WEBVTT - EP 83: Up In Smoke-"The Marijuana Hypocrisy" 0:00:00.800 --> 0:00:05.760 When I write, y'all all across the USC contain lights 0:00:06.400 --> 0:00:10.719 day to l a. Come on the California the Valley. 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:14.320 We represent that Kelly County. So if you're keeping it 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:17.160 real on your side of your town, you tune into 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:22.880 Gangster Chronicles Gangsters. He's gonna tell you how we go. 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:26.440 If I lie my nose will girl like Pinocchio, We're 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:30.400 gonna tell you to choose in nothing but the Gangster Chronicals. 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:34.560 This is not your average show. You're now tuned into 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:37.960 the Reil m C eight Dick James and Big Stails 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:50.000 the streets. Hello still James eight, y'all negle better give 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:51.920 me my fine down. I put that on the set. 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:55.200 I need to go. Give me some water. Mirror my 0:00:55.280 --> 0:01:00.000 motherfucking feet fucking with me. Gangster Chronicles of my ass. Hey, 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:03.960 Granny her money it gast granny. Y'all know me. Wh 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:08.120 Thank you for tuning into another episode against the Chronicles. 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:10.720 Make sure you hit that I heard button subscribe like 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:13.640 rting comment For my iPhone users, make sure you go 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:16.080 to that purple button on your phone. That's the Apple 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:19.600 podcast button. Subscribe to the show. Leave a comment so 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:22.800 we can keep bringing you this content. You know, despite 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:25.759 we being illegal under federal laws a Schedule one drug. 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:29.120 The US legal marijuana industry was estimated at thirteen point 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:32.440 six billion dollars in two thousand nineteen, creating three hundred 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:35.040 forty thousand jobs to voted to the handling of marijuana. 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:37.640 According to the New Frontier data, the total thirty eight 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:40.800 states in the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana four 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:45.040 medical use fifteen in which allowed those legally consumer drug 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:47.800 for recreational use as a two thousand twenty one of 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:50.360 those people that a pioneer the business is our guests 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:52.560 and like Virgil Grant, but first I want to introduce 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:58.000 my homeboys, J Jil you know man, and this is crazy. 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:01.040 And two thousand four Virgil open the first cannabis shops 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:03.520 off of the Team Freeway in l A. And later 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:07.880 he opened several more shops. Successful businessman and everything, doing 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:11.240 everything proper. But this business became the target of federal 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:15.240 you know, the whole conflict between the federal and state law. 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:18.200 So when he legalized and stuff, the federal government has 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:23.000 studies saying that it's legal. Anyway, his shops kept getting 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:26.480 cracked and shut down everything, and then he was incarcerated 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:29.679 for six years and he was releasing two thousand and fourteen, 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:31.560 that we have them here to day with us inside 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:33.840 of his wonderful establishment. Thank you for having us over. 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:37.200 Oh yeah, it's a pleasure day having us over. Man. 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:41.480 So we have a situation that she was doing everything 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:44.919 the right way, had all your paperwork permits in order, 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:49.959 wasn't doing no monkey business. But they kept reading the shops. Yes, sir, yes, sir. 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:53.160 I mean, you know that's uh they did. You know. 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:56.640 The story that I really tell is that prior to 0:02:56.760 --> 0:03:00.760 my rage, they did about eight to a levin raids 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:06.359 in West Hollywood and Hollywood right before my rage. We're 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:09.480 talking probably less than thirty days before I got raided. 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:13.560 Nobody went to jail, everybody reopened. They raided me thirty 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:21.240 days later, and guess what, whoa So it's just the difference. 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:23.880 I mean, you you you had license for this year. 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:27.560 I'm black, they white. I mean that was really the 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:30.600 difference because they operated under the same color of the 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:34.120 law that I operated under, with the same guidelines I 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:38.080 was operating under. So there was no difference. A matter 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:39.840 of fact, they were a little bit wilder than me. 