West
Ex-cop turned legal pot farmer claims he’s bigger dealer than ‘anyone sitting in prison’
Kyle Kazan is a former Los Angeles Police Department officer who once had to arrest a man he pulled up next to at a red light who had a marijuana plant sticking out of his convertible with the top down.
“We stopped at the red light, and he had a giant plant in the back seat of his car,” Kazan told Fox News Digital. “And then, when I looked at him, people are laughing. I mean it was so ridiculous. And then he saluted me.”
Now Kazan’s one of the biggest legal pot growers in the country, the co-founder and CEO of Glass House Brands, which he says produces more than 600,000 pounds of weed a year and expects to break the million mark soon.
The company owns 6 million square feet of greenhouse space, he said, but is using less than half of that.
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Glass House Brands co-founder and CEO Kyle Kazan speaks via Zoom about the fairness of his sprawling legal marijuana business with thousands of nonviolent pot deals behind bars around the U.S. (Fox News Digital)
After breaking into the legal pot business with some shady partners, including an associate of the infamous LA mogul Suge Knight, Kazan said he cleaned things up, attracted legitimate investors and cultivated a California powerhouse.
But there’s a darker side of the legalized pot business, says the man who has delivered public speeches while wearing a shirt declaring, “No one should be in prison for a plant.”
Thousands of people are serving felony prison sentences for nonviolent marijuana dealing that pale in comparison to the scale of his operation.
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Thriving marijuana plants pack the Glass House greenhouse in southern California. (Glass House Brands)
“Justice, then, certainly isn’t blind now, is it?” Kazan said.
According to Kazan’s estimate, there are between 2,700 and 3,000 people imprisoned on marijuana distribution charges in federal prisons. There are thousands more in state prisons. The Last Prisoner Project, a Colorado-based nonprofit, estimates that in 2018 there were 32,000 inmates around the country on cannabis-related charges.
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That’s just wrong, Kazan argued, especially when none of those people moved anywhere near as much weight as his company.
An exterior photo of a row of Glass House Brands greenhouses in southern California. CEO Kyle Kazan says the company owns 6 million square feet of greenhouse space for its legal marijuana farming. (Glass House Brands)
He takes the issue seriously and has even flown across the country to speak on behalf of nonviolent marijuana dealers facing decades in prison.
“I flew down to the federal courthouse in Augusta, (Georgia), at the request of a guy named Jose Valero Jr. in 2022, because he reached out to me on social media and said, ‘I’m taking a plea. I’m going to get sentenced,’” Kazan told Fox News Digital.
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Valero was facing three charges related to eight pounds of pot, Kazan said. That’s about as much as he might sweep off the floor in one of his greenhouses and throw out on a given day, he said.
“That’s what I point out, like the judge, the defendant, everybody could own – legally – my stock with a Charles Schwab account, right now, from the courthouse,” he said. “And you’re sentencing this young man?”
Weldon Angelos, Bella Thorne, Kyle Kazan and Supa Peach pose before participating in a panel during the 2022 SXSW Conference and Festivals at Austin Convention Center March 19, 2022, in Austin, Texas. (Gary Miller/Getty Images for Glass House Brands)
He is calling for clemency for nonviolent dealers as well as reasonable regulations for the marijuana industry. And he has slammed politicians in both parties, especially President Biden, over the number of pot dealers still incarcerated today.
“Mr. Biden, unfortunately, has not wavered in his commitment to keeping people in prison, unless you’re a famous WNBA player sitting in Mr. Putin’s prison. And I’m happy she’s home, and I’m happy that he went to bat for her,” he said, wagging a pen in front of a camera.
“But you don’t have to trade away a merchant of death when you have this, and you just need 3,000 signatures to end it.”
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He said marijuana users should be treated like alcohol users — allowed to partake legally but limited to reasonable, safe behavior.
“San Francisco and the craziness in our state has made a mockery of my argument because they’re saying, ‘Oh, you just want people splayed out in the streets, and you want needles in parks where kids play,” he said. “No, I don’t. I also don’t want people out there running around with a beer, drinking in public. There needs to be some laws around this, but you can do this in a sane, rational way.”
