When I write, y'all all across the USC contain lights day to l a. Come on the California the Valley. We represent that Kelly County. So if you're keeping it real on your side of your town, you tune into Gangster Chronicles Gangsters. He's gonna tell you how we go. If I lie my nose will girl like Pinocchio, We're gonna tell you to choose in nothing but the Gangster Chronicals. This is not your average show. You're now tuned into the Reil m C eight Dick James and Big Stails
the streets. Hello still James eight, y'all negle better give me my fine down. I put that on the set. I need to go. Give me some water. Mirror my motherfucking feet fucking with me. Gangster Chronicles of my ass. Hey, Granny her money it gast granny. Y'all know me. Wh Thank you for tuning into another episode against the Chronicles. Make sure you hit that I heard button subscribe like rting comment For my iPhone users, make sure you go to that purple button on your phone. That's the Apple
podcast button. Subscribe to the show. Leave a comment so we can keep bringing you this content. You know, despite we being illegal under federal laws a Schedule one drug. The US legal marijuana industry was estimated at thirteen point six billion dollars in two thousand nineteen, creating three hundred forty thousand jobs to voted to the handling of marijuana.
According to the New Frontier data, the total thirty eight states in the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana four medical use fifteen in which allowed those legally consumer drug for recreational use as a two thousand twenty one of those people that a pioneer the business is our guests and like Virgil Grant, but first I want to introduce my homeboys, J Jil you know man, and this is crazy.
And two thousand four Virgil open the first cannabis shops off of the Team Freeway in l A. And later he opened several more shops. Successful businessman and everything, doing everything proper. But this business became the target of federal you know, the whole conflict between the federal and state law. So when he legalized and stuff, the federal government has
studies saying that it's legal. Anyway, his shops kept getting cracked and shut down everything, and then he was incarcerated for six years and he was releasing two thousand and fourteen, that we have them here to day with us inside of his wonderful establishment. Thank you for having us over. Oh yeah, it's a pleasure day having us over. Man. So we have a situation that she was doing everything the right way, had all your paperwork permits in order,
wasn't doing no monkey business. But they kept reading the shops. Yes, sir, yes, sir. I mean, you know that's uh they did. You know. The story that I really tell is that prior to my rage, they did about eight to a levin raids in West Hollywood and Hollywood right before my rage. We're talking probably less than thirty days before I got raided. Nobody went to jail, everybody reopened. They raided me thirty days later, and guess what, whoa So it's just the difference.
I mean, you you you had license for this year. I'm black, they white. I mean that was really the difference because they operated under the same color of the law that I operated under, with the same guidelines I was operating under. So there was no difference. A matter of fact, they were a little bit wilder than me. Do you attest that too, Uh, them knowing that you were in the weed game before or you know, because of the street ties or whatever, or because of the
color of the skin. What do you feel. I would say more the color of the skin because I wasn't on the radar with my street ties, always stayed off the eight are I mean, yes, I had to uh prior state convictions of cannabis prior to that that I did state time uh and before the FED time, but that wasn't on the radar. I wasn't on the radar as active street sALS. So they had to get you. They had to prove. I mean, you know, I I don't know uh if it was a point to prove
or if it was just we gotta take another brother down. Now. You gotta keep in mind, I had six locations at this time, so I'm moving stronger than anybody in the industry, stretching from Compton to the valley. So, um, you know, all of that played the factor. Uh, the fact that when the FEDS investigated me, and I knew they was investigating me, they was following me around. I've seen him sitting on Long Beach Boulevard at the right aid. You know that the video cameras out and you know I
could see them. Um. I just continued to operate, operate everything, you know, right mate. I didn't you know, cutting no corners. I didn't do no backdoor deals or nothing like that, you know. But they still came at me. So, uh, they charged me with forty one counts uh conspiracy to um uh conspiracy to distribute a hundred kilograms and more of marijuana th AC product promotional uh, money laundry and money laundry. So when it was when it was all said and done, then what they did is they grabbed
my wife. Right. So this was the kicker. She never even she worked for Triple A. She never even worked at the stores, even bend in the stores, running the stores like that, you know. But they pulled her in to get me to go on and take a deal because they knew I was getting ready to fight them all the way and I had to support of the industry, and they knew that. And the industry didn't look like me, so I had to support of a bunch of white
people that was backing me up. When we were doing a rally in front of the Federal building, they you know, in one of the fists told me, said, I've seen you out there in your suit in front of the Federal Building rally and with your you know, with your your your activists, you know, cannabis activists. You know. So they knew already what I was about politically, uh, in the industry and as an owner operator. You see what I'm saying. So, um, you know, yeah, yeah, absolutely. But shoot,
they only stayed on me because it was simple. They only stayed on me forty something day, forty seven days. Like their investigation was literally forty seven days, which means you didn't have nothing to investigate. You see me go to Crenshaw, You see me go to my Compton store. You see me go to my Guardina store. You see me go to my downtown store. And you see me