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:45.280 Do you attest that too, Uh, them knowing that you 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:48.880 were in the weed game before or you know, because 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:51.360 of the street ties or whatever, or because of the 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:53.680 color of the skin. What do you feel. I would 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:56.080 say more the color of the skin because I wasn't 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:59.720 on the radar with my street ties, always stayed off 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:02.960 the eight are I mean, yes, I had to uh 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:07.520 prior state convictions of cannabis prior to that that I 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:12.000 did state time uh and before the FED time, but 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:14.560 that wasn't on the radar. I wasn't on the radar 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:18.320 as active street sALS. So they had to get you. 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:23.200 They had to prove. I mean, you know, I I 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:25.919 don't know uh if it was a point to prove 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:29.640 or if it was just we gotta take another brother down. Now. 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:32.320 You gotta keep in mind, I had six locations at 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:35.640 this time, so I'm moving stronger than anybody in the industry, 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:39.920 stretching from Compton to the valley. So, um, you know, 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:43.080 all of that played the factor. Uh, the fact that 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:45.760 when the FEDS investigated me, and I knew they was 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:48.680 investigating me, they was following me around. I've seen him 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:51.520 sitting on Long Beach Boulevard at the right aid. You 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:53.800 know that the video cameras out and you know I 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:57.839 could see them. Um. I just continued to operate, operate everything, 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:01.640 you know, right mate. I didn't you know, cutting no corners. 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:04.640 I didn't do no backdoor deals or nothing like that, 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:09.600 you know. But they still came at me. So, uh, 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:14.000 they charged me with forty one counts uh conspiracy to 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:20.760 um uh conspiracy to distribute a hundred kilograms and more 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:26.320 of marijuana th AC product promotional uh, money laundry and 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:29.640 money laundry. So when it was when it was all 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:32.400 said and done, then what they did is they grabbed 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:36.040 my wife. Right. So this was the kicker. She never 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:40.000 even she worked for Triple A. She never even worked 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:42.520 at the stores, even bend in the stores, running the 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:45.800 stores like that, you know. But they pulled her in 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:48.080 to get me to go on and take a deal 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:49.840 because they knew I was getting ready to fight them 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:53.640 all the way and I had to support of the industry, 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:57.159 and they knew that. And the industry didn't look like me, 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:00.880 so I had to support of a bunch of white 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:03.839 people that was backing me up. When we were doing 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:07.760 a rally in front of the Federal building, they you know, 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:09.520 in one of the fists told me, said, I've seen 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:11.080 you out there in your suit in front of the 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:13.960 Federal Building rally and with your you know, with your 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:19.080 your your activists, you know, cannabis activists. You know. So 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:23.040 they knew already what I was about politically, uh, in 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:27.039 the industry and as an owner operator. You see what 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:32.000 I'm saying. So, um, you know, yeah, yeah, absolutely. But shoot, 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:34.520 they only stayed on me because it was simple. They 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:38.520 only stayed on me forty something day, forty seven days. 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:44.640 Like their investigation was literally forty seven days, which means 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:47.479 you didn't have nothing to investigate. You see me go 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:50.719 to Crenshaw, You see me go to my Compton store. 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:53.680 You see me go to my Guardina store. You see 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:55.840 me go to my downtown store. And you see me 0:06:55.920 --> 0:06:59.560 take my kids to school in the morning. Right, So 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:03.160 this is all they seeing what I'm doing that I'm not, 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:06.440 you know, meeting somebody in the back alley or nothing 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:10.600 like that. Under the table, under the table deals. You know, 0:07:10.680 --> 0:07:13.920 when they when they arrested me, when they actually picked 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:16.440 me up, I had my five daughters in the car 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:21.240 taking them to school, and they pulled me over. They 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:24.440 had Carson shaff I was in Carson, they had a 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:28.000 Carson share of pulled me over and then they he 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:31.160 uh said, I can't tell you much, but I already 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:33.480 knew what the deal was. I already knew when they 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:36.080 pulled me over and there was no traffic stop, for 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:39.480 no reason to pull me over. It just hit me, Oh, 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:42.920 they're here for me. This is what this is about. Right, 