True Crime Memoir / Investigative
Michigan’s first licensed dispensary owner survives task forces, courtrooms, betrayal, political pressure, prison, and the pot tax.
The Status Quo Shot Back
People love to talk about this era as if it were inevitable—like legalization was a smooth march forward led by wise policymakers. It wasn’t. It was messy. It was bloody. It was human. It was expensive.
From the Book
Read selected passages from Capone Of Cannabis and enter a world of raids, corruption, betrayal, the CIA, and the IRS — the true story of what happened when legalization met government power.
What I had were breadcrumbs—backchannels, lawyers, FOIA returns, discovery evidence, conversations I wasn’t supposed to hear—and the breadcrumbs kept circling the same name: Operation Michigan Pot Shops.
Read ExcerptsIt wasn’t just one remark, or one bad slur. It was a tirade. A casual, open spillage of hatred from the mouth of the government sworn to serve and protect. The kind of language that would have made even Hillbilly Hitler flinch.
Read ExcerptsThe first night dragged on like it was daring me to break. If I’m being honest, it was the first time since that first raid almost fifteen years earlier that I actually felt safe—no glancing over my shoulder, no bracing for the sound of boots at the door, no wondering if the day would end in another smashed-in office or home.
Read ExcerptsLatest Dispatches
The medical marijuana charade. BY Matt Labash I was interviewed for this article in 2010. Labash kind of hit it on the head through his…
Open file
Not every day in the dispensary business was raids, court dates, asset seizures, and DEA paranoia. Some days were just strange. Funny, even. In…
Open file
Our stores were raided, often without warrants, every 26 days on average—for four years. We didn’t always get the footage, but sometimes we did.…
Open fileWatch + Follow
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My story began in 2009 and ended in, well, I’m sure it never ends. After the 2008 Michigan medical marijuana initiative’s 63% landslide victory...