take my kids to school in the morning. Right, So this is all they seeing what I'm doing that I'm not, you know, meeting somebody in the back alley or nothing like that. Under the table, under the table deals. You know, when they when they arrested me, when they actually picked me up, I had my five daughters in the car
taking them to school, and they pulled me over. They had Carson shaff I was in Carson, they had a Carson share of pulled me over and then they he uh said, I can't tell you much, but I already knew what the deal was. I already knew when they pulled me over and there was no traffic stop, for no reason to pull me over. It just hit me, Oh,
they're here for me. This is what this is about. Right, So then they handed me, he cuffed me, put me in the backseat of the car, took me from my kids, and I'm sure they got on their cell phone, started calling up the yant day grandmom and so on and so forth, and handed me off to the fiends and they, you know, traded cuffs on me and then put me in the car with the leading agent because he wanted to be the one to bring me in, which name
was Patrick Kelly. So you know he's yeah, he's advanced his career like he was doing uh what do you call it, uh for the president. He was bodyguarden for the president and stuff like that secret serve. So he is a career. A lot of people from the judge, his career catapultic from this um Chris Louis Witch and I remember all these casts by first and last name from my case. He became a judge, the a USA
became a judge. Um, and then uh, I mean just everybody that was involved in that case, UH was able to from what they did, so a situation more than what it was, more than what it was licensed. You you was doing everything that you didn't You didn't have new problem, knew hanging out new bullish it and none of that. You wouldn't even know I was there. If you didn't know I was there, Like you know what I'm saying, everybody knew that that was the only there
was the only dispensary Incomftent. First, First of all, it was only dispensary south of the ten freeway, so long Beach hadn't opened up south Gate and uh beil Or made when none of those even existed. We're talking two thousand and four, so we're talking when there were very few shops even in the industry. And I was one of the first Well you know, I know you spoke upon your prior rest before that, but you being a legal business owner that should have negated all the other stuff.
How did they think they had the right, Like out of all these people they previously popped, no one went to jail, but she went to jail. Do you think it possibly be had been some kind of collusion with between them and something when the White shops, maybe somebody that was jealous of your success, possibly turning you in. Um. I can say that when I went at the court, that judge was hell been on me going to jail period because the questions he asked and the answers he got.
So let me explain this. When I went to jail the first time, they arrested me and my wife because she had no criminal history. She got out on on a signature bond. I had to build out two hundred fifty thousand dollars bill. So I build out took me thirty days because they have to appraise your house. They got to make sure the money is clean money and so on and so forth. So I build out thirty days later and was on pre trial. And so as I was on pre trial, I was still circulating through
my shops. My shops were back opened up and running, and I'm circulating through my shops. So they come and catch me at my Guardena store right getting opening up, going into my Guardena store. And then next thing you know, I and here's something banging on the door. I'm thinking one of the customers. I look up at my video camera and I see him in riot again, and I look at the back door right because I'm like, I can hit this back door. You know, I've been running
track off my life. I was. I was Lynnwood's number one quarter millar and hurdler. You feel me. So I was like, okay, it's still hey man, I didn't ran before, so I'm not tripping right, So I said, this is the figs. They know. They didn't bend everywhere. They didn't have been in my house. They know who I am, no where I'm all right, let me just go on and see what this is about. So open up the door. Uh. They get me on the ground. The leading agent, Chris
Louis again. It's our second time meeting each other once again. The first time when he cut me, the second time when he recovered me right. So, um, he looked down, he said, Virgil, and then a turnament. Uh, turn up and look at him and say yeah, get him up off the floor, get inside and close the store up. So he wanted everybody inside like nothing ever happened. Um and pulled me inside and then they begin to take
all the product out the store. Long story short. When I go to when I go to in front of the judge, the judge say, was there anything in his pre trial conditions saying that the stores couldn't be open while he's on pre trial? No, you're honor, So was there anything in his pre trial conditions saying he couldn't be at his stores while on pre trial? No, you're honor. So I'm thinking, Ship, I'm good. I'm about to get out. Man, they kept my ass locked up. I didn't that no
matter what. The judge even asked the question to my attorney was he licensed in every one of his locations? And the judge, I mean my attorney was like, yes, here is licenses right here. I'm thinking, oh, this is this? Is it right here? All right? The judge understand. Ship. They took my ass back in that cell when it was all said and done, and uh fought it from
the inside. Yeah, it was obvious. It was obvious, you know, because after all of that, it was it was still and then Obama put out the cold memo, the cold memo. This was right, I'm still in under the Obama administration, but he bring the cold memoir judgement trying to hear none of that. I couldn't say medical, I couldn't say patients. I could not use that language of terminology in federal court. Why because it is a scheduled one drug. They don't
give a damn about medical marijuana. And could you explain to the people out there that may not be familiar with the schedules like schule on. So let me let me just be clear about this. Marijuana is a Schedule one drug. Cocaine, meth and fed aine and everything else a schedule too. Why so you understand? Why so because they want to keep it where they want to keep it.
