New York, New York, Sept. 19, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- New York cannabis brand Silly Nice and independent culture and media platform stupidDOPE have launched THE RECORD, a new cannabis justice initiative designed to document the continuing consequences of marijuana prohibition while creating a platform for education, conversation and action.
The project begins online at SillyNice.com/TheRecord, where THE RECORD will bring together verified cannabis arrest statistics, federal sentencing data, New York expungement information, historical context and original editorial coverage.
But the digital platform is only the beginning.
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, using thousands of stark, data-driven posters in high-visibility authorized locations throughout the city.
The proposed physical campaign is intentionally simple: bold typography, documented statistics, QR codes and direct language intended to make people stop, read, scan and learn.
One proposed poster reads:
200,960
ARRESTED FOR MARIJUANA POSSESSION.
2025.
Another states:
THE PRODUCT BECAME LEGAL.
THE HISTORY DIDN’T DISAPPEAR.
Each QR code would direct viewers back to THE RECORD, where the number on the street becomes the beginning of a deeper story.
Legal Cannabis Changed the Industry. THE RECORD Asks What Happened to Everyone Else.
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 cannabis 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.
For LeVar Thomas, Co-Founder of Silly Nice, operating legally within an industry that once subjected enormous numbers of people to criminal penalties creates an obligation to acknowledge that history.
“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. “We have platforms now, and that means we have an opportunity to use them for more than selling products. We want to use what we have built to educate people, keep these stories visible and help create change. 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.”
THE RECORD is designed to make those contradictions visible without reducing a complicated criminal-justice issue to slogans.
Statistics presented through the campaign will be accompanied online by sourcing, methodology and context explaining precisely what each number represents.
Turning Statistics Into Something People Cannot Ignore
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.
The result is designed to resemble public information, street journalism and contemporary editorial art more than traditional advertising.
Proposed campaign subjects include marijuana possession arrests, historical arrest totals, federal cannabis sentencing, prison sentences and cannabis-record expungement.
One planned creative highlights the approximately 21.3 million marijuana arrests reported between 1990 and 2025.
Another focuses on federal marijuana trafficking sentencing.
Another examines the hundreds of thousands of cannabis records that New York has moved to expunge following legalization.
Rather than asking pedestrians to absorb the entire subject from a wall, each poster delivers one fact and one instruction:
SCAN THE RECORD.
The QR destination then provides the context that a street poster cannot.
From Street-Level Awareness to Deeper Reporting
The architecture behind THE RECORD is deliberately designed as a loop:
STREET → QR → EDUCATION → ENGAGEMENT → EDITORIAL AMPLIFICATION
The campaign website will serve as an expanding archive of reporting, explainers, data and stories examining cannabis criminalization from multiple angles.
stupidDOPE will support the initiative through continuing editorial coverage examining subjects including cannabis arrests, sentencing, expungement, reentry, legalization, social equity and the historical evolution of prohibition.
That editorial component is intended to prevent THE RECORD from becoming a temporary advertising campaign.
A poster may disappear from a wall.
The reporting behind it remains.
Through stupidDOPE's publishing presence and distribution through platforms including Apple News and Google News, stories generated by THE RECORD can reach audiences well beyond the physical New York campaign.
4,000 Posters Could Be the Beginning
Silly Nice and stupidDOPE have developed an initial plan capable of placing approximately 4,000 posters throughout New York City as part of the first major street-level activation.
The estimated $30,500 all-inclusive production budget covers printing, installation and labor for that initial physical campaign.
The organizations are now looking for companies, foundations, cultural organizations and other aligned partners interested in helping take THE RECORD from an independent editorial project into a sustained public-awareness initiative operating at meaningful scale.
Potential partnerships could support physical placements, campaign production, photography, educational resources, research, community programming, events and future expansions of THE RECORD.
The intention is not simply to place a sponsor's logo on thousands of posters.
The larger opportunity is to build an enduring platform around cannabis history, criminal justice and the continuing consequences of prohibition.
Two Platforms, One Larger Purpose
Silly Nice launched in New York's legal cannabis market in 2024 and has built its identity around independent ownership, New York cannabis culture and participation in the state's emerging legal industry.
stupidDOPE has covered culture, design, technology, travel, entertainment, style and lifestyle since 2008.
THE RECORD brings the two entities together around a different objective: using their respective platforms to make important information visible.
The project also reflects a broader question increasingly confronting America's legal cannabis industry.
What responsibilities accompany the ability to profit legally from something that once resulted in arrests, convictions and incarceration?
THE RECORD does not attempt to answer that question with a single slogan.
Instead, it intends to show the numbers, explain the history and keep the conversation visible.
THE RECORD Is Looking for Partners
Silly Nice and stupidDOPE are actively seeking organizations interested in helping bring the street-level phase of THE RECORD to life on a grand scale throughout New York City.
Potential partners can participate in supporting campaign production, high-visibility placements, educational programming, digital infrastructure, documentation, events and continued public-facing storytelling.
The initiative is designed to grow.
New statistics can become new posters.
New reporting can become new conversations.
New partnerships can create additional programming.
And what begins on a website can ultimately become something New Yorkers encounter walking through their own neighborhoods.
As the campaign puts it:
THE PRODUCT BECAME LEGAL.
THE HISTORY DIDN'T DISAPPEAR.
To explore THE RECORD or discuss becoming a campaign partner, visit SillyNice.com/TheRecord.
Partnership inquiries may also be directed to:
Shane Breen
Silly Nice / THE RECORD
929-375-6940
About Silly Nice
Silly Nice is an independent New York cannabis brand launched in 2024. The company produces a growing portfolio of small-batch cannabis products for New York's regulated adult-use market while participating in the culture and conversations shaping the state's developing cannabis industry.
About stupidDOPE
Founded in 2008, stupidDOPE is an independent culture and lifestyle media platform covering design, technology, travel, entertainment, cannabis, style and contemporary culture. Its editorial content is distributed through digital publishing channels including Apple News and Google News.
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Shane Breen Silly Nice 929-375-6940 info@sillynice.com
