Monica Barrera is a concerned citizen turned cannabis justice advocate, driven by her lived experience straddling two worlds: the prohibitionist fear of El Paso, Texas, and the progressive potential of Southern California. A bud-tender for over 10 years, Monica’s work began as a personal rebellion—using cannabis to reclaim her health from anxiety and insomnia—but evolved into a national call to action after witnessing its power to heal veterans, seniors, and marginalized communities.

Her advocacy is grounded in ancestral wisdom (her grandmother’s belief in cannabis as “God’s plan”) and front line truth telling. Behind dispensary counters, Monica has counseled those failed by modern medicine, including a burn survivor whose agony was eased only by cannabis, and veterans who traded pill regimens for plant-based peace. These stories, paired with the hypocrisy of Schedule I’s “no medical use” label, fuel her partnership with Deschedule.Earth, where she fights not just for legalization, but for total federal descheduling—the only path to equitable regulation, economic justice, and reparations for communities shattered by the drug war.

Monica’s message to lawmakers is clear: Stop clinging to a lie. 70% of Americans demand change, 23,000+ studies confirm cannabis’s benefits, and communities of color still bear the scars of targeted enforcement. As a concerned citizen, she refuses to let politics eclipse compassion, science, or the will of the people. When not testifying or organizing, Monica mentors grassroots advocates, proving that “this plant isn’t about getting high—it’s
about getting free.” Join her at Deschedule.Earth and help rewrite history.

My name is Monica Barrera, a concerned citizen and budtender from Riverside, California, turned frontline cannabis advocate and I’m here to dismantle a lie that has poisoned our nation for decades. My journey began with my grandmother, who taught me cannabis was “God’s plan,” a sacred medicine. Yet, growing up between the prohibitionist fear of El Paso, Texas, and the progressive potential of Southern California, I witnessed firsthand how policy shapes lives: stigmatizing a plant that heals, while opioids and alcohol ravage communities unchecked. When pharmaceuticals left me trapped in a cycle of anxiety and insomnia, cannabis gave me back my life not through intoxication, but through clarity, sleep, and the ability to thrive. For over a decade as a budtender, I’ve carried this truth to the front lines, guiding thousands—veterans haunted by PTSD who finally slept through the night, seniors escaping chronic pain’s grip, and patients like the burn survivor who whispered, “This is the only thing that lets me live.” These stories, paired with 23,000+ scientific studies, expose Schedule I’s cruel absurdity: a classification placing cannabis alongside heroin, despite its proven power to heal.

This isn’t about “legal weed.” It’s about justice. The war on cannabis has wasted $100 billion policing a plant safer than aspirin, fueled deadly black markets, and targeted communities of color through systemic enforcement—tearing families apart to prop up a regime of control. Meanwhile, Big Pharma patents synthetic cannabinoids, politicians pocket lobbying dollars, and 70% of Americans demand change. Descheduling isn’t radical—it’s repair. It means replacing chaos with regulations that ensure safe products, not street deals. It means tax dollars rebuilding communities this war gutted, not funding militarized police. It means research, not rhetoric.

I stand with Deschedule.Earth because half-measures won’t suffice. We demand Congress erase cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act entirely, and begin the work of expunging records, reinvesting in marginalized neighborhoods and honoring science over stigma. To every lawmaker clinging to this corpse of a policy: You are outnumbered. You are outdated. And history will judge you. To the public: Share this truth. Flood Deschedule.Earth. Call your reps until their phones burn. This plant isn’t about getting high—it’s about getting free. Together, we will bury the lie.