(AllHipHop News) Reggae legend Bob Marley’s youngest son is planning to convert a California prison into a new marijuana farm.
Damian Marley and his business partners have purchased the Claremont Custody Center in Coalinga and hope to turn the disused prison into a weed dispensary, generating over 100 new jobs, according to Billboard.
The venture will bring much needed tax revenues to the struggling farming and oil community.
Announcing the weed initiative, Marley’s manager Dan Dalton says, “Cannabis is something that’s around Damian every day with friends, family and with his Rastafarian faith. We’ve watched people who have sacrificed their lives for it. That injustice has motivated us to be advocates as well as knowing that there are healing properties in cannabis.”
The hitmaker adds, “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.”
Marley and his partners hope to harvest their first Coalinga cannabis crop at the beginning of next year (2017).
Meanwhile, the reggae and hip hop star has also announced the introduction of Speak Life, a new strain of cannabis he helped create with bosses at Ocean Grown.
“When they introduced this strain of OG I really loved it and loved its consistency,” he tells Billboard.
The marijuana entrepreneur has also partnered with Colorado-based TruCannabis to launch Stoney Hill, a new pot dispensary in downtown Denver, last month.