Sitting in a Virginia state prison cell, Bryan Reid would often slouch his shoulders, droop his chin, and pout his bottom lip — the posture of someone struggling to believe how his life had come to this. Before he was transferred in 2018 to Coffeewood Correctional Center in Mitchells, he was a proud father of […]
marijuana
Posted inCriminal Justice
Maryland Governor’s Marijuana Pardons a Win for Justice, But Is It Enough?
Stephanie Shepard has had unsettling feelings in the pit of her stomach ever since she was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute marijuana. She couldn’t believe that a drug sentence’s mandatory minimum carried more weight than a homicide-related offense. Before Shepard was transferred from New York to a […]
Posted inBlack Farmers, Rural Issues
Black Farmers Looked to Cash In on the CBD Industry. Now, Hemp Is in Decline.
When Brendalyn King and her partner, Osei Doyle, quit their jobs and left Brooklyn, New York, in 2020 to buy land, they had high hopes of entering the growing industrial hemp industry. They moved to Salem, Illinois, to farm on a family friend’s land until they were able to buy the property. However, they never […]
