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In February of this year, the Ward 3 team was invited to get a behind-the-scenes look at one of Tucson’s locally owned marijuana dispensaries and its associated grow facilities. George Roop and his wife Chrissy are owners of Prime Leaf which includes a location in Ward 3 on Park Ave.
Ward 3 Chief of Staff Katie Bolger, Council Aide Marlene Avelino, Prime Leaf Owner George Roop, Vice Mayor Kevin Dahl, and Ward 3 Office Administrator Shannon Jenkins inside the Prime Leaf dispensary on Park Avenue.
George grew up in Tucson and still calls it home and his business Prime Leaf is “rooted in community” He and Christy know every part of the business from the ground up from payroll to production.
George Roop explaining the water recycling system inside the grow facility.
We started our tour at the Park Ave dispensary where George introduced us to every employee by name and we got a sense of how knowledgeable each of them was about the different products available.
Vice Mayor Kevin Dahl, Office Administrator Shannon Jenkins, Chief of Staff Katie Bolger, and Council Aide Marlene Avelino standing in one of the grow rooms.
Prime Leaf has over 100 employees and according to George, there is very little turnover. When asked about what kind of benefits came with the job, he quickly ticked off a list; health, dental, maternity leave, to name a few. He proudly shared that his grow houses recycle 100% of their water and they are always thinking of ways to reduce their carbon footprint.
Marlene, George, and Shannon next to an experimental outdoor greenhouse.
As recreational marijuana continues to be decriminalized across the U.S. George has his sights set on ramping up production to become a national distributor. Ward 3 welcomes homegrown businesses that pay good wages with benefits. We also appreciate being able to work with businesses that promote and use sustainable practices. We are excited to watch Prime Leaf grow in Tucson.
Some fine looking bud!
This week the Reclaim Your Future project held a press conference to commemorate the work that the City of Tucson has been doing along with coalition partners to expunge marijuana-related convictions as part of a process that the Ward 3 office initiated.
When prop 207 passed in 2020, not only did it legalize recreational use of marijuana for adults in Arizona, it also set up provisions for people with marijuana related convictions to have them expunged from their records. Since then, many Arizonans have sought the help of organizations like Southern Arizona Legal Aide, Just Communities, and others to assist in the process of restoring their civic rights by having their records expunged.
Reclaim Your Future Program Manager Martin Hutchins, Vice Mayor Kevin Dahl, Civil Rights Restoration Clinic Law Student Mia Burcham, School of Law professor Andy Silverman, Dev Arredondo from Southern Arizona Legal Aid, Civil Rights Restoration Clinic Law Student Anthony Holbrook, Enrique Olivares-Pelayo from Just Communities, City Prosecutor Matt Walker.
When a record is expunged, it becomes sealed from public view, and is only typically retained by the prosecuting and arresting agencies. Even as many states join in legalizing marijuana, countless people with past convictions are denied jobs, housing, benefits, and more because employers, landlords, etc can see their past convictions. Prop 207 gave folks with convictions the power to stop that discrimination. However, the process is not widely known, and normally requires the person with the conviction to seek out help in expunging their record.
In 2021, the Ward 3 office partnered with The National Organization for the Reformation of Marijuana Laws (NORML) to host an expungement clinic. Despite efforts to advertise the clinic widely, it was woefully under-attended, with only two participants. In debriefing afterwards about what worked and didn’t work well, NORML informed us that Maricopa County had initiated a system of automatically expunging records on a mass scale, rather than putting the onus on the individual with the conviction to seek it out. We learned that Prop 207 also had a provision for attorneys to file petitions for expungement on behalf of those with convictions. Soon after, our office reached out to City Attorney Mike Rankin to see if we could implement something similar in the City of Tucson.
Vice Mayor Kevin Dahl speaking at the Reclaim Your Future event.
City Attorney Rankin brought in City Prosecutor Matt Walker to study the feasibility of this approach in Tucson, and found that the main obstacle was the number of staff hours it requires. While prop 207 does allow for attorneys to file petitions for expungement on behalf of those with convictions, there is no mechanism in the state bill to allow this do be done for multiple convictions in one fell swoop. Every individual’s file must be petitioned. The City attorney then sought out partners, which it found with the University of Arizona School of Law's Civil Rights Restoration Clinic. The CRRC is a partner in a broader coalition called the Arizona Marijuana Expungement Coalition, which has been doing this work since Prop 207 passed. All of these AMEC partners receive grants from the Arizona State Health Department, so that this work can be done at no charge to the individuals seeking expungement.
Reclaim Your Future Program Manager Martin Hutchins Speaking at the event.
Together with these partners, and with the cooperation of the City of Tucson Courts, a process was worked out in which now 50 petitions are filed every month. This is a huge increase in the number of petitions being filed, and was partly determined based on what the court can handle. The City Attorney estimates that there are roughly 12,000 convictions eligible for this kind of expungement in Tucson, and through our efforts, we have filed 484 since starting in late January of 2024.
We are proud to have helped initiate this program, which, through the work of our many Coalition partners, will help thousands of Tucsonans escape the discrimination that can come with a marijuana conviction. Special thanks to Mia Burcham, the University of Arizona Law student who organized the press conference and does much of the filing work through the Civil Rights Restoration Clinic, along with Dev Arredondo at Southern Arizona Legal Aid, Reclaim Your Future Program Manager Martin Hutchins, City Prosecutor Matt Walker, City Attorney Mike Rankin, and the Tucson City Courts for each playing their part to bring this restorative change about.
Mia Burcham talking to the press.
If you or anyone you know has a marijuana conviction you'd like to have expunged, please reach out to Reclaim Your Future, who will examine your case for free, and, if you are eligible, file the petition for free on your behalf.
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