The government when you say that marijuana gives the most danger risk drug ever, I mean, how soft because they can't control it the way they truly want to control it. So understanding that they got to put it in a category that they can control it in and make it a Schedule one drug. Now they have control of it because they can put you in jail if they don't want you dealing it, selling it, growing it, or using it. You see what I'm saying. So that's how they are.
They are controlling it. But we don't really deep dive into that. So this is how they keep control of everything that we do. They make a law that say you can't do it. Now they're control it. And now they ca your grass up for doing so, going to jail and getting six years. They took you away from your fire girls. Yes, I mean did they make you like? Did they push you? Did that? How you like me? It gets the world now, man? Uh So I was
angry my first three years in prison. I when I first got there, I went to the whole maybe about a week or two later because I was CEO came at me and I just wasn't trying to hear it. Mmy man, that's that just set me off that you want to call me an m mate. Not no, I'm not your inmate. Man, I got a name, you gotta name. I'm gonna call you by your name. I got a name. You called me by my name. Ain't your mmate? You know what I'm saying. So here we're going back and
I was like, well, I mean what you're saying. You know, I was just on that on that page, not trying to hear nothing. They sent me to the whole. So yeah, I was piste off. I was piste off more so because while I was in prison, I was watching TV and the news, and I'm watching everybody else on on on the you know, channel seven and eleven five and so on and so forth, and they're at their shops, behind their counters with the weed in their hand. And I'm like, ship, I'm in jail and they're doing the
same thing I was doing exactly. But while I'm hearing why they out either we're all gonna be in jail, or nobody gonna be in jail. If it's letting you know, let's let's keep it fair. But I sat in jail watching all those people happy making money at their shops. Yeah, I was piste off in virtual Let me ask you a question. What that being said. They brought up a great point. You got locked up. It is other people that was in the streets doing the same thing he
was doing. They didn't look at that at all, obviously not because I did every bit of that six years. And it's almost like just the rules applying to certain people. Well, I didn't give If I'm sitting there doing ten fifteen years from marijuana, I don't give a mounting whatever. Once you legalize that, now you're holding me up under my will let me go up out of here. But if they did this right here, that's basically saying they wrong. You can come at him, you can sume and and
here you are. But they don't want to do that. But what you call that that they make you sign the paper they let you out so you don't come back and sume exactly. Yeah, they actually sign your rights away. They signed any of your field rights or anything. You sign that a way, so you can't now they Um, it was just basically a done deal when they the judge made it very clear to me, uh that I was not going home and that he was gonna give me them seventy two months, you know. Um, and that's
what he said, you know. Um he was you know, seventy two months was what he felt I deserve for owning legal shops license and legal shops. So you know, yeah, I missed three of my daughters graduations from high school. Um. So yeah, I was kind of piste off what you
had the right to be. I think anybody would be, uh in that situation, especially when you're following the rules and ship you give me six years and you're telling me you ain't gonna let me go but then you tell me I don't give If you do got your license and ship, I'm still give you six years because you're a black man and you gotta do stuff. Should he not be successful? Should he not? If I was in there illegal? Like they got this one on Atlantic
and uh drown in Atlantic? Trap? Shot? Oh that mother man. I watched them bang the door down, put everybody out, taking the jail before the police left. These motherfucker's coming right back and then open back up. Shot they come back. This time, they knock, they take the bar, door, the lights and everything outside of that motherfucker. That motherfucker opened
right now in today now. But yeah, that's some that's some cold ship that that tell you I don't have no faith in the system because they're gonna do you how they wanted to do you, you know what I'm saying. And I would have been trying to do some legal ship. How can I get out of this situation? We we interviewed a young man that broke out of prison, you know what I'm saying, because he wanted to be with
his daughter. And you know some of us just sitting there and I'm gonna do this time, you know what I'm saying, but we got choices, didn't They didn't give you any No, they didn't give me any any choices. So at that point I knew that this was time that I had to do. But I was gonna do the time under my terms, not under the under the system's terms. So what I what I mean by that is that I rejected everything that the system had to
give me, everything that the system wanted to do. They kick me out the drug program because I wouldn't conform, so I didn't get a year off. Oh well, um, you know there were when I when I say conformed, the system has a way, and I look at it as as petty pleasures. Come Thanksgiving, they want to give you this big turkey dinner, and you're supposed to be happy and smiling that they gave you a turkey dinner,
but you locked up in prison. You know what I'm saying, Come uh New Year's or the fourth of July, you're getting barbecue ribs. You know I would every time those holidays came up, I walked in that child hall, look, hey, who want this handed to him? And walk out? I don't need y'all ship. I'm here under my I mean, I'm here cause y'all basically holding me hostage under my own free you know, this is against my own free will. And that's how I took my time and dealt with
my time. But I stayed thinking about what I was gonna do. When I got home and they asked me, like my last week, two weeks, you know, I'm walking the track with a couple of cats, and they say, man, what you're gonna through? Said ship, Well, what you think you know what I'm saying? You do? You ask elect Electrician that he'd been in the game thirty years during Electrician, you know, as electrician, what you're gonna do when you get He going back to what he know his profession.
