Andrea Fasoli – Featured Advocate

Name: Andrea Fasoli

Occupation: Communications Director

When and how did you become an advocate for cannabis?

I was 18 years old, traveling for the first time to Amsterdam for my high school senior trip, not knowing much about cannabis whatsoever. I was with two other friends, and when we first smoked in a coffee shop I was amazed by how many different people I met from all walks of life. I thought to myself, “Of all the legal poisons in our life that can damage us, cannabis is the least of our problems; quite the contrary it may be beneficial to our physical and mental sanity.”

How has cannabis benefited your life?

I used to be a very impatient person and frequently stress out about many aspects of my life—school, family, friendships, etc. Once I started consuming cannabis, I was finally able to calm down, take a step back and realize that problems and challenges are an essential part of life. Cannabis allowed me to become much more introspective on the person I was, allowing me to see life from a much brighter and positive perspective.

What’s your greatest achievement for the cannabis cause?

It is a little too early for me to attest my “greatest” achievement for the cannabis cause. With that being said, I can say with certainty that becoming an active member of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws was by far the best thing I have done since I arrived in the United States in July of 2016 to join the legalization movement. I am very honored to be the Communications Director for the local chapter of Denver NORML, which has empowered me to express my creativity and embark on many exciting projects: Like “A NORML Week In America” podcast I started in partnership with Weedstream Radio, to educate others by inviting entrepreneurs, activists and researchers that belong to the cannabis movement.

How did that manifest?

I became obsessed with all the literature, studies and simply the vast amounts of information that was readily available to me on the web about the cannabis topic. In a matter of days, I quickly came to the realization that governments all across the globe were willfully lying to their own people and rejecting a species of plants that not only has incredible medicinal properties, it’s also one of the most useful raw materials; applicable in virtually every sector of our economy.

Who do you look up to or admire?

I greatly admire all the NORML members, supporters, marijuana activists and freedom fighters that never gave in to the lies they were fed since birth. Through hard work, vision and perseverance they managed to successfully challenge the status quo over the decades, and I am proud to know that all those men and women have stood on the right side of history to create what is now the greatest social revolution of the 21st century.

If you could change one thing about the way cannabis is viewed and/or treated right now, what would it be?

I would want our government, as well as the rest of society, to quit this double standard game towards cannabis and understand that their fear and hatred towards this plant is incredibly hypocritical.