right now at this defining moment in america, with so much on the line. with abc news, "my america, your america, our america." this is "turning point." tonight, legalizing marijuana. who stands to lose? who stands to gain? from big businesses -- >> we doubled our business last year, we're going to double again this year. >> to sellers on the streets. >> me and the rich white guy, we're doing the same thing. we're selling or providing marijuana to the public, right? but i got a penitentiary, and he can get a pension. >> black and brown americans more likely to face the justice system. >> i never thought i would ever get sentenced to 10 years for marijuana. >> now, what's owed?

this "turning point" special, "cannabis and justice for all," will be right back. friend to switch.uraged t feels moisturized and clean. my friend stefanie, her skin was dry. i'm like girl you better get you some dove. she hooked me up. with a quarter moisturising cream, dove cleans effectively and cares beautifully.

"turning point, cannabis and justice for all," continues. here now, juju chang. >> thanks for joining us. tonight, what happens in the war on weed on america when marijuana is increasingly

legalized? policing pot in this country has a fraught history, with black and brown communities disproportionately paying the heaviest price. is there a way to make things right? here's "nightline's" ashan singh. >> this is like where it all started for you, right? >> definitely, brings back a lot of memories. >> reporter: back in the early 2000s, harry kelso had left his hometown of roanoke for the big city of richmond and the promise of virginia union university. what did you think the next four years was going to bring you? >> man, hopefully i was going to go to school, get my degree, get out and find a technology job and have a family. like, i guess that's the way it goes, right? i just had dreams of just having a normal life. >> reporter: what happened next would forever change the course of his life. when did you feel like those dreams were out the window? >> when i got to my apartment, the police was sitting outside

my house with it taped off like it was a murder scene. for marijuana. >> reporter: harry, like many college students, smoked weed. he'd started selling it on the side to make extra cash. >> it was so open. it was like everybody was smoking. it never felt illegal and criminal. but in a sense, i did know it was breaking the law. >> reporter: being busted was scary enough. when he learned the severity of listen tense, it was devastating. >> i'd never thought i would ever get sentenced to 10 years for marijuana. >> reporter: harry at just 25 years old would serve nearly a decade in a virginia prison for a first-time felony. but this year his home state legalized cannabis, and with it an entirely new industry. leaving people like harry wondering what they stand to gain after they've lost so much. >> i want in. literally. like, i sold not even $100,000

and got 10 years. now you can legally sell hundreds of millions? yes, it's kind of tough to swallow. >> reporter: virginia becoming the first southern state to join at least 16 others in fully legalizing cannabis. it reflects a cultural shift in our nation, with 91% of americans saying marijuana should be legal for medicinal or recreational use. >> we are at a tipping point. >> reporter: still, not everyone is ready. >> marijuana is a gateway drug. >> this is a dangerous thing. >> we don't need recreational marijuana. >> reporter: congressional democrats are forging ahead, working on legislation that could make marijuana legal at the federal level. >> the time has come to end the federal prohibition on marijuana in this country. >> reporter: as the united states prepares for a hazier future, we meet the big players who are hoping to take advantage of the country's green rush. poised to be a $100 billion

industry. >> it's moving very quickly. >> reporter: those who feel like they're going to be left in the dust. >> all these walmarts of weed, i call them, carpetbaggers. >> reporter: the debt owed to black and brown americans disproportionately affected by the war on drugs. >> will they be able to compete and have a stake in this newly regulated industry that's being created? >> reporter: as legalization sweeps the country, the east coast has become the new ground zero. we headed to new jersey where they passed a ballot measure last november to legalize cannabis for adult use. here in the garden state, ed fortune, aka nj weedman, has been selling marijuana without a license across the street from trenton city hall for years. that's trenton city hall, and that's where ed sells weed. ed's situation is unique.

he operates illegally out of his restaurant without a license in downtown trenton. unabashed and unapologetic. everyone seems to know him and nobody seems to mind. >> i'm like the robin hood of reefer around here. >> reporter: his rapport with the community and outright brazenness have earned him a following with lines around the block. >> your customers change over time? >> the chief and chong guy doesn't really exist. that's how i look at it. >> reporter: ed's been arrested multiple times. >> in the middle of a search. i'm getting ready to get arrested. >> reporter: including the night before our interview. less than two weeks before cannabis was formally signed into law. but he says those run-ins with the law only fuel his fight. >> i'm consumed with trying to change the law that busted me. >> reporter: the law in the state is finally changing. but not in the way that ed had hoped.

