I have written on this subject before, but it’s been a while. I’m currently in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons for a mandatory minimum sentence of 60 months for marijuana trafficking of 100kg or more. That’s roughly 220 pounds or more if conversion math isn’t your strong suit. A lot of people think prisoners all claim to be innocent, but that’s the opposite of reality. Most prisoners tend to exaggerate their street accomplishments in my experience. That said, this isn’t going to be about me balling out or living some lavish lifestyle. This is just the honest truth from my perspective. Other people will see things differently, and I understand that. Some people reading this may have never even seen weed before, and others may have sold thousands of pounds themselves. This disparity leads to a completely different level of understanding and comprehension of my crime. I’ll try to focus on things that come up in conversation often, the real issues instead of common misconceptions.

If you Google my name, you’ll immediately find articles about my case. To be honest, there’s nothing blatantly wrong with the articles, but I just feel like I never had a real chance to give my perspective on their contents. The main points that people stick to are 1) the amount of weed and 2) the amount of money. I think the timing of when it all went down gets completely lost. I have never even seen 220 pounds of weed. I’ve seen fields and mountainsides covered in cannabis plants that will produce those kinds of numbers, but I’ve never seen that much weed ready for sale in my life. The most I’ve ever had at one time was 40 pounds. Granted, that’s a lot of weed… unless you’re the person reading this and laughing at how peasant that shit is.

The Drug Enforcement Agency is allowed to use what people refer to as “ghost dope” to attach whatever number they decide to add up to increase people’s sentences. There are hundreds of people I know personally in prison who have never actually gotten caught with any drug, but this isn’t what happened in my case. The “ghost dope” in my case was the marijuana they concluded I must have purchased based on $780,000 placed in bank accounts over two years. At the time of my original arrest by the state of South Carolina, they found seven pounds. The seven pounds rounding up to 220 was counted by assuming a pound of weed was roughly between two and three grand–easily enough to cross the 100kg threshold.

I know that’s nearly a million dollars. It sounds like a lot. I would like to point out that amount is what I paid for the weed. I didn’t make that much money, I never had that much money, I’ve never even seen that much money. Well, technically I guess I have, for two years. While I was turning a respectable amount of product over in a roughly two-week period, I also had to cut profit margins to attract higher-level associates. I was making 12%-15% profit on the product while also constantly reinvesting my profit to grow the business. Yes, selling drugs runs on the same principles as a real business. If the person reading this is not a math wizard, that comes out to around 100 grand, which is also a very significant sounding number. Until you consider the amount over two years. I won’t undersell what I was doing. I did make more money than that overall, but not much. So, yes, I did have over 220 pounds of weed combined over two years, and yes I did put that much money into various bank accounts. Those are illegal and I am serving my time.

The motivation for this writing came from the case of Sha’Carri Richardson. Seeing her destroy all competition with flair and beauty that captured this entire prison’s attention was special. It’s rare for guys in prison to flip to a track and field event while NBA playoffs are in full swing, but she was must-see T.V. She’s obviously a very special human being, and the entire nation saw that. Now the nation is seeing how incredibly unfair cannabis laws are. In the very state she was competing in, cannabis dispensaries are fighting for every dollar they can legally attain. There are laws in place that allow adults to decide to use the most medicinally beneficial plant on the planet to counter all kinds of physical and mental health issues, a plant that is much healthier than the prescription medicines the pharmaceutical companies are forcing down our throats. We have seen the NFL suspend some of its greatest athletes for failed drug tests positive for marijuana. The drug that stays in our system the very longest is not the “least dangerous,” it’s the most helpful. Now the NFL has realized they were on the wrong side of history. It’s time for the Olympics–and more importantly this nation as a whole–to realize they are on the wrong side of history as well.

Most people don’t realize that every dispensary in this country is breaking federal law. There have been no cannabis law reforms federally since they made it illegal in the first place. At any time the DEA could go in any dispensary in this country, no matter how specific they were following state law, and throw everyone who works there in prison for the same sentence, if not more, than I was handed. They won’t, at this point, for the sole reason that it would further the awareness and voice against cannabis being illegal at all. They would rather let the states do their thing and use marijuana law as a bargaining chip for political posturing. Do you have any idea how infuriating it is to be in prison for something that has become nothing more than a political chess piece? Cannabis is still a Schedule I drug right next to heroin and above cocaine and meth on the official scheduling on drugs. It is listed as having “no known medicinal value.”

A lot of people tell me, “Yeah, but I mean they put you in prison because you weren’t paying any taxes on that much money.” While that theory sounds good, that just isn’t how it works. I was not charged with tax evasion. People think that because they caught some gangsters back in the day with evasion charges that tax evasion is what it’s all about. Not true. They took $500K cash and forced the forfeiture of a property in L.A. valued at $280K from my co-defendant. Do you think that was given to the IRS? No. That money went right back into allowing DEA agents to live the lives they want to live. That money’s not paying for me to be incarcerated. You are.

I know a lot of people will roll their eyes at this statement, but the fact remains, and one day I’ll prove it: if I had been allowed to legally acquire and sell cannabis, I would have followed all the legal steps. I believe in the legalization and regulation of all drugs. Part of having that belief is accepting that it’s best for society as a whole to follow the rules and generate tax revenue, create jobs, and have banking benefits. Cannabis legalization has become a mess because of the incompetence of elected officials to listen to anyone who knows about the business. Eventually, I do have faith the kinks will be sorted out and we will have a seed-to-sale plan for states that make sense for everyone and starts killing off the black market. All of these things will happen a lot sooner if we demand change. I do hope that Sha’Carri’s story helps bring about this sorely needed change.

I sold weed because I love it. I have a passion for it and I will always believe in it. I was not in a position to leave my family behind and move to a legal state. That is also a common comment, that I should’ve just moved somewhere legal. Maybe I should’ve, but then I couldn’t have been there for my daughter. Now I’m not with her anyway, so maybe I was wrong. It’s a valid argument. But why isn’t there just a way for me to do it legally? Why are we content to allow politicians to keep dragging their feet towards the inevitable? What the fuck are we still waiting for? Why are we still incarcerating minorities at alarming rates when everyone sees how fucked up it is? The solutions aren’t complicated. They want to tell the people it’s complicated when it isn’t. It’s time for real and comprehensive drug reform.

Saying “cannabis should be legal” is like saying “Sha’Carri should be allowed to run.” They are both obvious. I don’t understand the “yeah, well, they knew it was illegal and still did it,” or “well, she knew she was getting drug tested; she shouldn’t have smoked,” argument. Why do we, as people who believe in cannabis, have to give up what we believe in and love because some old white dudes decided to find a new way to throw black people in prison a long time ago? Why does Sha’Carri have to stop doing what she needs to for her mental health because an Olympic committee is stuck in its ways? Why do I have to move to another state to provide people with something they all want in the state I’m already in? We shouldn’t have to change our lives for something that isn’t wrong. It not only isn’t wrong, it’s right. We aren’t fighting for something that is simply “not that bad;” we’re fighting for something good, something that helps people and saves their lives. I’m in federal prison for something I believe in. For me, it feels no different than someone who is in prison in another country for choosing a different version of God.

What I was doing was illegal and I accept punishment for it. But make no mistake, what I was doing was not and will never be wrong.