And so when I hit the when I hit the ground, the first thing I did was made sure I jumped back into the industry. I got politically involved and connected once again, and I started crafting policy for the city of Los Angeles. I brought the whole industry together, and I did this crazy as it sounds, I did this, Uh as Snoopze compound. He don't even know that because my office was in his compound. When I got home, it was me and Donnie and and and I was
using snooze office. I mean his compound as where my office was, so I would go there every other day or whatnot. I brought the whole industry, all the heads of of of presidents of each organization within the cannabis industry. I bought him under that roof and said, this is what we gotta do in order for us to make sure that what happened to me and others in the industry don't happen again. Y'all with me, They say, we
got you. I said, all right, y'all, just follow my league and I guarantee you I'm gonna take you over the finish line. Eighteen months later, I passed Measure M in the City of Los Angeles at eighty point four eight point four percent. That's unheard of. Now. What the kicker is It was done on the off election. That ain't never been done in the history of America. So me, a black man who brought all of these white organizations together to make this push for the city of Los Angeles.
But I'm always keeping the back of my mind. The reason I'm on the in the front of this line is because I'm representing for us. You see what I'm saying So my whole goal is to get everybody to support me so I can open up some doors for us. Right, So I created the program called Social Equity. Social Equity is a program to make sure that people of color can participate in the cannabis industry, regardless of your cannabis felony,
a misdemeanor. Right, So I'm thinking of a real player, like I'm thinking that the casts out there, Ship City, we grew up in ship Damn, they have everybody up and they got a felony or missing meter. So if I allow that to happen, that's knocking my whole city out of the box. Can't have that. So how do I strategically put myself in position align everybody to make sure that I take care of my people at the end of the day. And by the grace of God, I did it. And that's why social equity exists in
the City of l A. Right. Exactly, you have to be able to, you know, switch the game on him. You know what I'm saying, to change and turn that you know that piste off mentality and something that's just gonna slap him on fuer right back in the face with that reality. Exactly. You know not to cut you off, but that story is just crazy for you to go through all that. Please tell me at the end of the day somebody from some higher court came and says
they had to take care of you and compensates you. No, absolutely not, absolutely not nobody, um, not even an apolishy No. I still I still have it on my record, except for my state charges. I wouldn't have those expunged because of course when I did my time, I went to fire camp. And if you do any selfless act for the state, if you do any any selfless act for
the state, uh, they will uh expunge your record. They will allow you to uh apply and have your record expunge and and uh doing uh um um the uh fire camp. That's what That's what that was. So um yeah. But Noine, nobody was gonna come to me and and and say or tell me or do anything for me. That was not gonna happen under no circumstances. So um yeah, no, it um to to really come at that question direct. I didn't expect nobody to do nothing for me. I
ain't never expected nobody the system, damn. So don't expect them to do nothing for me. I always expect them to do something to me, but never something for me. Do you know what I'm saying? So as long as I don't trick myself, and the way I didn't trick myself, I watched a lot of casts tricked themselves up in that that that that situation, in that system. I watched a lot of casts tricked themselves. I never got caught up in that. How do you do They bought into
the system a lot. I'm bought into the system in so many different ways for so many different reasons. But I did not allow myself to buy into the system like you got cats in there who look at what they did and felt what they did was wrong. He was trying to feed your family. What's wrong about that? You was trying to eat like everybody else? What's wrong about that? You? These were the tools that was given to you because you weren't given the same avenues as
as Johnny was given. You know what I'm saying, So you can't trick yourself into believing I never felt I did anything wrong. To this day, I haven't done nothing wrong. Why did because you re licensed me? I got re licensed when I got home by the city in the state. So then what did I do wrong? Because so it just confirmed my belief to start with, you went to jail and had license, but when you got out, he was able to google get the same license you had.
I was re licensed under the new ordinance. Keep in mind I played the and creating that ordinance too. But I got licensed under the new ordinance by the city in the state of California as a convicted felon so to speak, which I don't even carry that title, as someone that that really was taken away from his family and locked up ship to a slave for the state for six years exactly. And just to say all that, because the laws of course are so different now thanks
in part the sacrifices like brothers like you. Unfortunately, but they can't get away with this ship man. They did, ye, I applaud him because I would be. So you know, that's six years is gone, that's right, and they just
get the skate off. It's kind of You can either either go after and try to fight them, which that's your long as battle, or you can pick up where you left off say funk that I didn't did it, and then had him in chatting that you had and say I'm going to create it did right here right damn yea they laugh from it's a done deal. Yeah, and and always look at it. You deal what you could do. You shot your shot, You got that off.
