Pending trial of Charlo Greene raises questions about the war on drugs and could have broader legal implications as more states move towards legalization 
 
 Reporter who quit on air to fight for pot legalization faces decades in prison 
 
 Update | 29 September 2016: The most recent charges against Charlo Greene in her marijuana case include six more offenses than the original indictment, according to a spokeswoman for the Alaska attorney general’s office. Instead of eight counts for a total of 24 years in prison, she is facing 14 offenses for a possible 54 years. 
 
 Reached by phone on Thursday, Greene said she was unaware that she was facing a sentence twice as harsh as the original indictment filed against her last year. 
 
 Original | 28 September 2016 : Charlo Greene did not plan to curse on live television, but on 22 September 2014, the words came pouring out. 
 
 Then a reporter for KTVA, a station in Alaska, Greene ended her segment on marijuana by revealing that she was a proponent of legalization – and was the owner of the Alaska Cannabis Club, the subject of her news report. 
 
 “Fuck it, I quit,” she said, before abruptly walking off camera. The 26-year-old’s stunt shocked her colleagues and made her a viral sensation overnight. 
 
 TV reporter uses F-word as she quits to fight for marijuana legalisation | Media Monkey Read more 
 
 Greene quickly became a full-time cannabis advocate, working to help Alaskans access pot after the state became the third in the US to legalize recreational pot in November 2014. 
 
 But despite the voter-approved initiative, Alaska has not helped her start a legitimate marijuana operation. On the contrary, the state launched a series of undercover operations and raids at her club, ultimately charging her with eight serious criminal offenses of “misconduct involving a controlled substance”. 
 
 If convicted, she could face 24 years behind bars. 
 
 “It’s almost dizzying when you try to make sense of it,” Greene said in an exclusive interview with the Guardian about her upcoming trial. “It could literally cost me the rest of my adult life.” 
 
 The 28-year-old’s case – which she has called a “modern day lynching” – has raised a number of questions about the ongoing war on drugs and could have broader law enforcement implications as more US states move to legalize cannabis and regulate it like alcohol. 
 
 While reporters across the globe rushed to interview the activist after her comical on-air resignation, the Anchorage woman has struggled to get people to pay attention to her prosecution. Advocates say the charges against Greene, who is black, are particularly alarming given the government’s history of disproportionately targeting people of color for minor marijuana offenses with tough-on-crime policies that fueled mass incarceration. 
 
 It’s almost dizzying when you try to make sense of it. It could literally cost me the rest of my adult life Charlo Greene 
 
 Greene, whose legal name is Charlene Egbe, said she first became interested in marijuana in college when she discovered that it was a much healthier alternative to alcohol. After working at news stations in Georgia, Tennessee and West Virginia, Greene returned to her hometown in Alaska to work for the CBS affiliate where she was assigned to cover crime and courts – and eventually marijuana. 
 
 After meeting activists in Colorado and Washington, the first states to legalize recreational marijuana, Greene became passionate about its medicinal value. 
 
 “It was something I had been taking for granted – that this could literally be changing these people’s lives.” 
 
 Alaska has a complicated history of confusing and contradictory marijuana rules. The state was the first to legalize cannabis for in-home use in the 1970s and passed a formal medical law in 1998. Officials, however, never created a system for licensing medical dispensaries, meaning users had few legal options. 
 
 “No one could ever agree on what the state of the law in Alaska actually was,” said Robert MacCoun, a Stanford law professor. 
 
 But once weed became legal, Greene grew determined. She was particularly moved after meeting an older woman with a neurological disorder who was forced to buy marijuana on the streets – at one point leading her to be robbed at gunpoint. 
 
 The reporter organized a private patients’ association, which soon became more than just a hobby. Eventually, she decided to use her media job to unveil her cannabis club. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Charlo Greene: ‘I saw all my siblings ... with these guns that my tax dollars paid for pointed at them for what was now legal.’ Photograph: Nathaniel Wilder for the Guardian 
 
 “I just spoke from my heart for the first time,” Greene recalled, noting that the infamous “fuck it” line was unplanned. 
 