>> it wasn't the legalization that we all envisioned, no. what they actually legalized was regulated cannabis. what? where do you get regulated cannabis? only from the corporations that the state was going to legalize, to license. so you couldn't buy weed, say legally, from a guy like me. >> reporter: getting a license to legally sell cannabis can be difficult and expensive. in some states, those with a criminal record are barred. >> people who oftentimes have been arrested do not have access to the $5 million it takes up front to start a dispensary. >> me and the rich white guy, we're doing the same thing, selling or providing marijuana to the public, right? but i got a penitentiary, and he can get a pension. >> the quality and safety standards of legal marijuana >> reporter: joe barron is ceo of pure leaf, one of the biggest

players in new jersey's pre-existing medical market. we suited up and went inside their largest grow facility in the state. >> it's facilities like this one that are preparing to expand as more and more states start to legalize adult use cannabis. their footprint is growing. in the decade it's been in business, it's expanded to 23 states and over 100 dispensaries. >> i think you need companies like curaleaf to create a system other people can play in. when we're partnering with delivery partners, dispensary partners, small businesses, cafes. they say social equity is baked into their business plan. do you have currently employees with criminal histories related to marijuana-related offenses? >> we do. we've started in some markets. the irony in some states is those are the people who are precluded from actually participating in the marketplace. we're trying to bring social

equity to the forefront of consciousness and create opportunities for these people. >> reporter: 8 in 10 cannabis companies are owned by white people. you're a white male executive in an industry with a serious microscope on it right now. do you feel some sort of responsibility or pressure to get it right? >> we feel responsibility in the industry as a leader in the industry. we have a goal this year to hire 10% of the people from people who have actually been harmed by the war on drugs, who have criminal records. >> reporter: by 2025, curaleaf aims to do business with 420 brands and partners from underrepresented communities in the industry and vows to contribute at least $1 million towards groups helping those dealing with the impact of marijuana-related offenses. one of the people helping the company reach those goals, kadisha triple. >> look around you. the lighting. the building. the training.

all that is required to actually build this industry, i think in my best scenario is that i wake up and that there are underrepresented groups killing it in every facet. from policy to legal to accounting to fashion to all of it, right? >> those other jobs you mention, it's a hell of a lot different than ownership, which i think licensing is, right? sure there are other venues to get people involved, but at the end of the day, isn't that reparative equity ownership? >> it's not just ownership. we have people in rehab, people who are locked up, people who lost family members and homes and all kinds of things because of this -- because of drugs, weed. they might not want anything to do with weed. and they have every right not to. but that doesn't mean they're not owed something. so i want to partner with organizations that are actually in the trenches, providing the pushback on those collateral

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♪ "turning point: cannabis and justice for all" continues. here again, ashan singh. >> i, barack hussein obama, do solemnly swear -- >> january 20th, 2009, a momentous day for our country. >> this historic naug race, the

nation's first of an african-american president. >> in a virginia courtroom, on that same day, harry kelso faced a very different kind of fate. >> it's crazy. we got our first black president, and i got ten years on weed, a first charge. >> the 25-year-old was sentenced to prison for conspiracy to distribute marijuana, and three counts of causing a minor to assist in distribution. >> i had sold weed to somebody that was like 17 in 10 months, and they in turn sold to it a confidential informant. >> african-americans, despite having virtually indistinguishable rates of usage between black americans and white americans, are nearly four times as likely to be arrested for cannabis use than their white peers. >> reporter: but marijuana wasn't always policed this way. in fact, for hundreds of years, cab t cannabis wasn't regulated at