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:46.440 So then they handed me, he cuffed me, put me 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:49.000 in the backseat of the car, took me from my kids, 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:51.720 and I'm sure they got on their cell phone, started 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:54.640 calling up the yant day grandmom and so on and 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:57.640 so forth, and handed me off to the fiends and they, 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:01.400 you know, traded cuffs on me and then put me 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:04.400 in the car with the leading agent because he wanted 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:06.520 to be the one to bring me in, which name 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:11.120 was Patrick Kelly. So you know he's yeah, he's advanced 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:14.080 his career like he was doing uh what do you 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:17.680 call it, uh for the president. He was bodyguarden for 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:20.200 the president and stuff like that secret serve. So he 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:23.280 is a career. A lot of people from the judge, 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:28.480 his career catapultic from this um Chris Louis Witch and 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:31.080 I remember all these casts by first and last name 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:37.920 from my case. He became a judge, the a USA 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:42.120 became a judge. Um, and then uh, I mean just 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:45.800 everybody that was involved in that case, UH was able 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:52.320 to from what they did, so a situation more than 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:56.400 what it was, more than what it was licensed. You 0:08:56.400 --> 0:08:59.800 you was doing everything that you didn't You didn't have 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:02.760 new problem, knew hanging out new bullish it and none 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:05.080 of that. You wouldn't even know I was there. If 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:07.400 you didn't know I was there, Like you know what 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:10.280 I'm saying, everybody knew that that was the only there 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:14.600 was the only dispensary Incomftent. First, First of all, it 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:18.640 was only dispensary south of the ten freeway, so long 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:22.640 Beach hadn't opened up south Gate and uh beil Or 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:25.360 made when none of those even existed. We're talking two 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:29.040 thousand and four, so we're talking when there were very 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:32.000 few shops even in the industry. And I was one 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:34.640 of the first Well you know, I know you spoke 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:37.760 upon your prior rest before that, but you being a 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:41.600 legal business owner that should have negated all the other stuff. 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:44.280 How did they think they had the right, Like out 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:46.920 of all these people they previously popped, no one went 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:49.160 to jail, but she went to jail. Do you think 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:52.040 it possibly be had been some kind of collusion with 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:54.760 between them and something when the White shops, maybe somebody 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:58.440 that was jealous of your success, possibly turning you in. Um. 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:00.640 I can say that when I went at the court, 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:03.840 that judge was hell been on me going to jail 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:07.480 period because the questions he asked and the answers he got. 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:10.199 So let me explain this. When I went to jail 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:13.000 the first time, they arrested me and my wife because 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:15.880 she had no criminal history. She got out on on 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:19.280 a signature bond. I had to build out two hundred 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:22.280 fifty thousand dollars bill. So I build out took me 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:25.600 thirty days because they have to appraise your house. They 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:28.600 got to make sure the money is clean money and 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:31.880 so on and so forth. So I build out thirty 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:36.040 days later and was on pre trial. And so as 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:39.640 I was on pre trial, I was still circulating through 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:42.880 my shops. My shops were back opened up and running, 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:45.840 and I'm circulating through my shops. So they come and 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:49.200 catch me at my Guardena store right getting opening up, 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:52.080 going into my Guardena store. And then next thing you know, 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:53.959 I and here's something banging on the door. I'm thinking 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:56.240 one of the customers. I look up at my video 0:10:56.360 --> 0:10:59.560 camera and I see him in riot again, and I 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:02.520 look at the back door right because I'm like, I 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:05.040 can hit this back door. You know, I've been running 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:08.240 track off my life. I was. I was Lynnwood's number 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:10.800 one quarter millar and hurdler. You feel me. So I 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:15.160 was like, okay, it's still hey man, I didn't ran before, 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:18.480 so I'm not tripping right, So I said, this is 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:21.360 the figs. They know. They didn't bend everywhere. They didn't 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:23.000 have been in my house. They know who I am, 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:24.640 no where I'm all right, let me just go on 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:28.679 and see what this is about. So open up the door. Uh. 