But guess what, I'm back. You know what I'm saying right now, because he was in sort of in so many ways, he was the we're gonna make an example out of this motherfucker yeah type of you get me, even though it's the other cats in the motherfucking business doing anything. He's the black man from Compton. You know, we know about what's going down, so we can't have that. You know that happens at the time anybody's successful of our color ship. But you gotta you gotta remember one thing.
They took me out the game for six years. It allowed Madman to come in the game. It allowed all these cookies to come in the game. It allowed these other bigger businesses to come into the game, and all of the all of this other corporate money to come into the game while I was gone for six years. So had had just let's just say they didn't take me away, I'd be the biggest thing in the industry rightly.
I man Man wouldn't even be able to eat my lunch, uh scraps off my table because I'd be running everything. I had six stores in two thousand five six locations. How many of you think I would have had had I stayed in the game. Oh, I'd have tried to eat up everything that was in my way. It's sort of like it was a motherfucking plan. You can get me, Like they got a plan because they know other motherfucker's is on the come up or want to get into
the business. So we gotta stop that. We gotta stop him because we know Virgil is on the rise right now. It's just like the pharmacies mans trying to out and and and then do yours because there's big money that, you know what I'm saying. So you know you have to be careful, which you didn't see it coming, you know what I'm saying. Here, I am. I got all my licenses and ship up here, everything they need if they walk in this motherfucking daughter, but still I get handcuffed.
All these other motherfucker's got the same ship here. They got drown out, but they go back into their shops. I'm the only motherfucker to go to Jim, you don't see the bullshit in this Yes, bullshit and hypocrisy, you know. And it's just like like I'm sitting up here literally, man, I'm mad for you and I'm upset because they do him like that. That means that anytime they can go grab one of us worse our sons, it's almost like
you to no win situation. That's why the just system as a whole just needs a a massive overhaul because that wasn't that was kidnapping. Yeah, because it's been designing the funk us over. That's the problem. The system has always been designed to suck us over, especially us of color, who in the situations of you know, we can calmed
and we've long be so central wherever we from. I think it was a business thing where you probably ask some people needed to get you out of the way and spent a lot of money to get you out of the way so they can implement some of the ship that they had implemented. Gender Well, it was the people that was glad I was gone, and that's for sure because I was You keep in mind Compton to the Valley, so I got six stores at one on Compton, at one on Crenshawn hundred forty one. I had one
on forty seven in Crenshaw. I had one on Uh sixteenth in Maple in downtown. I had one on Western and Maplewood in Koreatown. And I had one on some Povid and Sherman Way in the valley. So I was covering a line going from Compton to the valley, and people would stay shopping in between my locations because they know one at the best weed, at the reasonable price and great customer service. So I provid I did everything that other shops didn't think to provide. You know what
I'm saying. When you came in my shop, it was very different. So I had I would I went to and how I did this As I went to other people's shops, and I watched how they did, they think, and I saw the things that I didn't like. I saw the things that people didn't like, and I made sure I didn't do those in my shop. So that's what made me better. UM one year into my business, less than one year into my business, I was named as a number one store in southern California, the Compton Store,
which was my goal to try to do that. I can be somebody from Compton and do it better than anybody in the industry, you know what I'm saying, because they don't. They don't think we can right there. That's why they had to get him out the way because you just you just heard it, and he represents everything they fear. He's a dude from the community. Right then the community like Mexican other whatever, they would come and support because it's right because the community and dollars right there.
So yeah, it was a massive conspiracy of the league, man that you just think like this to it. Like you said, it was a lot of us probably spending money and the people spending money to give me. Now when you you know, that's just like motherfucker when you're making the records or some ship when you can sail to us. But when you start going over to that
pop side, motherfucker boy, you you hit another level. You got you got, you got a cracking and you really got the motherfucker when you got the motherfucker other people. Let me tell you something, might have more white folks coming to the confant than the courthouse, you know what I'm saying, The court coming down and they feel they're getting some official Let me ask you this, man, because you were around your brother man for you to rebound from what you did. Man, I said, Lucas, this is
a beautiful location. How did you get started talking about Yeah? Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Yeah, it's open book. Um. I started selling out the liquor store, my Daddy's liquor store on a Hunted twenty four for Wilmington. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. So, um, that's where I started. And with that, I begin to expand my territory because we had the Rose Cran store, we had the Compton store. And I'm a I'm a neutral cat to get along with everybody, So I had I had all sides of Compton.
