Reporter Quits On Air, Vows to Fight for Marijuana Legalization

“Now everything you’ve heard is why I, the actual owner of the Alaska Cannabis Club, will be dedicating all of my energy toward fighting for freedom and fairness, which begins with legalizing marijuana here in Alaska,” she said. “And as for this job, well, not that I have a choice but, fuck it, I quit.” Then she walked off the screen, leaving her fellow reporter, Alexis Fernandez, completely dumbfounded.

Greene had done a number of stories for KTVA about medical marijuana laws in the state and the fight to make it legal to grow marijuana. In some stories Greene used her own club as a source for news. The Washington Post reports that although search results point to a five-part KTVA series on cannabis that aired on the station starting on April 29, those pages are no longer available on the station’s Web site. A cached, text-only version of the URLs still show the pieces, authored by Charlo Greene; some of the segments however are still available on YouTube. The Post also says Greene’s club was the subject of an August Alaska Dispatch News story, which noted that the club’s founder spoke to the paper “on the condition of anonymity, citing concern over potential repercussions from her employer.” In the story, the founder (presumably Greene) explained how her club has set up something of a stop-gap, work-around to help get patients access to cannabis.

After quitting Greene wrote on her Indiegogo campaign page which is in support of Ballot Measure 2—the initiative to regulate marijuana like alcohol in Alaska: “I’m Charlo Greene, the president and CEO of the Alaska Cannabis Club – Alaska’s only legal medical marijuana resource. I just quit my news reporting job on live TV to announce that I am redirecting all of my energy toward helping to end a failed drug policy that has ruined the lives of far too many Americans.”

On her page she goes on to say, “As a member of the media, I’ve seen the dirty campaign tricks and lies that prohibitionists have been using over the past several months to sway Alaskan voters firsthand. Here’s the sad thing: it’s working. Polling shows the majority of Alaskans, who were in favor of the initiative at the start of the year, are now against it.”

Within minutes Greene’s author page on KTVA was wiped clean, reports Alaska Commons. A little before midnight, KTVA tweeted a bullshit apology saying Greene had been fired: “Viewers, we sincerely apologize for the inappropriate language used by a KTVA reporter on the air tonight. The employee has been terminated.” But, how can an employer fire someone after they quit?

According to The Alaska Cannabis Club’s website, the shop balances Alaska’s Medical Marijuana laws, Alaska’s constitutional protections and current local and state marijuana laws. Started in April, it connects medical marijuana cardholders with other cardholders who are growing cannabis. Growers are offered donations as reimbursement for the costs of growing marijuana. The club said in an interview with Alaska Dispatch News in August that it hopes to increase access to medical marijuana patients, despite operating in a legal gray area within Alaska’s murky medical marijuana laws.

“Few people fighting for marijuana legalization in Alaska are as media savvy, well educated on the marijuana industry, passionate, professional and completely dedicated to passing this initiative as me,” Greene says, “the only person in Alaska that has had the balls to face the injustice of Alaska’s medical marijuana catch-22 and do something about it.”

UPDATE:
The Alaska Dispatch News interviewed her about her decision. Why all the dramatic means to call it quits?

“Because I wanted to draw attention to this issue,” she said. “And the issue is medical marijuana. Ballot Measure 2 is a way to make medical marijuana real … most patients didn’t know the state didn’t set up the framework to get patients their medicine.”

“If I offended anyone, I apologize, but I’m not sorry for the choice that I made,” she added. A video uploaded to YouTube by an account named Alaskan Cannabis Club appears to show Greene explaining why she quit:

What do you think of Charlo’s act of defiance? Tell us in the comments below…