Ben Cohen is one of the founders of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream and a donor to left-of-center political causes. He is also the founder of cannabis company Ben’s Best Blnz, or B3. ¹

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In April 2023, it was announced that Cohen had started Ben’s Best Blnz or B3, a cannabis product company that, according to its website, will “sell Great Pot and use the power of our business to Right the Wrongs of the War on Drugs.” ² The website further explains that B3 partners with for-profit organizations that would pay Cohen’s company royalties for trademarks and formulas. After expenses, the majority of the group’s royalty profits would be used to get people, “convicted of nonviolent, cannabis-related crimes out of jail, getting their criminal records expunged, advocating for marijuana to be removed from the federal government’s Schedule 1 list…and investing in Black-owned cannabis businesses.” ³ According to CBS News and the B3 website, nearly 80% of profits would be given to Black-owned cannabis businesses and the remainder being provided to advocacy groups including Vermont Racial Justice Alliance and the Last Prisoner Project, the latter of which seeks to keep people convicted for marijuana possession from being incarcerated. ⁴ According to the B3 website, “The War on Drugs (first so named by President Richard Nixon) has targeted lower income Black and Brown people thru over policing, discriminatory prosecution, and discriminatory sentencing…That’s why despite using pot at the same rate, Black people are 4 times more likely to be arrested than Whites.” ⁵

1. Singh, Simrin. “Ben & Jerry’s co-founder starts cannabis nonprofit to support social causes.” CBS News, April 25, 2023. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ben-cohen-ben-jerrys-nonprofit-cannabis-business-b3/
2. Singh, Simrin. “Ben & Jerry’s co-founder starts cannabis nonprofit to support social causes.” CBS News, April 25, 2023. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ben-cohen-ben-jerrys-nonprofit-cannabis-business-b3/
3. Singh, Simrin. “Ben & Jerry’s co-founder starts cannabis nonprofit to support social causes.” CBS News, April 25, 2023. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ben-cohen-ben-jerrys-nonprofit-cannabis-business-b3/
4. Singh, Simrin. “Ben & Jerry’s co-founder starts cannabis nonprofit to support social causes.” CBS News, April 25, 2023. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ben-cohen-ben-jerrys-nonprofit-cannabis-business-b3/
5. Singh, Simrin. “Ben & Jerry’s co-founder starts cannabis nonprofit to support social causes.” CBS News, April 25, 2023. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ben-cohen-ben-jerrys-nonprofit-cannabis-business-b3/