Why We Formed the Latino Cannabis Alliance

One of the first reported deaths resulting from the Trump administration’s renewed immigration raids in 2025 was that of Jaime Alanís Garcia—a beloved husband, father and provider. Jaime was a longtime farmworker, laboring at a state-legal cannabis farm in California on the fateful day he tragically fell from a building as federal immigration agents swarmed his workplace.

The moment of Jaime’s death sent shock waves through the Latino community, particularly for those of us who work in the marijuana space. Yet, to our frustration, the greater cannabis community was largely silent. This tragic event forced many of us who work within the cannabis ecosystem to realize that we did not have an organized and credible Latino voice to express our anger and mobilize our people toward action—while our labor, our business, our language and our culture have helped to lay the foundation for the cannabis industry as we know it today.

Despite our outsized impact on the industry and our disproportionate rates of arrest, incarceration and deportation, there have been few organized national efforts to educate, empower and mobilize the Latino community toward securing our place in the legal industry and to demand justice for the damage done to our communities from the War on Drugs. To correct this and ensure that we have a powerful voice to express our demands for inclusion and justice, we formed the Latino Cannabis Alliance (LCA).

With the Trump administration ramping up harassment of Latino youth and bragging about marijuana-based deportations, our work is more important than ever.

The LCA aims to serve as a central forum for analysis, commentary and guidance on cannabis issues from a Latino lens, creating a foundation for deeper representation across the industry and the broader policy landscape. From this foundation, we seek to build bridges across diverse Latino communities and cultivate meaningful relationships with Latino lawmakers. Recognizing the transnational identity of our communities, we aspire to strengthen international connections across Latin America and foster cross-border collaboration grounded in equity, justice and cultural understanding.

The LCA is composed of community leaders with a diverse range of skills, countries of origin and roles within the cannabis ecosystem. We are policy advocates, academics, attorneys, community organizers and storytellers who aim to use our talents to enrich and serve our communities. Combined, we have decades of experience in the cannabis reform space.

The launch of the Latino Cannabis Alliance is long overdue.

The launch of the LCA is long overdue. The first anti-marijuana laws in the United States were passed to target Mexican migrants and other people of color. Harry Anslinger, the initial architect of the US War on Drugs, relied on racism to help pass the first cannabis prohibition law in Congress—the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. In fact, Anslinger intentionally called cannabis “marijuana” to make it sound “Spanish” and “foreign,” and to associate the plant with Mexican migrants in the public view. To this day, cannabis is still referred to as marijuana in the US federal code.

The toll of decades-long marijuana prohibition in Latino communities has been devastating. Latinos are overrepresented in marijuana arrest and incarceration rates throughout the country. In 2023, the US Sentencing Commission reported that Hispanics made up 70.8 percent of all people sentenced for federal marijuana possession in the previous five fiscal years. Arrest and conviction records block people from accessing jobs, housing and benefits, among other consequences, detrimentally impacting families and communities.

Moreover, marijuana criminalization has been a key driver of immigrant detention and deportation. Between 2002 and 2020, 127,387 people were deported for marijuana-related convictions. At least 600 individuals were deported in 2025 for marijuana-related convictions, an estimate that is likely an undercount.

Despite carrying the consequences of criminalization, and being key sustainers of the legal industry as workers and consumers, Latinos are underrepresented as business owners in the industry. This is due to many reasons, including: some people cannot participate in the industry due to previous convictions; their immigration status will not allow them to participate safely; or the cost of entry is too high and capital is unavailable.

The LCA aspires to close these gaps so that people no longer suffer under the weight of criminal or immigration consequences, or unjust barriers to ownership in the industry. This work has always been necessary, but it is more urgent than ever in today’s political climate.

The global War on Drugs will only end once we unite in solidarity aqui y alla. We have started the process of building an organized, collective force ready to light a fire within all Latinos who care about cannabis or are impacted by cannabis policy. Together, we will bring the heat until our communities have the justice and opportunities we deserve.

 

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Image (cropped) via New Jersey Division of Taxation

This story was originally published by Marijuana Moment, which tracks the politics and policy of cannabis and drugs. Follow Marijuana Moment on X and Facebook, and sign up for its newsletter.

The Influence Foundation, which operates Filter, previously received a restricted grant from the Drug Policy Alliance. Filter‘s Editorial Independence Policy applies.