Скачать или смотреть AP Explains: Washington's new marijuana business equity program

(20 Apr 2024)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4489799

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Arlington, Washington – 13 April 2024
1. Cloud 9 Cannabis employee helping customers
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Gene Johnson, The Associated Press:
++PARTIALLY COVERED++
“I'm standing in front of the Cloud 9 Cannabis store in Arlington, Washington, which is one of the first new stores licensed under the state's social equity program for the cannabis industry.”
3. Various of store
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Gene Johnson, The Associated Press:
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“This includes grants and licenses given out to social equity applicants, including people who were directly impacted by the war on drugs, who served prison time or who had family members arrested.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Bellingham, Washington – 8 July 2014
6. First recreational marijuana sales in Washington

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Arlington, Washington – 13 April 2024
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Gene Johnson, The Associated Press:
++PARTIALLY COVERED++
“Washington state opened its first legal marijuana stores a decade ago. The industry remains overwhelmingly white, and advocates and officials who regulate the industry are concerned that there is not enough being done to remedy the effect that the war on drugs had on black and brown communities.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Tumwater, Washington – 15 March 2023
8. Marijuana plants

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Arlington, Washington – 13 April 2024
9. Tight of Ward showing scar left from being shot
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Sam Ward Jr., Cloud 9 Cannabi CEO:
++PARTIALLY COVERED++
“I got shot over weed. I went to go sell some weed and shot me right in the hand, right here. And lucky I survived because you had up my stomach.”
11. Ward showing products
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Sam Ward Jr., Cloud 9 Cannabi CEO:
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“I chose the street life. So when I chose the street life, it was like the money was easy, but it kept getting harder because every day I would look over my shoulder. And you have that feeling. You were like, I know one day they're going to come get me. But I got to keep getting this money. I got to pay for it to survive for my kids.”
13. Ward posing for a picture
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Sam Ward Jr., Cloud 9 Cannabi CEO:
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“Imagine sitting in a cell all day working out. Just like, what do you want to do with your life? Do you want to be here, or do you want to be up here with your kids?”
14. Various of customers in store
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Sam Ward Jr., Cloud 9 Cannabi CEO:
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“I mean, it feels good. It feels great to know that, I’m a CEO of a store and employees, you know, people depending on me.”
16. Ward in store


STORYLINE:
When Washington state opened some of the nation's first legal marijuana stores in 2014, Sam Ward Jr. was on electronic home detention in Spokane, where he had just been indicted on federal drug charges. He would soon be off to prison to serve the lion's share of a four-year sentence.

A decade later, Ward, who is Black, recently posed in a blue-and-gold throne used for photo ops at his new cannabis store, Cloud 9 Cannabis. He greeted customers walking in for early 4/20 deals. And he reflected on being one of the first beneficiaries of a Washington program to make the overwhelmingly white industry more accessible to Black and brown people harmed the most by the war on drugs.

“It feels great to know that I’m the CEO of a store, with employees depending on me,” Ward said.


But efforts to help those most affected participate in — and profit from — the legal marijuana sector have been halting.

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