I had Joe neighborhood. You know what I'm saying, everybody over there that was selling me, Spanky Jews Clip, everybody. All the cats they know, you know what I'm saying. I had all the cats over man. You know, I was versed in retail, so it just made sense to me because it was what I was already doing, but it was in something that I really wanted to do,
you know what I'm saying. So between those two liquors stores, I was able to touch a lot of people and then you gotta keep in mind we're talking late eighties all the way through the nineties and then into the two thousand's. So if we look at that era, game banging was on the rise in the nineties, crack selling was on the rise in the nineties, and then ninety two was the l A l A Riot, So you gotta keep in mind what the volatility was going on
around there. And I was still functioning through every community I'm talking about it. You can't name a spot that sold we Nord uh Street, Uh the earthquake sounds uh, stripe on wheelm me to. You can't name a spot or a hood that I did not have weed selling it because that was my goal. I was always kind of joked with myself, like Frank White said in the King of New York, if a nickelbag has sold in Central Park, I won't like the nickel was sold in Compton,
I won't then. And because dope selling was the thing to do back then, crack all the d boys came to see me because guess what when they go bounce out of town at Denver, the Oklahoma and all the places they need we because they can't get no good out there, so they come to me. So I'm talking about all the heavyweight players in Compton through those eras, and y'all know them. They all came to that story when you move that way, but when you got legit. But see, the thing was is that my name wasn't
my name. I wasn't who I was when you walk into the liquor store. You couldn't approach me talking about Oh I hey man, I heard you got that bud Yeah, I do bud Light, bud wise, Yeah, doing number five. There you go. You know what I'm saying. But you couldn't approach me with that foolishness because I don't know what you're talking about. Homie. Ain't nothing popping like that here. You know what I'm saying. And so the with that,
I began to create a different atmosphere for myself. My goal was to deal with who's running this spot, who's running this hood. That's who I need to talk to, That's who I need to be dealing with. And because I I went to Lynnwood, I grew up in Compton, then moved into Lynnwood. For a while it I was known all over. I was, like I say, number one athlete quarter Millar and Hurdler, So a little popularity was
there running my daddy's liquor store. Then I begin to start familiarizing myself with every neighborhood in Coompting, not just some of the hoods, every neighborhood, you see what I'm saying, And so getting to know who was running, who was shaking and moving in those neighborhoods, who was the the headballer over there? I may that my business to to to build relationships. Uh in Wat's all three projects and made it my business. Broadways, Main Streets, Avalons sixties eight seven.
I'm telling you it was my goal to make sure that I covered as much territory as I could. And because if this is what I'm gonna do, one thing, my mama told me, whatever you do, you be the best at it. If you're gonna be a clown, you be the best clown. Well, I made it to be the best weed shaker and mover on the east side back in its lovely Yeah. So how many shops you got down? Have three shops? Yes, three shops? I want to talk about your excellent product here? Okay, what's this?
Because you know, for all those out there not TV. I thought, you know, I thought I smoked the best weed our life the week. Whatever. I've been telling you this right here? What if I've been telling this right here and I'm gonna tell you the thing I like about it. I'm nice and high, but I don't feel out of control like I'm telling you. Know what I'm saying. I called you know what I mean, and it's you know,
it's excellent for the back pain some kids. I'm doing this experiment, so you know this is you know, this is for test research purposes. I had the research that you know, and I don't thinate everything. So something that's unique about your situation. I noticed your retail. You have your ownline and you do distribution to it if I'm correct, correct cultivation. Um, it took a lot to go. You know you don't that's like, that's a lot of agriculture
involved and all kind of others. You gotta know your ship. You gotta know your ship. This is just not like, um, the logistics to go into something like this is just you know, you put this together despite being knocked down for six years. Yes. Um, one thing they could do is they could take away your freedom, but they can't take away your mind. And so what I made sure is that my mind stayed sharp while I was in prison. I still uh did study, and I still stayed abreast
on what the industry was doing. I made sure I had advocates sent me a lot of information to keep me up to date on what was going on in the cannabis industry. So I never fell off of my craft and what I do. And mentally, I knew what I was coming home to do. You see what I'm saying, And so you gotta keep you You take advantage of every opportunity to sharpen your skills and your tools. Well, for me, it was to think was to sit back and plan what my next move is once I'm released.
Always said, all they got to do is open that door and I'll show you what I can do. You know, the thing is is I'm good at what I do. You know, Um, I don't know anybody that that move is much weed and covered as much territory in the areas that I've been in, Like I was in the roughest areas. And look at me, I ain't no billy badass you on some low key ship, you know what
I'm saying. And so like and and you know when I talk about the neighborhoods that I moved through, like l A castaid, I was dealing with im like, hey man, won't you know, hey man, I need to grab some suss up. I'll be at the liquor store. Come to the stuff. Man, we ain't coming to Compton over there. L A Cash were not want to come over there to Compton, not on a hund four from Wilmington. They didn't want no parts of it. Right. I used to
tell them, I said, man, you good. Just tell them you're coming to see me, and they like you sure, I see yeah, Man, just tell them you're coming to see me and you're good. And you know people will hit them up in the parking. I'm the company Sea Bird And that was good. No where can people find this? You said, you've got six locations at three three vocations. So I have one on seventy four and Crenshaw seventy
four fifteen Crenshaw Boulevard. And then I have one uh sixteen o one South Soto Street in Boil Heights, Uh, the old Sears Building. I'm right next to the Old Sears building off of Soto and Olympic. And then I have one off of mail rolls. Uh six five four North Manhattan place, just right off of mail Rolls in Western We got to create against the chronicles discount codes they come in there. Absolutely absolutely absolutely, And so you know,
I beg you're talking about your bringers. These are cultivated by you. Yes, sir, did you have right there in this one right here? That's a hybrid And then the straining is on the back. How many different do you have? Your own? And everything to my own pens. So I cultivate, so I grow the flower a manufacturer, which means I extracted my own oil, which means I have a pens, have edibles, um, anything on the concentrated level. I have shatter, wax, crumbles, sauce.