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:31.480 They get me on the ground. The leading agent, Chris 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:35.640 Louis again. It's our second time meeting each other once again. 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:38.360 The first time when he cut me, the second time 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:42.040 when he recovered me right. So, um, he looked down, 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:45.720 he said, Virgil, and then a turnament. Uh, turn up 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:47.720 and look at him and say yeah, get him up 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:50.600 off the floor, get inside and close the store up. 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:54.880 So he wanted everybody inside like nothing ever happened. Um 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:57.760 and pulled me inside and then they begin to take 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:01.199 all the product out the store. Long story short. When 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:03.160 I go to when I go to in front of 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:06.440 the judge, the judge say, was there anything in his 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:10.000 pre trial conditions saying that the stores couldn't be open 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:13.040 while he's on pre trial? No, you're honor, So was 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:16.200 there anything in his pre trial conditions saying he couldn't 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:19.480 be at his stores while on pre trial? No, you're honor. 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:24.760 So I'm thinking, Ship, I'm good. I'm about to get out. Man, 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:28.439 they kept my ass locked up. I didn't that no 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:31.280 matter what. The judge even asked the question to my 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:35.040 attorney was he licensed in every one of his locations? 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:38.360 And the judge, I mean my attorney was like, yes, 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:42.559 here is licenses right here. I'm thinking, oh, this is this? 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:46.439 Is it right here? All right? The judge understand. Ship. 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:49.320 They took my ass back in that cell when it 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:52.120 was all said and done, and uh fought it from 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:59.800 the inside. Yeah, it was obvious. It was obvious, you know, 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:03.040 because after all of that, it was it was still 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:07.240 and then Obama put out the cold memo, the cold memo. 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:11.400 This was right, I'm still in under the Obama administration, 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:14.280 but he bring the cold memoir judgement trying to hear 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:19.360 none of that. I couldn't say medical, I couldn't say patients. 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:23.360 I could not use that language of terminology in federal court. 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:26.800 Why because it is a scheduled one drug. They don't 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:30.760 give a damn about medical marijuana. And could you explain 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:33.240 to the people out there that may not be familiar 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:38.240 with the schedules like schule on. So let me let 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:41.920 me just be clear about this. Marijuana is a Schedule 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:45.880 one drug. Cocaine, meth and fed aine and everything else 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:52.120 a schedule too. Why so you understand? Why so because 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:55.720 they want to keep it where they want to keep it. 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:59.520 The government when you say that marijuana gives the most 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:06.520 danger risk drug ever, I mean, how soft because they 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:09.400 can't control it the way they truly want to control it. 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:13.199 So understanding that they got to put it in a 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:16.040 category that they can control it in and make it 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:18.920 a Schedule one drug. Now they have control of it 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:21.200 because they can put you in jail if they don't 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:25.680 want you dealing it, selling it, growing it, or using it. 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:28.200 You see what I'm saying. So that's how they are. 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:31.120 They are controlling it. But we don't really deep dive 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:35.160 into that. So this is how they keep control of 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:38.760 everything that we do. They make a law that say 0:14:38.840 --> 0:14:43.240 you can't do it. Now they're control it. And now 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:46.640 they ca your grass up for doing so, going to 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:49.600 jail and getting six years. They took you away from 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:53.680 your fire girls. Yes, I mean did they make you like? 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:57.080 Did they push you? Did that? How you like me? 0:14:57.200 --> 0:15:00.440 It gets the world now, man? Uh So I was 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:04.120 angry my first three years in prison. I when I 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:06.360 first got there, I went to the whole maybe about 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:10.720 a week or two later because I was CEO came 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:13.000 at me and I just wasn't trying to hear it. 