all. >> it wasn't really until the late 1930s when cannabis bans begin to be put in place. >> it was associated with mexican immigrants, then african-american entertainers, sharecroppers, and the american south. >> the treasury department intends to pursue a relentless warfare -- >> we see the head of the federal bureau of narcotics, harry enslinger, have a vendetta against african-americans, hounding louis armstrong and arrest him for his cannabis use. from its inception, marijuana prohibition was rooted in racism, steeped in xenophobia, and served no real public health or safety benefit. >> reporter: the passing of the controlled substance act in 1970 classified cannabis as a schedule 1 drug, on the same schedule as heroin. >> this n finasis in terms of the increasing use of drugs. >> that created an incentive for law enforcement to really target

communities of color. we've had millions of people arrested for cannabis possession or sale. >> ten years of your life in the middle of your 20s. you miss a lot, man. you miss christmases, birthdays, people die. >> what did you miss? >> everything. everything, just the whole -- man. that's tough. hold up. >> reporter: the pain of lost time never truly goes away. >> man. >> what kept you going? >> oh, my mom.

my mom came and saw me at least once a month the whole time. >> going to see him was -- i had to prepare myself. you got 45 minutes. to see him. and they come around, and they tell you "your time is up, your time is up." it was real hard. i looked forward to that day when i could pick him up. >> reporter: after serving nearly nine years, harry kelso became a free man at 34. >> given that you had a record, did you compromise your dreams? >> i probably put my dreams on hold, because this is like, i'm in my 30s and everybody's already set in their life in their 30s. it's like, essentially i'm starting my life new.

>> reporter: harry, who had once worked towards a career in tech, knew that might be out of reach because of his record. so he learned to cut hair while in prison. >> i went straight to the bar barbersh barbershop. i tried to do everything so my felony wouldn't play a role. >> reporter: while he is technically free, there are limits. >> the collateral consequences of a cannabis-related arrest runs the gamut from not being allowed access to employment, not being allowed access to public assistance, your credit score is absolutely shot. forget getting a loan, it's impossible. these collateral consequences are oftentimes as devastating as the sentence itself. >> as more and more states start to legalize, is that something that you'd like to be a part of? >> i would like to own my -- like have a farm, a dispensary. >> reporter: it's unclear if harry will even be eligible to get a license in virginia. it also remains to be seen if his criminal record will be expunged.

what do you say to those who say that records should not be expunged, that at the time those people committed a crime, they have to live with the consequences of their actions? >> those individuals have already paid a price. and the question isn't should they be punished? they already have been punished. it is about the future. and the future in a state that has legalized cannabis is that no one is going to be subject to criminal prosecution. >> reporter: from expungement to resentencing to licensing and reinvestment in minority communities, so far it's a bit of a patchwork when it comes to how each state that's legalized is handling retroactive relief. but for those affected, relief measures can't restore the most precious of what was lost. when you hear the words "restorative justice," what do you think? can you restore justice? >> you can restore your rights to vote, okay?

but you can't restore justice. no. uh-uh. that's ten years of his life that was taken away. so how can you restore it? give him money for it? give him his -- how are you going to give him his ten years? time with his family? how do you do that? you can't. >> reporter: harry is now focused on the future. >> time has got to change with the laws. this is cruel and unusual punishment. >> reporter: he's also working for change, even speaking on capitol hill with congresswoman tulsi gabbard, calling for marijuana to be legalized on a federal level with restorative justice a part of it. what do you think people to take away from your story? >> i hope that it would make people more open to cannabis.

maybe stop demonizing it. allow lawmakers to see how on marijuana are affecting the communities. >> we'll be right back. touch after touch bacteria in your home never stops . that's why microban 24 doesn't just sanitize and stop. microban 24 keeps killing bacteria for 24 hours. spray on hard surfaces to kill 99% of viruses and bacteria initially, including the covid-19 virus. once dry microban forms a shield that keeps killing bacteria for 24 hours ... ...touch after touch. microban 24. touch after touch, it doesn't give up. ♪ every bubble ♪ ♪ every scrub ♪ ♪ every spray ♪ ♪ every day ♪ ♪ dove and degree fund local youth programs.

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that's "nightline" for tonight. watch our full episodes on hulu. see you back here at the same time tomorrow. thanks for staying up with us. good night, america.