This is all the stuff that all the dabbers and the dad heads and the concentrate consumers understand. Uh. And then also have my apparel, which is California Cannabis Apparel. I'm a complete brand. I'm one that does everything from top to bottom. Um and I created that is because I wanted to make this a desirable brand. I wanted this brand to be for everybody. I wanted to be
for the soccer mom. I wanted to be for the hippie, the beach bum uh, the gangster and from the city I'm from, which they had it way before everybody else did, because California cannabis. I've been providing that long before the name you know what I'm saying. So um, you know in the city. So you can't you can't name uh and and and my man Nate. No, you can't name a rapper. And Compton didn't come by weed from me coolioh uh dj quid um uh. And he really didn't
even smoke weed. He was more of a drinker at easy Dre, Dre stir and b G knock days all coming to Dre, all of them, uh back in the end of w eight days. And then even I was I was going up to death Row. Legend your servants that I was serving death row. You know, snoops, first purple cush came from me, you know what I'm saying. So that's when he first signed with death Row. Um. And you know I was coming through there all the time, can damn studios. I was dipping through the d dipping
right back out, you know what I'm saying. You know that's why I would just creep in and creep out because I was there. I wasn't one of those that you would see hanging out. That wasn't my thing because at my pager, Oh, it was blowing up every time. I had too many people that wanted to see me. So I would come handle my business and then I'm out. Do you know what I'm saying. No, I don't need to meet nobody. No, I don't need to see you. I don't need to know who you are. Thank you,
have a good day. I'm gone. It was it was just that with me when it came to that, and I didn't been to shift. Damn. There every studio in uh, Southern California, Larry North Larby South Echo Sounds. You name a studio, I can promise you I hadn't been there and dropped off weed to some artists. Right, you know misconception. I think that it's just hood people coming in and degenerates coming in buying marijuana. How right is the range
of people? Is that your service? Um? To be honest with you, I have more middle aged and elderly that are in my patient base, uh, and then my customer base more than anything. We're talking thirty five and up is my larger uh consumer population. Youngsters are not as uh, they're not as as big as consumers, at least not in this legal space than the elderly in the middle age people are aged people, thirty people, uh, late twenties,
mid twenties. Those are the people I see as far as anybody like twenty one, I rarely get, you know, young young young people coming through like that. It is. It's been coming out too because you know me, I didn't starts probably trying to experiment we a little bit to his past year because of the need in back pain. And my partner QT down to Texas he's been smoking, was still here and you know, you just gonna smoke
some weeds instead of trying on her bullshit. Man. Now I started working with the cd D flower of absolutely well, cb D has your medicinal properties. Uh so does uh the th A C. Because people think that cb D is just cb D by itself, and no, it's cb D with t A C. No has small traces and small levels of cb D I mean of th A C within the cb D and it wouldn't be active. It can't activate. In other words, those properties healing properties cannot activate without t A C. This is what people
don't understand. C B G C B and cb d uh and th A C and all of the components um to that molecular structure of the T A C plan all have to work in unison, all have to work together. It's like me taking both arms and legs off of you and then say go function. That's not gonna happen, right, And so you can't extract and pull one thing out and think that it's gonna work in its entirety. God made that plant to work in unison
the way it is in this perfect form. Uh. So the's a misconception that when people say, oh, this is straight CB D no T A C. No, it's there is a small trace of T A C exactly. May not be detectable if you take a test or whatnot that will come out in a field drug tests or whatnot or whatnot, but just know it is there. Uh. They're small traces and they have to be there for the plant to activate. It works, Oh, it definitely does.
They're going around because I actually heard it that market what's going to be a rising market because more people are moving away from them peels and everything. But the unfortunate and part, and I'm glad you said that, is that we are not participating in this industry as we should. There are a hundred eighty eight shops licensed in the city of Los Angeles, only four black owners. They're in the state of California. In the state of California, you
have two in Oakland. You got four down here. You see what I'm saying. Our numbers are Graham and Desmo. Because so there is only six black owned Marijuanna shops absolutely in the whole state of coming in the whole state of California. Yeah. Yeah, So this is this is what what people end up missing. They'll see black faces behind the counter, They'll see black faces doing this and that Latino faces and they think, oh, that's black owner, that's Latino. You see how many black folks up in cookies.