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.760 Mmy man, that's that just set me off that you 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:18.880 want to call me an m mate. Not no, I'm 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:22.000 not your inmate. Man, I got a name, you gotta name. 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:24.640 I'm gonna call you by your name. I got a name. 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:27.680 You called me by my name. Ain't your mmate? You 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:29.240 know what I'm saying. So here we're going back and 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:32.080 I was like, well, I mean what you're saying. You know, 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:35.360 I was just on that on that page, not trying 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:38.240 to hear nothing. They sent me to the whole. So yeah, 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:42.080 I was piste off. I was piste off more so 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:45.520 because while I was in prison, I was watching TV 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:49.440 and the news, and I'm watching everybody else on on 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:52.320 on the you know, channel seven and eleven five and 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:55.360 so on and so forth, and they're at their shops, 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:59.280 behind their counters with the weed in their hand. And 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:01.840 I'm like, ship, I'm in jail and they're doing the 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:04.760 same thing I was doing exactly. But while I'm hearing 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:07.880 why they out either we're all gonna be in jail, 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:11.640 or nobody gonna be in jail. If it's letting you know, 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:14.840 let's let's keep it fair. But I sat in jail 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:18.920 watching all those people happy making money at their shops. Yeah, 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:21.160 I was piste off in virtual Let me ask you 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:23.280 a question. What that being said. They brought up a 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:26.320 great point. You got locked up. It is other people 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:28.160 that was in the streets doing the same thing he 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:34.440 was doing. They didn't look at that at all, obviously 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:36.640 not because I did every bit of that six years. 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:41.360 And it's almost like just the rules applying to certain people. Well, 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:45.640 I didn't give If I'm sitting there doing ten fifteen 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:49.960 years from marijuana, I don't give a mounting whatever. Once 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:53.760 you legalize that, now you're holding me up under my 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:58.640 will let me go up out of here. But if 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:02.200 they did this right here, that's basically saying they wrong. 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:05.800 You can come at him, you can sume and and 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:07.560 here you are. But they don't want to do that. 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:10.720 But what you call that that they make you sign 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:13.520 the paper they let you out so you don't come 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:18.240 back and sume exactly. Yeah, they actually sign your rights away. 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:21.240 They signed any of your field rights or anything. You 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:25.040 sign that a way, so you can't now they Um, 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:29.840 it was just basically a done deal when they the 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:33.960 judge made it very clear to me, uh that I 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:37.160 was not going home and that he was gonna give 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:40.480 me them seventy two months, you know. Um, and that's 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:43.000 what he said, you know. Um he was you know, 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:46.600 seventy two months was what he felt I deserve for 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:53.800 owning legal shops license and legal shops. So you know, yeah, 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:59.240 I missed three of my daughters graduations from high school. Um. 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:02.879 So yeah, I was kind of piste off what you 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:05.399 had the right to be. I think anybody would be, 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:09.359 uh in that situation, especially when you're following the rules 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:12.639 and ship you give me six years and you're telling 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:14.399 me you ain't gonna let me go but then you 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:17.240 tell me I don't give If you do got your 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:20.639 license and ship, I'm still give you six years because 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:23.080 you're a black man and you gotta do stuff. Should 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:26.399 he not be successful? Should he not? If I was 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:29.440 in there illegal? Like they got this one on Atlantic 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:34.800 and uh drown in Atlantic? Trap? Shot? Oh that mother man. 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:39.560 I watched them bang the door down, put everybody out, 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:43.640 taking the jail before the police left. These motherfucker's coming 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:47.760 right back and then open back up. Shot they come back. 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:50.199 This time, they knock, they take the bar, door, the 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:53.800 lights and everything outside of that motherfucker. That motherfucker opened 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:57.400 right now in today now. But yeah, that's some that's 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:00.399 some cold ship that that tell you I don't have 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:02.679 no faith in the system because they're gonna do you 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:05.160 how they wanted to do you, you know what I'm saying. 