 The 2014 measure – which legalized the manufacture, sale and possession of marijuana – went into effect in February 2015. The state, however, had not yet finalized its regulations for retail operations and in the interim, the Alaska Cannabis Club allowed people to purchase “memberships” – supplying marijuana when members made “donations”. 
 
 Detectives immediately targeted the operation, with six undercover purchases and two raids in a five-month period, records show. 
 
 “The fact that they were watching us for so long, I kind of felt violated,” said Jennifer Egbe, Greene’s 26-year-old sister, who helped out at the club. “I was really just heartbroken. I never assumed it would go this far.” 
 
 The raids, which brought armed officers to their property, were especially stressful for Greene, who was worried police might shoot one of her four siblings at the club. 
 
 “I saw all my siblings ... with these guns that my tax dollars paid for pointed at them for what was now legal.” 
 
 Court records show that Greene was not directly involved in any of the undercover transactions, but state prosecutors solely charged her, noting that the club was registered under her name. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Charlo Greene shares a joint with Peter Lomonaco at the Alaska Cannabis Club. Photograph: Mark Thiessen/AP 
 
 Greene pleaded not guilty, and a trial is expected in the coming months. 
 
 The state attorney general’s office declined to comment. 
 
 Cynthia Franklin, director of the state’s alcohol and marijuana control office, said that Greene’s club and two other businesses are facing consequences for launching before regulations were in place. 
 
 “These people got ahead and said, ‘We’re not going to wait.’” 
 
 Alaska’s weed industry is only getting off the ground now. The state has approved a total of 83 licenses – only 17 of which are for retail businesses, and they haven’t yet opened, Franklin said. 
 
 Greene doesn’t have a lot of vocal supporters in Alaska, even among pro-marijuana activists. 
 
 Tim Hinterberger, who chaired the 2014 legalization campaign, said, “The vast majority of people who are interested in growing or selling … have followed all of the timelines and have been waiting patiently.” 
 
 But even if Greene’s club was premature, critics said she should’ve been issued a fine or citation in line with the punishment for selling alcohol without a liquor license. 
 
 “This is a substance that we’ve decided can be safely consumed by adults,” said Tamar Todd, director of the office of legal affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance. 
 
 While experts say it’s very unlikely Green will ultimately face decades in prison, the activist struggles not to worry about how incarceration could destroy her life. 
 
 “It casts a cloud over every laugh and every triumph and everything that I’m building and looking forward to.” ||||| Although reporter turned marijuana advocate Charlo Greene launched into infamy a couple of years ago when she said “Fuck it, I quit” during her final newscast on Alaska’s KTVA, very few people are aware that she is currently at risk of being sent to prison for the next two decades for “misconduct involving a controlled substance.” 
 
 Calling her case a “modern day lynching,” Greene, whose legal name is Charlene Egbe, recently expressed concern on her blog over the fact that the entire world seemed to join in to spread the word of her saying “fuck” on live television back in 2014, but very few have stepped up to lend any support for the criminal case hanging over her head due to her cannabis club debacle. 
 
 “More than 100 million people around the world watched me quit,” Greene wrote. “And of the now 4,000 members of the Alaska Cannabis Club we’ve served to date, there was literally only one person [at the first court date] to support me.” 
 
 Recreational marijuana was made legal in Alaska in 2014 after voters approved a ballot measure with overwhelming support. But despite the state’s new pot laws, which took effect on February 24, 2015, the Anchorage Police Department (APD) has acted as though it does not understand what it means to legalize weed—conducting two separate raids on Greene’s Alaska Cannabis Club in March and again in August of last year. 
 
 Greene says all of the APD’s shakedown tactics went against the grain of the law. 
 
 “The officers acted outside the scope of the warrant, conducting unlawful body searches on patients, threatening all patients and Club volunteers with arrest if they didn’t consent to taking mugshot-like photos on the scene, destroying cameras, seizing vehicles not included in the warrant and not leaving the lawfully required notice behind,” she wrote. 
 
