By Campaign Launch
New York cannabis brand Silly Nice and independent culture and media platform stupidDOPE have launched THE RECORD, a cannabis justice initiative designed to document the continuing consequences of marijuana prohibition. The project begins online at SillyNice.com/TheRecord. The campaign’s tagline is “Cannabis Became Legal.
The History Didn’t Disappear.”
The digital platform brings together verified cannabis arrest statistics, federal sentencing data, New York expungement information, historical context and original editorial coverage. It is designed to create a platform for education, conversation and action.
19, 2026, according to a GLOBE NEWSWIRE release. The announcement described the initiative as a way to confront the continuing human consequences of cannabis prohibition using data, journalism and provocative public-facing creative.
Silly Nice and stupidDOPE are now seeking additional partners to help transform THE RECORD into a large-scale street-level public awareness campaign across New York City. The proposed physical campaign would place thousands of stark, data-driven posters in high-visibility authorized locations throughout the city.
The physical campaign is intentionally simple, using bold typography, documented statistics, QR codes and direct language intended to make people stop, read, scan and learn.
THE PRODUCT BECAME LEGAL. THE HISTORY DIDN’T DISAPPEAR.”
Why It Matters
Cannabis legalization has created businesses, employment, tax revenue and an increasingly mainstream consumer marketplace across much of the United States. At the same time, the history of prohibition remains embedded in arrest records, criminal sentences, disrupted families and communities, lost economic opportunities and the challenges people face after interacting with the criminal justice system.
That contradiction is at the center of THE RECORD. Each QR code on a poster would direct viewers back to THE RECORD, where the number on the street becomes the beginning of a deeper story.
Statistics presented through the campaign will be accompanied online by sourcing, methodology and context explaining precisely what each number represents. The campaign is designed to make those contradictions visible without reducing a complicated criminal-justice issue to slogans.
“There is something that feels deeply unjust about being able to wake up every morning and legally operate a cannabis company while knowing that so many people and families have suffered because of the very same plant,” said LeVar Thomas, Co-Founder of Silly Nice.
“If legalization represents progress, then we also have to be willing to look directly at the people who paid the price before that progress arrived,” Thomas added.
Design And Next Steps
The visual identity of THE RECORD deliberately rejects conventional cannabis advertising. There are no psychedelic graphics, oversized cannabis leaves or product glamour shots.
Instead, the campaign uses predominantly black-and-white creative, enormous numbers, minimal typography and documentary-inspired imagery.
For LeVar Thomas, operating legally within an industry that once subjected enormous numbers of people to criminal penalties creates an obligation to acknowledge that history.
“We have platforms now, and that means we have an opportunity to use them for more than selling products,” Thomas said. “We want to use what we have built to educate people, keep these stories visible and help create change.”
