During his tenure in the NBA, Al Harrington was always a player who went against the grain — he constantly countered the league’s norms.
Conventional wisdom when he entered the NBA in 1998 said a 6-foot-9, 230-pound forward had to make a living in the paint. He built a 16-year NBA career where he spent most of his time stretching the floor from 3-point range.
In his post-NBA life, Harrington is doing much of the same. Except this time, it’s the marijuana industry instead of the NBA.
Harrington is the founder and CEO of Viola Brands, a company dedicated to increasing minority participation in the marijuana business. One of his goals is to usher forward change in the justice system when it comes to drug arrests.
According to ACLU data, Black people are 3.64 times more likely than white peopleto be arrested for marijuana possession despite nearly identical usage rates. That’s just the start of how the system breeds inequity, often punishing Black people with years in prison. And that is what Harrington wants to change.
That’s why he’s partnering with the Marijuana Policy Project to host an event called “Reimagining Justice” on July 15 where they’ll talk about race, the war on drugs and so much more. (For more information on how to take part in the event, vist MPP’s Facebook page.)
Harrington chopped it up with For the Win about his cause, the event, the NBA’s return and so much more. Here’s how that conversation unfolded.
(NOTE: This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.)
One of the goals for Reimagining Justice is to deconstruct America’s War on Drugs, and that’s a massive thing. How do we turn that around?
We’re really focused on trying to bring home these people who are sitting in jail, still, for marijuana possession. Obviously, there are people now who’ve made millions and almost billions of dollars from it and, you know, there are still people locked up. And after these people have served their time, they have no opportunities because they have to work around with this blemish on their record where it doesn’t allow them to apply for jobs.
Right, they still have that on their record.
And we have to honestly do a better job of holding police accountable for the way they police cannabis. Because I can tell you, for sure, that the way they police cannabis in Beverly Hills compared to where they do it in Compton is totally different. So, there’s a lot of things to peel back in regards to reform in general … At the end of the day, there are still people dealing with this.
That ties into the movement going on around the country on policing. We’ve seen a lot of athletes join in and advocate for change through peaceful protests and things of that nature. How important do you think it is for them to lend their voices to a movement like this?
I think that’s very important. It’s so important, right? Because, when you think about back in the day, there was a time where activists were probably more popular than athletes. Folks like Martin Luther King, Jr., their work was so strong and so prevalent. But now I think that’s flipped a lot. A lot of our advocates don’t have the same platform. But the people that do are the celebrities, the athletes.
That’s why it’s so important that they must use their voice on these issues .. .It’s all about sacrifice, right? As athletes, we’re blessed to make millions of dollars because someone sacrificed their life for this opportunity. So it’s very important for athletes to step up.
Do you think there’s anything to sports leagues like the NBA being able to accentuate the athlete’s platform in the way they’re saying they’re trying to do?
I don’t know. I don’t really have an answer for that, right? Because I definitely believe bringing back sports in the middle of all of this is a distraction. Especially when all the sports that we really care about are the sports dominated by the Black athlete. So, I just feel like there is somewhat of an opportunity, but think about the NBA — there were 29 different things that they could write on the back of their jerseys but they weren’t able to pick those 29 things. A corporation picked them.
That seemed to be the point some of the players who sat out wanted to make.
I think that’s very admirable, but the one day I’m waiting for is when all the players can come together and form a movement like this. It feels like we’re always just fragmented when it comes down to these types of decisions where we can leave a mark. And it’s frustrating, right? And I’m sure it’s frustrating for them as well. But I guess that’s the world we live in.
The argument a lot of people have made is that it’s hard to tell players to pass up on money.
That’s why I don’t judge them, because they have to do what’s best for them…it is what it is. You’ve got to understand. It was a tough situation to be in. I just don’t know what they’ll accomplish. But we’ll see how it plays out.
How do you feel about the turn on marijuana in sports, particularly with the NBA? It feels like things are changing around the country but sports is coming slow.
Things are definitely changing. The MLB is no longer testing. The NFL is still testing with no penalty, which is kind of weird. The NBA is kind of the last to the party, but they’re going to not test for cannabis in the bubble with the mental ride that they’re about to go through. Change is happening slowly but surely. When we get the schedule to change and start to do real research on stuff like that, that’s when we’ll be off to the races in regards to opening up cannabis to all of sports.
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