 Unfortunately, the raids have resulted in the 28-year-old being charged with 10 felonies and a number of misdemeanors associated with establishing the club. If Greene is convicted, she could spend the next 24 years of her life in a state penitentiary. 
 
 The passing of Alaska’s 2014 marijuana law legalized the cultivation, possession and sale of cannabis, but the state has struggled to put together the regulations needed for the retail market. So, while marijuana has not been legal to purchase from pot shops, the “transfer of up to an ounce of pot” has been considered a perfectly legal transaction. 
 
 Greene’s Alaska Cannabis Club used this concept by allowing people to purchase memberships and get their hands on complimentary marijuana when they made a donation. It was this business model that prompted investigators to target the club, sending in several undercover officers over the course of a few months to collect enough evidence to build a case. 
 
 Although court records show that Greene was not directly involved with any of the transactions that prompted the raids, prosecutors have gone after her exclusively because they say the club and Charlo Greene are one in the same. 
 
 On her blog, Greene, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, said the prosecutor lied to the grand jury about the business structure of the Alaska Cannabis Club to convince jurors the charges were justifiable. One juror questioned the district attorney by saying, “I don’t understand [defendant] can be held criminally accountable for actions where we don’t see her actions in any of the—in any transactions here.” 
 
 But the district attorney assured the jurors that the club is a sole proprietorship. 
 
 “The Alaska Cannabis Club is a sole proprietorship. It’s owned by one person. So there’s not corporate liability, the D.A. explained. “So that’s why you’ll notice the charging document is Charlene Egbe doing business as Alaska Cannabis Club. They are essentially one and the same…” 
 
 Greene’s trial is scheduled to begin within the next few months. She hopes some salvation will emerge from the cannabis community and help bail her out of this unfortunate situation. 
 
 “I need support now more than ever,” Greene told HIGH TIMES. “I dedicated my life to fighting for the cannabis plant and the people behind it. Now that I could lose the rest of my life because of cannabis, it feels like the people I fought for have abandoned me. I’ve never felt more alone.” 
 
 All of HIGH TIMES’ Charlo Greene coverage: 
 
 HIGH TIMES Interview: Charlo Greene 
 
 ‘F**k It I Quit’ Reporter Charlo Greene Tells HIGH TIMES ‘I’m Just Living My Truth’ 
 
 Former News Anchor Charlo Greene Aims to Be the ‘Oprah of Pot’ with New Show 
 
 Police Raid Club of ‘F**k It I Quit’ Reporter Turned Pot Activist 
 
 And for all HIGH TIMES legalization news, click here.
– Charlo Greene made headlines in 2014 when the then 26-year-old memorably quit her TV reporting gig on air while announcing her intention to push for the legalization of marijuana in Alaska: She said, "F--- it, I quit," before walking out of view. But as the Guardian reports, her ensuing off-screen plight has been largely ignored, even though she faces more than a half-century in prison. That's because Greene, whose legal name is Charlene Egbe, isn't just a cannabis advocate but the owner of the Alaska Cannabis Club, which she created on April 20, 2014, a full six months before Alaska voted to legalize the adult use of cannabis. In other words, she was receiving "donations" for marijuana through club "memberships" before it was legal to do so. Police raided the club twice and detectives made several undercover purchases, and though Greene wasn't directly involved in them, state prosecutors are charging her because the club is registered under her name. She's pleaded not guilty to charges of "misconduct involving a controlled substance," and the original indictment listed eight offenses that amounted to a possible 24 years in jail. The Guardian broke the news to Greene that six offenses have since been added, raising the total to 54 years. In the Weed Blog, Greene calls this a "modern-day lynching," and tells High Times that she hopes the cannabis community rallies behind her. "I need help more than ever," she says. "Now that I could lose the rest of my life because of cannabis, it feels like the people I fought for have abandoned me." (Alaskans can't smoke weed in public.)