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:08.840 And I would have been trying to do some legal ship. 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:11.919 How can I get out of this situation? We we 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:15.600 interviewed a young man that broke out of prison, you 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:18.720 know what I'm saying, because he wanted to be with 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:22.359 his daughter. And you know some of us just sitting 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:25.600 there and I'm gonna do this time, you know what 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:29.840 I'm saying, but we got choices, didn't They didn't give 0:19:29.880 --> 0:19:32.920 you any No, they didn't give me any any choices. 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:36.399 So at that point I knew that this was time 0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:39.000 that I had to do. But I was gonna do 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:41.840 the time under my terms, not under the under the 0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:45.480 system's terms. So what I what I mean by that 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:49.080 is that I rejected everything that the system had to 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:52.040 give me, everything that the system wanted to do. They 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:55.679 kick me out the drug program because I wouldn't conform, 0:19:55.800 --> 0:19:59.160 so I didn't get a year off. Oh well, um, 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:02.760 you know there were when I when I say conformed, 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:06.159 the system has a way, and I look at it 0:20:06.200 --> 0:20:10.120 as as petty pleasures. Come Thanksgiving, they want to give 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:12.359 you this big turkey dinner, and you're supposed to be 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:15.240 happy and smiling that they gave you a turkey dinner, 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:18.359 but you locked up in prison. You know what I'm saying, 0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:22.239 Come uh New Year's or the fourth of July, you're 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:26.400 getting barbecue ribs. You know I would every time those 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:29.840 holidays came up, I walked in that child hall, look, hey, 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:32.680 who want this handed to him? And walk out? I 0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:36.360 don't need y'all ship. I'm here under my I mean, 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:42.560 I'm here cause y'all basically holding me hostage under my 0:20:42.880 --> 0:20:46.600 own free you know, this is against my own free will. 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:49.200 And that's how I took my time and dealt with 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:51.920 my time. But I stayed thinking about what I was 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:54.479 gonna do. When I got home and they asked me, 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:57.639 like my last week, two weeks, you know, I'm walking 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:00.159 the track with a couple of cats, and they say, man, 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:02.880 what you're gonna through? Said ship, Well, what you think 0:21:04.400 --> 0:21:07.399 you know what I'm saying? You do? You ask elect 0:21:07.440 --> 0:21:11.080 Electrician that he'd been in the game thirty years during Electrician, 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:13.560 you know, as electrician, what you're gonna do when you 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:15.879 get He going back to what he know his profession. 0:21:17.040 --> 0:21:19.159 And so when I hit the when I hit the ground, 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:22.720 the first thing I did was made sure I jumped 0:21:22.760 --> 0:21:26.840 back into the industry. I got politically involved and connected 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:31.040 once again, and I started crafting policy for the city 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:35.119 of Los Angeles. I brought the whole industry together, and 0:21:35.200 --> 0:21:37.560 I did this crazy as it sounds, I did this, 0:21:37.960 --> 0:21:41.760 Uh as Snoopze compound. He don't even know that because 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:44.720 my office was in his compound. When I got home, 0:21:44.760 --> 0:21:47.760 it was me and Donnie and and and I was 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:51.280 using snooze office. I mean his compound as where my 0:21:51.400 --> 0:21:54.440 office was, so I would go there every other day 0:21:54.520 --> 0:21:57.520 or whatnot. I brought the whole industry, all the heads 0:21:57.600 --> 0:22:02.880 of of of presidents of each organization within the cannabis industry. 0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:05.480 I bought him under that roof and said, this is 0:22:05.520 --> 0:22:08.200 what we gotta do in order for us to make 0:22:08.240 --> 0:22:11.119 sure that what happened to me and others in the 0:22:11.119 --> 0:22:14.280 industry don't happen again. Y'all with me, They say, we 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:17.080 got you. I said, all right, y'all, just follow my 0:22:17.160 --> 0:22:19.719 league and I guarantee you I'm gonna take you over 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:24.560 the finish line. Eighteen months later, I passed Measure M 0:22:24.600 --> 0:22:27.480 in the City of Los Angeles at eighty point four 0:22:29.280 --> 0:22:32.440 eight point four percent. That's unheard of. Now. What the 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:35.479 kicker is It was done on the off election. That 0:22:35.520 --> 0:22:40.639 ain't never been done in the history of America. So me, 0:22:40.800 --> 0:22:45.800 a black man who brought all of these white organizations 0:22:45.840 --> 0:22:49.280 together to make this push for the city of Los Angeles. 0:22:49.440 --> 0:22:51.840 But I'm always keeping the back of my mind. The 0:22:51.880 --> 0:22:53.960 reason I'm on the in the front of this line 0:22:54.119 --> 0:22:57.120 is because I'm representing for us. You see what I'm 0:22:57.160 --> 0:23:00.080 saying So my whole goal is to get everybody to 0:23:00.240 --> 0:23:03.919 support me so I can open up some doors for us. Right, 0:23:04.119 --> 0:23:08.280 So I created the program called Social Equity. Social Equity 0:23:08.359 --> 0:23:10.800