and consume cannabis. I urge each one of you reading this to spread the word about why cannabis should be federally legal. I urge each one of you to tell your neighbor about the benefits of cannabis, to open your mind to the possibilities of an America in harmony. To open your eyes to an America with jobs. To open your eyes to an America with hope.

My mission as CEO and founder of Kalogia is to end global cannabis prohibition and provide opportunities for growth to small to medium sized business. Kalogia means “to come together and proclaim our land.” Together we will collectively make America the country we want it to be.