In an interview with Book Club Chicago, Vic Mensa described the details of his Books Before Bars program, which aims to supply prisoners with books that can transform their lives. Mensa also mentioned his Books Before Bars program to High Times in 2022.

Currently, tens of thousands of prisoners are currently locked up on federal and state cannabis-related charges, which is one of the reasons why some cannabis brands and the leaders behind them aim to change that.

Mensa is one of the rappers trying to do that. He explained that Books Before Bars can trace its story back nearly a decade ago. Mensa gave a copy of Huey P. Newton’s autobiography Revolutionary Suicide, 1973, to an incarcerated friend.

The book tells the story of how Newton, co-founder of the Black Panthers, “mastered his memories and, essentially, transported himself mentally beyond the walls of a prison” during his own time behind bars in the ’60s.

“I’ve seen how the right book at the right time can be a seed which, if watered and natured, can grow an internal freedom even within the walls of a modern-day plantation,” Mensa said. “I started [Books Before Bars] with the cannabis company because I wanted to provide a freedom.”

According to data from the Illinois Department of Corrections, in 2019, the department banned hundreds of books including many about race and racism, before being forced to change its policy after public outcry.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Illinois has the third-highest racial disparity in cannabis possession arrests, with Black people 7.5 times more likely to be arrested than white people despite consuming cannabis at similar rates.

Some of the other books include The Autobiography of Gucci Mane by the Atlanta, Georgia-based rapper to Sister Outsider—a collection of essays and poems by Audre Lorde. Mensa told Book Club Chicago that he buys the books in bulk from the Black-woman-owned bookstore Semicolon which is in the Wicker Park area of Chicago. 

Semicolon is scheduled to be closed until August as it converts into a nonprofit model, however Mensa bought books in bulk before the store closed. 

Books Before Bars program is an initiative funded through Mensa’s cannabis line 93 Boyz. Mensa said he launched 93 Boyz to “address prison reform and equity in the cannabis space.” Books Before Bars is a big step towards that goal. “Cannabis has been used to snatch freedom from so many families,” Mensa said. “I felt it was imperative to provide freedom in whatever ways I could. It wouldn’t be responsibly aligned with my values to not have that socially minded angle within the larger framework of the cannabis business.”

A year ago, Mensa explained to High Times how he’d be launching a project with Books Before Bars, which was in the early stages at the time.

“Our first project that we’re launching […] with the release of our full strain portfolio is a project called Books Before Bars,” Mensa told High Times in the October 2022 issue. “We’re putting over one-thousand books into Illinois jails and prisons. This is an idea I had from my own experience sending literature to people in prison and seeing how their entire life experience can be—and has been—shifted by reading the right books. If you can’t attain freedom yet in the physical, you can get it in the mental while you’re still in the cage.”

93 Boyz is Chicago’s first Black-owned cannabis brand. Mensa co-founded the brand with rapper Towkio about a year ago. The brand sells eighths of flower, pre-rolls, and vape pens, and you can find strains like Jet Fuel, Gelonade, Gary Payton OG, Rainbow Belts, or The Lotto.

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Victor Kwesi Mensah, 28, was arrested at Washington Dulles International Airport on Saturday after U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers discovered a stash of psychedelic narcotics in his baggage including psilocybin and LSD. Mensah is better known by his stage name as a rapper, Vic Mensa.

According to a CBP press release, Mensah arrived on board a flight from Ghana early on Saturday morning. For reasons unexplained, his baggage was examined a second time. During a secondary baggage examination, CBP officers discovered about 41 grams of liquid lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), about 124 grams of psilocybin capsules, 178 grams of psilocybin gummies, and six grams of psilocybin mushrooms concealed inside Mensah’s luggage.

Mensah’s father and extended family are from Ghana, and the artist frequently zig-zags between Africa and Chicago, among other places.

Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority (MWAA) Police officers were alerted and charged Mensah with felony narcotics possession charges. MWAA officers took custody of Mensah and seized the drugs.

CBP leaders urged flyers to throw away their drugs before entering the airport. “Travelers can save themselves time and potential criminal charges during their international arrivals inspection if they took a few minutes to ensure that their luggage is drug free,” said Daniel Escobedo, who serves as Area Port Director for CBP’s Area Port of Washington, D.C. “Narcotics interdiction remains a Customs and Border Protection enforcement priority and we remain committed to working closely with our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners to ensure that those who transport illegal narcotics into the United States are investigated and prosecuted.”

While traveling with cannabis on domestic flights is one thing—carrying any sort of drugs on an international flight is a more serious matter. Let it be known, however, that the Psilo psilocybin mushroom cubes found in Mensah’s stash contain only microdoses of psilocybin with 0.14g of psilocybin per piece—which isn’t exactly enough to send a person into a trip. At that small of doses, the psilocybin gummies probably cause no more than a mood change. The other products he was in possession also come in microdoses.

Given that he was caught with the drugs in microdoses, it’s quite possible he was using psychedelics for medical reasons. In one study published months ago in the journal Nature, people who microdosed psilocybin exhibited lower levels of depression, anxiety and stress across gender. As it turns out, Mensah himself opened up about his battles with depression and drug addiction in his 2018 song “10K Problems.” 

Mensah recently branched out from his hip-hop roots to form a punk rock and rap band named 93Punx, which released an ICE protest song as well as another single with Travis Barker. The price tag from his recent legal woes might hit his pocket soon. But recently, he enlisted Chance the Rapper and Wyclef Jean for the track “Shelter.”

Don’t test the CBP when it comes to drugs, especially if it’s an international flight.

CBP officers processed more than 650,000 travelers on average last year, who arrived at airports, seaports and land border crossings. CBP officers and agents arrested an average of 25 wanted criminals every day at ports of entry located across the U.S. See what else CBP accomplished during a typical day in 2021.

Visit CBP Ports of Entry to learn more about what types of items were seized by CBP’s Office of Field Operations.

Psilocybin is legal for medical use decriminalized in the state of Oregon—the first state to legalize the psychedelic for medical purposes when voters approved Measure 109 in 2020. Cities in an additional six other states decriminalized psilocybin mushrooms at the city level.

Decriminalization efforts going on around the country would also decriminalize LSD and other psychedelics. Several major cities across the U.S. have moved forward already. California Senate Bill 519, for instance, would decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms and LSD—as well as DMT, mescaline and MDMA.

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