As California enters its sixth year of legal recreational cannabis, it’s easy to forget the fact there are still a lot of people serving a lot of prison time for weed-related crimes — especially for those of us who focus on the the features (i.e. “fun”) side; adventures in stoned yoga, the origins of a beloved pot pipe and the Marine founded marijuana brand that’s helping veterans battle opiate addiction.

It was after I posted the last of those “Green Room” videos to social media several months back someone swiftly responded: “I wish for everyone of these ‘weed is good’ stories, we learned about the nonviolent offender who is going to die in prison for being caught with an [eighth of an ounce]8th.” It was a good point, and one that really resonated with me. That’s why I was excited to find out about the former prison in Coalinga, Calif., that Ocean Grown Extracts has turned into a pot farm where cannabis is grown, processed and packaged in what look like police evidence bags. In addition to a portion of sales going to Last Prisoner Project, a nonprofit dedicated to cannabis criminal justice reform, the fact that the Evidence brand exists at all helps raise awareness that there plenty of people are currently behind bars for nonviolent cannabis crimes.

Evidence brand’s co-founder Casey Dalton explained the idea to us this way: “We grow weed at a prison to get people out of prison for growing weed.” And, as we found out during our tour, repurposing a prison for such a purpose has other upsides too. For example? “It’s got really good security,” Dalton said.

Now who’s ready to go to prison — for a tour?
SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE VIDEOS AND NEWS
http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=losangelestimes
https://www.latimes.com/subscription

LET’S CONNECT:
Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/latimes
Twitter ► https://twitter.com/LATimes
Instagram ► https://www.instagram.com/latimes

source