ABOUT ME

Tauhid Chappell is an Executive Board Member and a credentialed Parliamentarian of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, the first and oldest association of Black journalists in the country. An 8-year veteran of the media industry, he’s worked as a social media editor at The Washington Post, joined the Philadelphia Inquirer as an audience engagement editor, and now works in Philadelphia for Free Press, a media policy nonprofit focused on equitable access for broadband and internet, the break up of media conglomerates, equity and reparations in media and the defense against government surveillance. 

In 2008 Tauhid was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis, an autoimmune deficiency disorder. In 2012 he became a medical marijuana patient while living in Arizona after learning how cannabis can aid patients like him in managing their conditions. 

Understanding how the media shaped public perception in demonizing and stigmatizing cannabis, a perception which ultimately supported and enabled the federal government to enact draconian tough-on-crime bills which fueled mass incarceration during the War on Drugs, Tauhid founded the Color of Cannabis Conference in April 2019. 

Here in this one photo are some of the biggest trailblazers in the cannabis organizing space who all took a photo together after the Color of Cannabis conference. Folx that spoke or attended included (from left to right): Leo Bridgewater, Sirita Wright, Mary Pryor, Rani Soto, Jason Ortiz (back), Nelson Guerrero, Nadir Pearson(center), Vanessa Maria Graber (back), Jake Plowden (center), Kristin Jordan, Bill Cobb (back), Mona Zhang (fornt) and Cedric Sinclair (far right).

The Color of Cannabis Conference was Philadelphia's first cannabis conference led by a media nonprofit that educated journalists and community members on all aspects of cannabis -- from the racist history that demonized the plant, to current industry inequities that inherently limit or bar people of color from participating in the growing market. Pennsylvania Cable Network, which broadcast 

His second conference, The CannAtlantic Conference, focused on broadening the scope of these issues to the Mid-Atlantic region, bringing organizations from policy, advocacy, media and community sectors to discuss how legalization is impacting Black communities and communities of color. This conference reached more than a dozen states across the U.S., and countries like India and the UK.

The goal, of both these conferences and Tauhid’s continued advocacy in the cannabis space, is to ensure the media industry understands, and acknowledges, the trauma it’s inflicted with its previous reporting on cannabis, and that it intentionally rights these wrongs by spotlighting injustices that continue to impact and marginalize Black and brown communities in the cannabis space.

Now, combined with dozens of stakeholders, Tauhid is organizing the Philadelphia CannaBusiness Association, a nonprofit aimed at healing the damage done by cannabis prohibition and mass incarceration.