The Weed Runners: Travels with the Outlaw Capitalists of America's Medical Marijuana Trade by Nicholas Schou

Author:Nicholas Schou [Schou, Nicholas]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 2013-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

I first began unraveling this tale during the trial of the two Joes, at a Long Beach eatery a block from the courthouse where that ridiculous spectacle unfolded, a restaurant called Rock Bottom. As Christopher Glew and I dined on salads and burgers, I mentioned that I’d been hearing rumors about how several of the dispensaries operating in Long Beach were owned by a private investment group led by local businessmen with strong ties to people who worked at city hall.

Glew suggested I talk to Paul Violas, a lawyer whom Glew had met on the courthouse steps several months earlier, as he was leaving a hearing for a client who was going through the city’s lottery process. “I had never heard of him before that,” he told me. “I think I mentioned I didn’t know who he was and he was like, ‘Wow, you don’t know me?’”

During their chat, Violas made casual reference to a few things about Glew’s case, implying, for example, that if it wasn’t his—that is, Violas’s case—the city didn’t consider it important which city prosecutor it appointed. “He called himself a heavy hitter in town,” Glew told me. “So I took it as a little bit of braggadocio by him.” Violas claimed he was working for a client who already had a building near the courthouse approved for growing medical marijuana. “He said they had this all set up for a grow facility that was going to be utilized in the city and I thought that was interesting. I wanted to know what it was all about, but he didn’t really want to provide any more information on it.”

Violas had actually pointed in the general direction of the building in question. “It was right over there, behind the courthouse,” Glew explained. “At the time, I was kind of curious because I have a whole bunch of clients involved in the lottery process, how do you have a whole place signed off and approved. But he never said to me he was paying anybody off or anything. Obviously that would have resonated with me a little deeper. But the only reason I paid attention to it was first of all, I didn’t know the guy at all and it was weird he was approaching me on this case where my clients had been jammed up with the city and he’s insinuating he’s got some special process.”

After talking to Glew, I began interviewing medical-marijuana activists in Long Beach, including several who told me that FBI agents had also interviewed them, although for the most part they refused to provide specifics. “I can’t tell you anything about that,” said one source. “They did visit me,” said another. “Their questions were about public corruption and not the legality of medical marijuana. The statement I gave was that I wasn’t aware of any malfeasance and hadn’t engaged in any.”

By the time I met Violas, I’d already figured out the identity of his big client, the guy who ran the city-approved grow

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.