How’s it growing folks! Welcome back again to Here Weed Go! my friends. It’s the national podcast hoping to shed light on some of the forgotten issues surrounding cannabis, the country’s fastest growing cash crop.

I’m your host Eddie Celaya, cannabis reporter at TucsonMarijuanaGuide.com, and before I get into the heart of this very important episode, I want to remind you all that if you enjoy Here Weed Go!, please leave a review, a like or comment wherever it is you stream or download the podcast from, and be sure to subscribe to the podcast and my twice monthly Here Weed Go! newsletter.

I’ve left links to all that and more in this episodes description, so check it all out and feel free to reach out to me on my social media or at ecelaya@tucson.com.

So, today’s episode is personal for my guest, Alicia Deals. You might remember that I had Alicia on the podcast about a year and a half ago to talk a little about winning one of the state of Arizona’s social equity recreational retail cannabis licenses.

Long story short, Alicia found a partner in Cookies, the dispensary chain brand headquartered out of San Francisco, California, and opened the first and so far only Cookies branded dispensary in Arizona in June.

We touch a bit on how things have gone in getting the shop up and running, but the focus of our interview is on Alicia’s father, Robert Deals, who is currently in his 10th year (of an 18-year sentence) of incarceration in Yuma, Arizona on cannabis-related charges.

But, there is hope.

First, Deals will be before the court soon to appeal his sentence, with a chance that he could be released. And second, from a Change.org petition that Alicia started and that you can sign as a show of support for Robert and others who have been wrongly and unjustly incarcerated for cannabis related offences.

The online petition calls upon lawmakers, policy makers, and criminal justice advocates to take immediate action to reform marijuana laws, address racial disparities within the criminal justice system, provide proper support for incarcerated victims with PTSD, and review sentencing guidelines – especially given the dynamic changes in marijuana laws and court cases from 2010 to 2023 and the racial disparities widely prevalent in such cases.

My conversation with Alicia begins with her updating everyone about how crazy the last year has been, from opening a new recreational pot shop, to advocating at the state and national level for common sense cannabis reform.

MORE INFO

For more about Alicia Deals and her story opening Arizona's only Cookies Dispensary: https://blackcannabismagazine.com/alicia-deals-berner-open-cookies-in-tempe-arizona/

To visit Alicia's Cookies Dispensary in Tempe, Arizona: https://cookies.co/stores/cookies_tempe

To sign the petition in support of freeing Robert Deals: https://www.change.org/p/justice-for-robert-deals-highlighting-injustices-in-marijuana-laws-and-court-cases?source_location=search

For more Here Weed Go! podcast episodes, online TucsonMarijuanaGuide.com content, videos and access to subscribe to the twice-monthly Here Weed Go! newsletter: https://linktr.ee/hereweedgo

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