Back in September, Charlo Greene offered an unforgettably profane resignation from an Alaska television station so that she could dedicate herself full-time to marijuana advocacy.
But Greene has experienced some turbulence in the pursuit of her true calling.
For the past month, Greene has been embroiled in a disagreement with the Alaska Public Offices Commission, which has sought fundraising records for her group, the Alaska Cannabis Club.
The Alaska Dispatch News reported that APOC asked Greene last month to provide documents for the IndieGogo fundraising campaign she launched after she quit her job as a reporter at Anchorage-based CBS affiliate KTVA.
To date, Greene has raised $8,438 on the IndieGogo page.
Greene argued that the online fundraising was not for Ballot Measure 2, an initiative to legalize recreational marijuana use that Alaska voters passed earlier this month, but rather to subsidize her broader pot legalization efforts.
According to the Dispatch News, Thomas Lucas, the APOC’s group campaign disclosure coordinator, found “at least two instances of what he believes are active campaigning from the group in support of Ballot Measure 2 listed on Greene’s IndieGogo website.”
That would represent a violation of Alaska’s campaign finance laws, which require anyone who’s advocating on behalf of a candidate or other campaign to register with the APOC.
The commission sided with Lucas earlier this week, denying Greene’s objection to the subpoena in a three-page order. As the Dispatch News noted, the commission made it clear that the order does not necessarily mean “there has been any violation of the law.”
“But without a reasonable investigation, no determination can be reached,” the commission said.
During a live broadcast on KTVA in late-September, Greene revealed herself to be the owner of the Alaska Cannabis Club before signing off for the final time.
“And as for this job, well, not that I have a choice but: Fuck it, I quit,” she said, blindsiding the anchor of that night’s telecast.
In a web video released the next day, Greene challenged others to follow her lead.
“Who is willing to take a stand? I’m not afraid, clearly,” she said in the video. “But if you are, I don’t judge you or any other man. Nearly a century of marijuana prohibition and stigma have stained America, the land of the free and home of the brave.”
Greene told the Dispatch News on Wednesday that the commission’s decision “worries me and should worry any other Alaskan that’s taken on a stance on any matter that’s important to them.”
“If you publish your personal stance on any issue, then this government agency believes they have the authority to ask for emails, bank account information, all of your records,” she said. “That’s scary.”
In a post last week on the Alaska Cannabis Club’s Facebook page, Greene sounded a note of defiance, railing against the state for “trying to punish me for using my right to free speech and advocating for change by attempting to take away my individual right to privacy.”
“This would mean they can come after anyone who supports an issue publicly they don’t agree with,” Greene wrote. “Yea fucking right. You know WE ALASKANS are NOT having that.”
