Shaleen Title is an Indian-American attorney and longtime drug policy activist. She currently serves as Distinguished Cannabis Policy Practitioner in Residence at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law’s Drug Enforcement and Policy Center and as vice-chair of the Cannabis Regulators of Color Coalition. She is a frequent keynote speaker and consultant on cannabis policy and has testified in front of governmental bodies around the world about restorative justice in marijuana laws. As CEO of the crowdfunded policy project Parabola Center, she co-authored 2021 model federal amendments focusing on people rather than corporate profits.

In 2017, she was appointed by the Massachusetts governor, attorney general, and treasurer to serve as one of five inaugural commissioners of the Cannabis Control Commission, the agency tasked with regulating legal and medical marijuana in the commonwealth. Her three-year term was extended to December 31, 2020. Described as “the people’s weed watchdog” in Boston Magazine’s 2019 Power List, she was widely recognized during her term for her focus on racial justice and her efforts to make the cannabis industry more fair and inclusive.

Previously, in her role as a founding board member of the Minority Cannabis Business Association, she led the creation of the MCBA Model Bill, the first state-level model bill created to give states guidance to implement a process of reinvestment and reconciliation. She also served as a trustee for Students for Sensible Drug Policy and a board member of the National Lawyers Guild. She was a co-founder of THC Staffing, the first recruiting firm focused on inclusion in the cannabis industry, and was part of the multistate tax group at Deloitte Tax.

Shaleen’s interviews have been featured in outlets including PBS NewsHour, Politico, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, The Guardian, Vice News, and many NPR stations, and she has written guest op-eds for The Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, Commonwealth Magazine, Marijuana Moment, and Boston Business Journal. She is an alumna of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, a public magnet school with an emphasis on developing problem solvers, and she holds a business degree, law degree, and graduate degree in accounting from the University of Illinois.

Selected Honors and Awards