Leading Marijuana Reform Group Hires Illinois Government Cannabis Czar As President And CEO

One of the nation’s top cannabis reform advocacy groups—the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP)—is getting a new leader with an extensive professional background in the enactment and implementation of state-level legalization as a lawmaker and government official.

Toi Hutchinson, who most recently served as the senior advisor on cannabis to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D), will replace Steve Hawkins and join the national advocacy organization as president and CEO.

The changeup, which was shared exclusively with Marijuana Moment ahead of the announcement, comes at a vital time in the cannabis legalization movement in which MPP has played a key role in advancing reform in states across the country.

Advocates have celebrated Hutchinson’s leadership on the issue, applauding her sponsorship as a state senator of Illinois’s adult-use legalization policy that Pritzker signed into law in 2019, as well as her focus on promoting social equity within the burgeoning marijuana industry.

Hutchinson told Marijuana Moment that in her regulatory capacity as Pritzker’s cannabis advisor, days when she would see thousands of cannabis records cleared under the newly enacted law were the “moments that I will take with me for the rest of my life, wherever it is I go.”

“It also means that this cannabis legalization work is wrapped around my soul now, so when I got the call from MPP, it was a no-brainer because we know that the march towards federal legalization is going to happen through the states,” she said. “And we have to keep doing that until we get action at the federal level.”

We are excited to welcome Toi Hutchinson as MPP's new president and CEO! https://t.co/COZ2HmpUetpic.twitter.com/RNFljMEnCh

— Marijuana Policy Project (@MarijuanaPolicy) December 15, 2021

From state lawmaker to administrative advisor, the official has seen the conversation around cannabis policy evolve—particularly as it concerns the importance of addressing the disproportionate consequences of marijuana criminalization.

“The discussion around cannabis has grown to the point where we have to talk about legalization with the understanding that we have an industry,” Hutchinson said, adding that in the nascent stages of reform discussions “a lot of those initial conversations didn’t center around equity—it was really about freeing the plant.”

“What Illinois did was different,” she said. “And the biggest lesson I learned—and I think what people respond to—is that if you’re going to normalize and legalize a product for whom the prohibition of that exact same product destroyed generations of communities, you have to center those two things together.”

Toi also served as an Illinois state senator where she was one of the initial author's of cannabis legalization legislation.

— Marijuana Policy Project (@MarijuanaPolicy) December 15, 2021

When you put equity front and center, “you really do come up with better policy proposals,” she said. “If you center the people who are harmed the most by this—the communities that were harmed the most by this—then you can meet people in places where they didn’t even know they were going to agree with you.”

Hawkins, meanwhile, has been wearing two hats for the past year. Beside running MPP, he’s also the president and CEO of the newer organization U.S. Cannabis Council (USCC), an industry-focused marijuana group that’s become heavily involved in federal cannabis reform legislation.

Before joining MPP, Hawkins served as the executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) and executive vice president of the NAACP. Colleagues praised his commitment to the movement and stressed that this staffing decision was mutual and amicable.

“The MPP board has been incredibly pleased with Steve’s leadership, his ability to coalition build, to bring people together,” Sal Pace, chair of the organization’s board, told Marijuana Moment. “So much of the success at the state level over the last four years has been with Steve at the helm of MPP.” (Disclosure: Pace supports Marijuana Moment’s work via a monthly pledge on Patreon.)

Hutchinson, meanwhile, brings a whole new skill set to the organization’s leadership, with important experience bringing reform to a state legislature and seeing to its coming to fruition in the governor’s office. She also previously served as president of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).

“I don’t think I could imagine a biography more perfectly suited for running MPP for the future,” Pace said.

Pritzker recognized Hutchinson’s contributions to the state’s marijuana policy at a press conference on Wednesday about a new round of cannabis-funded grant funding for community reinvestment.

“For over two years, Toi has served as the premier advisor on cannabis, rolling back the injustices of criminalization, investing in the communities that needed most and making Illinois’s industry the most equitable in the country,” he said.

For over two years, Toi Hutchinson has been my foremost advisor on cannabis: making Illinois’ industry the most equitable in the country. While I'm sad to see her go, it was an honor to have her lead this charge. ⁰Toi, Illinois is a better state because of your public service. pic.twitter.com/DaKE8JIXNA

— Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker) December 15, 2021

“In her new role, Toi will be able to share on a national platform the lessons learned from passing and implementing the Illinois law,” Pritzker said. “I will miss her in the governor’s office. But what an honor for Illinois to have our own Toi Hutchinson leading the charge on a national scale, shaping the fight for cannabis justice—not just in our state but in all 50 states.”

MPP and USCC will continue to work together in a symbiotic partnership to advance the cause. There’s wide recognition that as more states move to legalize, it adds pressure on Congress to act.

“I’m proud certainly of all the accomplishments that I’ve had at MPP since I came on as executive director in 2018,” Hawkins told Marijuana Moment. “MPP played a pivotal role with the incubation of the U.S. Cannabis Council, which launched in February, and this seemed to be the perfect time to make the move over to USCC.”

“Given that MPP has identified such an incredible leader in Toi Hutchinson, this creates a real great dynamic duo, if you will, between myself and Toi,” he said.

