Global Ganja Report

Wanda James, who represents Colorado’s 1st Congressional District on the University of Colorado Board of Regents, is challenging a longtime incumbent in June’s Democratic primary election to represent the district in Congress. “The old politics of caution and careerism cannot meet the moment,” James’ campaign website declares. And the 61-year-old Navy veteran has a history of shaking things up.

Just last July, the Board of Regents voted to censure James over her vocal objections to a Colorado School of Public Health “educational” campaign on supposed risks of “high concentration” cannabis use. James said the “Tea on THC” online campaign included racist tropes—with Instagram images of Black youth alongside warnings of laziness and poor school performance.

Called before an online meeting of the board, James was unrepentant. Accusing the regents of “censorship and retaliation,” she added: “I am being targeted for raising my voice for a campaign that dehumanized the Black community.

“Nothing happens if I’m censured,” James concluded defiantly. “Absolutely nothing. I remain a University of Colorado regent from the 1st Congressional District, with the support of the people who elected me, and absolutely nothing changes.”

The basis of the censure? Some regents said James had a conflict of interest in criticizing the images, as she owns a cannabis dispensary.

This, however, is a point of pride for James. Wanda and her husband Scott Durrah were the first African Americans legally licensed in the United States to own a dispensary, a cultivation facility, and an edibles company. This is Simply Pure, in the Northside neighborhood of Denver, which opened as an edible company in 2010 and became a dispensary in 2014, serving both the medical and adult-use markets—the first Black-owned (and veteran-owned) cannabis company in the United States.

Gov. Jared Polis was among the many public officials to stand with James in the controversy. And indeed the offending images were removed from the “Tea on THC” campaign.

Cannabis will definitely be on the agenda if Wanda makes it to Congress. She says she will push for full federal legalization through descheduling, and work to remove structural barriers that continue to exclude entrepreneurs.

“Cannabis is not fully legal in the United States, and that contradiction is holding back businesses, workers, and entire communities,” James tells Cannabis Now. “I will fight in Congress to fully legalize cannabis by removing it from the federal drug schedule, opening access to banking and capital, and ensuring that the people most harmed by prohibition have a real stake in this industry. I didn’t enter this space to follow a trend. I came into this work to correct a wrong, and I intend to finish that work at the federal level.”

James lists other core campaign priorities as passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, Medicare for All, and delivering real support for veterans and military families.

The 1st Congressional District, which covers metropolitan Denver, has for decades been represented by Rep. Diana DeGette, who has survived several primary challenges.

This story appears in the spring 2026 issue of Cannabis Now

Photo via Wanda4Congress

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