Ben & Jerry’s Co-Founder Launches Nonprofit Cannabis Brand

Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream co-founder Ben Cohen has launched a cannabis brand called Ben’s Best Blnz, or B3, and the company’s profits will be used for social benefit, according to a Fast Company report. The product line includes low-THC products including pre-rolls and vape options.  

B3 is a registered non-profit and 80% of the company’s profits will be administered in partnership with NuProject as grants to Black cannabis entrepreneurs. Another 10% will go to the Last Prisoner Project, and 10% will be donated to the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance. The company’s stated mission is “sell Great Pot and use the power of business to Right the Wrongs of the War on Drugs.”    

“Schedule 1 is the whole root of the war on drugs. Schedule 1 is supposed to be for drugs that have no medical value and have a high risk of addiction, which does not apply to pot, but it does apply to beer.” — Cohen to Fast Company 

The product packaging features quotes by abolitionist Angela Davis and the late former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela. The brand’s packaging art was designed by Dana Robinson whose Ebony Reprinted series recontextualizes 1950s and 1960s ads from the magazine. Robinson created a new piece for the brand – recontextualizing an old suit ad from the magazine that was set in an ice cream parlor.