Cannabis may not be federally legal yet, but a new package of joints on the market is designed to help you light up the polls. Introducing the Ballot Box, a premium pre-roll collection from Higher Ground TV and Saints Joints featuring a QR code that immediately registers users to vote.

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Launched on July 4th in California, Washington, and Oklahoma, the Ballot Box aims to empower individuals through voting, and to educate consumers with non-partisan information. In addition to the Box’s five high-end all-flower cannabis joints and the QR code, the package includes a mini version of the Bill of Rights and facts about voting and elections.

“The cliché, obviously, is that pot smokers are lazy and couch-locked, when – in fact – we’re as active and involved as any community,” notes Higher Ground Editor-in-Chief Michael A. Stusser. “With the Ballot Box, we’re using a new platform as an entry point to spark engagement, and register new voters.”

Higher Ground TV, the first news and entertainment media group to highlight modern cannabis culture using the talk-show format, is known for its hilarious viral videos and parodies to elevate dialogue around legalization. Its series such as Comedians in Cars Smoking Cannabis and Profiles in Legal Cannabis have earned the company a reputation for content that’s “like The Daily Show meets Good Morning America… just with a lot of stoned people.” However, Stusser and his team take pride in using their senses of humor to “smash the stoner stereotype,” bringing genuine knowledge to the fore.

For the Ballot Box, Higher Ground teamed with Saints Joints, a Seattle-based cannabis brand which has grown to be one of the most successful of its kind in the country thanks to its innovative artistic packaging and Equal Rights campaigns. Founded by musician Lawrence Perrigo, Saints releases specially-designed hard-cased luxury boxes which spotlight the work of various artists such as famed illustrator Jeremy Fish and skateboard graphics icon Jimbo Phillips (who was featured in Saints’ Tattoo Art Series), as well as a Limited Edition Pride Pack with proceeds benefitting Equal Rights organizations. Each specialty box is a limited edition with a vintage album cover vibe, creating a rock ‘n roll collect-‘em-all incentive.

“We see ourselves as leaders not only in the arena of legal cannabis, but as members of the mainstream community,” says Perrigo. “The collaboration with Higher Ground is our latest joint effort to raise awareness, and show how cannabis brands – and consumers – are doing more than getting high. We’re also highly engaged in the democratic process.”

The Ballot Box, naturally, emphasizes the issue of cannabis legalization in the mission to get people excited about voting. Consumers who use the QR code inside will be directed to the Cannabis Voter Project, a nonprofit and non-partisan initiative from HeadCount which focuses on educating, registering and turning out voters. It pays particular attention to tracking the stance of elected officials and candidates on cannabis legalization, and helps guide voters to resources where they can take action to impact policy on local, state and federal levels. HeadCount itself has registered half a million voters since 2004, and the Ballot Box link includes an easy-to-use registration page and news to keep voters informed on election deadlines and voting locations. As of 2020, 33 states have legalized medicinal marijuana, and another 11, plus the District of Columbia, have authorized adult-use sales and consumption.

But even when fighting for seemingly “niche” issues (which actually impact the wider economic and political systems deeply), it’s important to remember universal inalienable rights for all, hence the decision to include a copy of the Bill of Rights in each Ballot Box. These first ten amendments to the Constitution list such rights as freedom of speech, religion, and the press, the right to assemble, and due process.

“We thought it was important to include the Bill of Rights in our Ballot Box,” says Stusser, “because these individual rights weren’t originally included in the Constitution. Like the legalization of marijuana, the people had to push the government to allow it.”

“These amendments – like cannabis – were controversial at first,” notes Perrigo. “Today, over 70 percent of the population supports legalization – but we have a long way to go at the national level. So adding the Bill of Rights is a nod to weed smokers that our democracy is still evolving – and we need to be involved to make lasting change.”

Whatever your stance on cannabis reform, we can all agree on the power of encouraging voters to get active and educated. This is a revolutionary time of economic and spiritual transformation in the legalization movement. Bravo, Higher Ground and Saints Joints, on rocking the vote right out to the people. This is going to be one elevated year at the polls.

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To get your own Ballot Box, visit saintsjoints.com and highergroundtv.com. For additional information about Higher Ground, follow on Facebook and Twitter; learn more about Saints Joints by following on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Find out how you can support the Cannabis Voter Project at cannabisvoter.info.