At USCC, “my vision is really to make sure that we we have some substantial cannabis reform happen in this session of Congress,” Hawkins said. “There are bills pending for legalization, for banking, for expungement. And USCC is going to be continuing to advocate for substantial reform across the board.”

I am proud of what we have accomplished at MPP and look forward to working alongside @ToiHutchinson in the fight to end cannabis prohibition! Toi is an incredible leader, and I know that our organizations will work tirelessly to advance our shared goals.https://t.co/6fijkitYQa

— Steven W Hawkins (@StevenWHawkins) December 15, 2021

This is the latest executive change to happen at MPP in recent years. The group’s co-founder, Rob Kampia, left the organization in 2017, more than two decades after founding it. Kampia’s departure was announced shortly after sexual misconduct allegations against him resurfaced amid the #MeToo movement.

Meanwhile, MPP separately hired a new director of communications last month. Denise Tolliver, a former reporter and congressional staffer. The organization also announced recently that it hired the Louisiana-based founder of CommonSenseNOLA, Kevin Caldwell, as its Southeast legislative manager.

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Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.

Marijuana Policy Project Welcomes New Executive Director

The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), the nation’s best-funded cannabis advocacy group, has named long-time social justice reform advocate Steve Hawkins as its next executive director.

Hawkins, who previously served as the executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) and executive vice president of the NAACP, will assume responsibility for MPP’s national legalization advocacy efforts just months before a number of states vote to enact their own legal systems.

The decision was made after a “months-long candidate search that included several exceptionally qualified candidates,” MPP said in a press release.

“We are still battling the effects of decades of anti-marijuana legislation and propaganda in this country,” Hawkins told Marijuana Moment. “Huge strides have been made when it comes to setting the record straight, but our work is far from over and there is still a lot of misinformation out there that needs to be addressed.”

“Fundraising and maintaining momentum is also a core challenge for the movement, which is in some ways a victim of its own success. Thanks to the major gains it has made in recent years, many people think legalization is inevitable and that their donations are no longer needed or that they don’t need to take the time to write their elected officials. These laws are not going to change themselves and there is more need than ever for resources and engagement to support federal and state-level reform efforts.”

Hawkins’s experience running successful criminal justice reform campaigns—including a bipartisan effort to end capital punishment for juveniles during his time at the NCADP—made him an apt candidate to spearhead the fight to end prohibition, Troy Dayton, chair of MPP’s board of directors, said in a statement.

“Steve has a strong track record in the field of criminal justice reform, and he knows how to build a movement toward meaningful social change,” Dayton said. “We were not only impressed by his expertise and experience, but also his strong convictions regarding the injustice of marijuana prohibition.”

“The country is moving in the right direction on marijuana policy, but there is still a lot of work to be done.”

Hawkins also previously held leadership positions at Amnesty International and the Coalition for Public Safety.

He told Marijuana Moment that his three decades of experience “defending civil and human rights” has informed his belief that we should “bring an end to marijuana prohibition, which has had a hugely detrimental impact, especially to communities of color,” and that we should “replace it with a more sensible system of regulation.”

“I also believe it is critical we ensure those populations that were so negatively impacted by prohibition are able to participate in and experience the positive impacts of such a regulated system.”

At MPP, Hawkins will succeed Rob Kampia, who late last year left the organization he founded in 1995 to start a for-profit cannabis policy consulting firm called the Marijuana Leadership Campaign. Kampia’s departure was announced shortly after sexual misconduct allegations against him resurfaced amid the #MeToo movement.

Kampia offered some words of advice for the next person to occupy his former seat in a phone interview with Marijuana Moment:

“View yourself as a fundraiser who has to engage in transactional fundraising with the marijuana industry in part, and view yourself as needing to come up with a smart, strategic plan for lobbying in state legislatures rather than doing ballot initiatives where no one else is going to touch it. Do not view yourself as a spokesperson.”

Or in other words, less of a focus on talk, and more on action.

MPP named Matthew Schweich as the interim executive director while the group scouted for a replacement. Scweich will now serve as MPP’s deputy director overseeing marijuana reform initiatives in Michigan and Utah.

In a statement, MPP board member Joby Pritzker said Schweich “provided critical leadership during a challenging transition period for MPP.”

“He maintained the effectiveness of our advocacy operations, managed our fundraising efforts, and oversaw ballot initiative campaigns in multiple states, while at the same time leading our staff and assisting the board with the executive director search.”

The past few years have seen a number of leadership changeups at national pro-legalization groups.

NORML brought on Erik Altieri as executive director in 2016 after Allen St. Pierre left the organization following 11 years of service. And last year, the Drug Policy Alliance announced that it had hired Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno, who worked on international and domestic drug policies issues for 13 years at the Human Rights Watch, as the new executive director to replace retiring founder Ethan Nadelmann.

While the objective at all of these groups—promoting equitable drug policy reform in the United States—has remained the same, the nature of the movement has evolved. A majority of states have now legalized cannabis for medical or recreational purposes, and though state-level reform efforts continue, calls for change at the federal level are increasingly resonant.

That is to say, these new executive directors will face a different set of challenges than their predecessors did.

Rob Kampia Leaves Marijuana Policy Project

Photo courtesy of Beloit College.