Cookies ain't known by not one black person. Show me one, name me one. You know what I'm saying. When you look at these shops that we gravitate to and go spend our money with, they're not us and they're not doing anything for our community. What is cookies done for our community except for sale? Weed up in there, take our money and going back, going back to the valley where they came from, in the Bay area where they came from. You understand what I'm saying. I ain't mad.
You know, they jumped at an opportunity and did business. But we as consumers have to understand where we need to be putting our dollars. These are black owned businesses within the cannabis industry, very few. Why are we not supporting those? And those only the same product I grow my I grow products. I've been growing longer than Cookie has been growing. You know what I'm saying. I've been
I've been around longer than met Man been around. He got his ideal of multiple locations from casts like me, because before he was even thought of in two thousand and four, I had six of them. It was looking to buy Folk Mob. Before I got arrested. I was already in the deal to buy four more stores and have Tien and my goal was to send on them tim for about a year and then start buying up other folks. So we have to understand that we need to take control of the business aspect of certain things
that uh exists within our community. And that's what we have not done in the cannabis industry. And our numbers will always be low and we will then begin to complain about the keeping us out of the industry. Well, a lot of it is we're not getting involved to get that type of information. For those out there that may be interested in this trade, well they can always reach out to me UM my my email addresses VG
at California Cannabis WC for West Coast dot com. Um. They can reach out to me and I can provide them with all of the information regarding this industry. If you want to get involved, being cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, retail or delivery, UM, I can point you in the right direction because I've done them all. Like I did before there was a transportation or uh distribution license. I was going to humblet to Humbolt to Compton. See I'm back
in those days. My connect was direct, so I growers in humble that I was driving twelve hours up, twelve hours back to go get my product and bring it to Compton and sell out in three days. I couldn't keep enough weed around were smoking weed and man, for real, we had some of the number one spots. And that's what I say. There would not be an industry to a day for corporate America to even think about considering if it wasn't for players like me keeping the clientele
flowing in our cities the way we did. I used to see white folks come up in Compton all day to hit all of them spots that's up in Compton, baby over there in the pockets over there on North Street, the grandees in their hood, they on that side of the town. I've seen them coming through the trees and the fruits when I was over there. I mean, I just they was coming through because when when dre put out the Chronic, people wanted to know what what Compton
was like with that week. You know what I'm saying. In the place I fucking toward motherfucker's would be like, you brought some of that chronic bullshit, you know, because everywhere else you go they got that, they got the dirt bulls bullshit. And then I'm telling you that was the first thing the motherfucker would ask when they would see us breaking the down on the table, they would
be like, what the is that that ship? And they think they hit that ship and they just be floating like, oh God, I gotta get I think it'll be ready to take a trip just to come and get some motherfucker. I'm telling you, man, well, man, this has been one of the most interesting, enlightening episodes that were formative. It's just like very informative thing. And we can sit up here and talk all night. Man. You got incredible story. Man,
it's incredible about what you've got going on. Now. I think it's good because we're lucky that we're finding these guys, these brothers, get these these hell of a stories. And nobody would have ever knew your story if we wouldn't hear you know what I'm saying down Everybody don't understand this was straight double jeovity bullishit. Damn if I do, Damn if I don't, we want you. We're gonna get you, regardless if you're not guilty or not. We can make
you guilty type of bullish it here. And it took six years from a brother for them to do that and not give a funk, not offer no money, not offer nothing on the Yeah. So man, it's just a lesson to all of us that we all got to be careful and like you said earlier, we gotta start supporting our our people. And you know we can't blame nobody but ourselves because we don't go into stoes and do what we do. Yeah, you exactly right, man. What's
your website? So the website is, uh www California Cannabis WC. Dot com media social media's uh California Cannabis WC. You can you can just hit me on on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Um, you can see me on all of those when you see the uh the double c's for California Cannabis with the heart. But everybody, just so y'all know, there's always a double untanger with them what I do, double C City of Compton, you know what I'm saying. I put it all in the mix with with my logo. I
made this logo. De green represents cannabis, the gold represents the Golden city, I mean the Golden state California, and the heart for the love of what I do in the cannabis industry. And I created that logo, not a marijuana leave for a bud or nothing like that, is because I want my stuff to sit in best Buy, I mean, you know, in in the commercial places Target, Walmart. And so that's a soft and friendly logo, but it
represents what it represents. Supporting his brother product and he's doing some big things and he's one of us for sure. And that's it. We'd like to thank you for tuning into this episode Against the Chronicles again. Subscribe, download the I Heart Act for Sure Apple Podcast, leave us comment, We out of here, Jill, Thank you, thank