Bob Marley’s Son Plans to Turn Prison into Pot Farm

Bob Marley’s youngest son, Damian, is going into business with Ocean Grown Extracts to buy the now abandoned Claremont Custody Center in Coalinga, California, which they will turn into a pot farm.

They are expected to use the former prison’s 77,000-square feet to cultivate a strain of MMJ to be distributed to California’s dispensaries, of which there are currently an estimated 1,250.

The legendary Bob Marley, a convert to Rastafarianism, often spoke about how marijuana “opened a spiritual door” for him.

The poetic justice of turning a prison that once held non-violent drug offenders into a pot farm is lost on no one.

“Many people sacrificed so much for the herb over the years who got locked up. If this helps people and it’s used for medicinal purposes and inspires people, it’s a success,” Damian, 38, told Billboard magazine.

He stressed that he intends to maintain strict criteria on the type of marijuana they will grow.

“A lot of things—integrity of the product, something that I myself would use personally; also, something that I don’t mind young people being involved in, that is a big thing for me,” Damian said.

The sale of the Claremont Custody Center to Marley and his partners at $4.1 million has already served to alleviate the struggling town in California’s Central Valley, which had a $3.3 million debt.

The farm is expected to generate an estimated million dollars in annual tax revenues, initially provide 100 jobs, as well as create other income-generating activities for Coalinga’s approximately 14,000 inhabitants.

Marley and his partners say they are prepared for the green rush if California’s Proposition 64 passes, which is a very likely possibility.

He recently entered into a partnership with Colorado-based dispensary TruCannabis and opened his own 3,000-square-foot dispensary, called Stony Hill, in downtown Denver.

The Coalinga facility is expected to begin producing oil extracts in 60 days and hopes to harvest its first crop this January.

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