The Paradox of Pot JON BECKER FOR MICHIGAN GREEN STATE Ryan Basore, one of the state’s preeminent marijuana activists, has experienced the full spectrum of the herbs’ highs and lows. A pot paradox, one might say. He’s served prison time because of it but today is the leader of thriving Lansing-based Redemption Cannabis Company that is in serious expansion mode. Grown out of a childhood accident on a family farm that saw him swap herb for Opioids for pain relief, Basore has long championed marijuana’s medicinal properties. Later, that passion for the flower was further stoked when he became one of Lansing’s first medical marijuana patients and caregivers. “I saw a little girl stop having seizures. I saw people beat addiction to pain pills through using marijuana,” Basore says. “I saw a lot of people in pain find relief safely.” He became such a believer that he walked away from a successful and lucrative career in the insurance industry to follow his passion, not his bank account. In 2010, two years after medical marijuana was legalized in Michigan, Basore rolled the dice (and presumably a blunt) and opened Capital City Caregivers— one of the state’s first marijuana dispensaries. “I was all in,” he told Michigan Green State. “I was always appalled that people were going to jail for cannabis. Even today, the government and the medical establishment don’t get it. They consider marijuana worse than Opioids. If you want people to trust in the government, stop lying.” That career move, however, proved to be costly in more ways than one. Marijuana was and still is illegal on the federal level. Basore and his care-giving cannabis cohorts were fully aware of this and went to great lengths to make sure their grow operation was all legal-like. At least that’s what they thought. “We worked with local authorities to make sure we were state compliant,” Basore says. “The prosecutor approved it. We thought we had it all figured out legally, but the local sheriff was upset about it and pushed the DEA. I believed President Obama and Eric Holder when their administration said they wouldn’t pursue criminal charges related to marijuana in states where it was legal. I was a naïve kid.”
pliant cultivators, “I became the first caregiver raided in the state,” he said. “We had a small grow operation, but I had helicopters following me…In late 2010 the DEA, state police, National Guard troops and guys with smoke bombs came calling.”
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Basore thinks his growing status as a high-profile crusader for marijuana law reform just might have had something to do with his small scale grow operation getting on federal authority’s radar. Basore ended up serving 3 years of a four-year sentence in FCI Morgantown (VA), a minimum security federal correctional institution after pleading guilty to two charges of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute marijuana. His six cannabis cohorts, including his future father-in-law and future brother-inlaw, were also indicted for their roles in the Okemos facility.
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“It was on,” he said of his determination to not let prison break him. “I put myself on a disciplined reading and workout regimen. I studied social media and learned to build websites.” Locked up, Basore also underwent a dramatic physical transformation, dropping 70 pounds through weight training and running. He was benching 340 pounds, squatting 415, dead-lifting 450, and crushing abs for an hour a day, beast-like numbers by any measure.
Ryan Basore with Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel
“I was dunking a basketball off 2 feet and running 19:40 5ks,” Basore, who stands 6-3, said.
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The prison stint is part of Basore’s story, but it’s not The story. Certainly not now. “It’s all over now,” he said, not a trace of bitterness in his voice. “I’m having the time of my life. I get to do what I always wanted to do. I’m a brand. I’m in an office.”
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These days he’s a leader of a thriving company and a family man. He’s married to Jenna, whom he began dating the day before he was busted. Their relationship grew despite Basore’s legal troubles and she stuck by him when he was imprisoned, regularly visiting him. The couple is expected their first child on November 5. Jenna is a successful businessperson in her own right with her own event and design business.
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“She works more than I do,” Basore, 44, says. “I’ll work 8 to 5 when the baby comes and be home the rest of the time.”
In the meantime, Redemption Cannabis is Despite the feds’ recommendation to not marshal federal resources to target state-com- busy forming new partnerships to expand its
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Basore launched Redemption last May in part through a $50,000 social equity grant from Gage Cannabis Co.
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