Cards Against Humanity, everyone's favorite "party game for horrible people," has never shied away from putting money behind causes it believes in as a company---whether that's resisting Donald Trump, funding classroom education, or digging a hole in the ground.
Now, the Chicago-based company is backing a new cause: marijuana.
Cards Against Humanity announced on Thursday that it has donated $70,000 to the Marijuana Policy Project, a cannabis advocacy group that works to make marijuana legal at the state level. The money will go towards MPP's effort to legalize and regulate marijuana use among adults in Illinois.
“A recent poll says that 66 percent of Illinois voters support regulating marijuana like we do alcohol,” Cards Against Humanity co-creator Max Temkin said in a statement. “You’re telling me this effort is something the vast majority of people support that makes everyone happy and pays for our schools and roads, and we’re not doing it?”
Cards Against Humanity donated the funds through the proceeds of its newly released Weed Pack, which features new marijuana-related cards players can add to their Cards Against Humanity deck. The pack costs $5, and proceeds from all Weed Pack sales will go to the MPP, the company said. A spokeswoman for Cards Against Humanity said the company expects the $70,000 number "to grow considerably."
In the past, Cards Against Humanity has used expansion packs to fund causes such as DonorsChoose.org, the EFF, the Sunlight Foundation, the Wikimedia Foundation, Heifer International and the Chicago Design Museum.
In Illinois, marijuana laws are evolving, but not at the pace that some advocates would like. In 2014, the state passed a law allowing the use of medical marijuana, but advocates have said it's too restrictive and doesn't cover enough medical conditions. In 2016, Springfield decriminalized the possession of weed for less than 10 grams. And this year two lawmakers introduced a bill to legalize the recreational use of marijuana.
“For us, this is a common sense issue of racial justice, health justice and criminal justice," Temkin added. "State and national politics are incredibly screwed up right now, but it gives us hope to think that we can make progress on these kind of common sense issues that everyone supports.”