Glass House Brands CEO Kyle Kazan says the legal marijuana grower produces more than 600,000 pounds of pot a year, far more than any dealer sitting in prison. (Glass House Brands)
Kazan also weighed in on a recent high-profile case involving a woman who fell into a “marijuana-induced psychosis” after smoking a high-potency strain of boutique pot, then fatally stabbed her boyfriend and plunged the knife into her own neck multiple times before police arrived.
He compared the high THC content she consumed to Jack Daniel’s whiskey having more alcohol than a beer.
“It’s a lot less potent, but when you drink enough of it, you’re going to get to the same place,” he said.
He said he disagreed with the outcome of her trial, in which she was acquitted.
“It needs to be some personal responsibility,” he said. “When I read that story, I shook my head. If you make a choice to obliterate yourself with alcohol or whatever, I think you should still bear the consequences of your actions.”
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San Francisco, CA
1 dead, 1 injured in Bay Point shooting; suspect sought
A man was being sought as the suspect in a double shooting in Bay Point that left one person dead and another injured early Friday morning.
The Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were dispatched at about 1:30 a.m. to an unknown problem on Olivia Lane, just east of Alves Lane and south of Delta de Anza Regional Trail, which later was reported to be “shots fired.”
While arriving at the scene, deputies were flagged down by several people who were injured at the location, the Sheriff’s Office said. Deputies found one person who was unresponsive and he was taken to a hospital. The victim was later pronounced dead at the hospital, the office said.
A second person was taken to the hospital; the victim’s condition was not disclosed. The victim who died has not yet been identified.
Sheriff’s detectives identified the suspect as 35-year-old Avery Alexander Gibbs, described by the Sheriff’s Office as a transient. Gibbs was still at large as of Friday afternoon
The Sheriff’s Office said Gibbs should not be approached, and anyone seeing him should call 9-1-1. People with information on the shooting were asked to contact Sheriff’s Office investigators at (925) 313-2600 dispatcher at (925) 646-2441.
Denver, CO
Nations Cup in Colorado another showcase for Denver’s bid to host the 2031 Rugby World Cup
Think of Saturday’s rugby match at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park as a very physical audition.
The Nations Cup showdown between the USA Men’s Eagles and Portugal on the Fourth of July is another chance for Denver — long an epicenter for American growth in the sport — to showcase itself as a host city for the 2031 World Cup.
“We had that great moment at Dick’s last year where we qualified for the World Cup (by beating Samoa in the Pacific Nations Cup),” said national team captain Jason Damm. “Any opportunity to get out here, sort of in the middle of the country, feels like a connection point for the nation. It’s a good way to kick off this Nations Cup.”
Damm’s professional rugby roots are in Colorado. The Georgia native played for a team in Vail and for the Glendale Raptors, a now-defunct Major League Rugby franchise. Damm thinks Denver would be a “great fit” for hosting the 2031 Men’s and 2033 Women’s Rugby World Cups, the first time the tournaments will be held in the U.S.
“We have a lot of guys now, and I’ve had the pleasure of playing with a lot of guys who went through that American Raptors program that was here for such a long time and really wanted to look after the development of some transition players (from other sports),” Damm said. “There’s just so much great rugby out here and good competitions.”
In addition to the legacy of the Glendale/American Raptors as well as burgeoning club and youth scenes, Denver is home to “Rugbytown USA,” the city of Glendale, which boasts the first rugby-specific stadium in the U.S. at Infinity Park. That’s where Colorado’s pro women’s team, the Denver Onyx, plays. The Onyx are the reigning champions of Women’s Elite Rugby.
And the college scene is solid, too, including strong performances by local women’s squads at this spring’s sevens Collegiate Rugby Championship, where CSU and CU placed in the Division I-AA tournament, Colorado Mesa was the Division II national champion and Mines was the Division III national champion.
All of that background makes Saturday another important milestone for rugby in Colorado. The Eagles have two locals in their player pool in prop Kaleb Geiger (Castle View High School) and lock Sam Golla (Denver East High School), but both players are coming off surgery and are not on the Nations Cup roster.
Golla, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 MLR Draft and the league’s 2023 rookie of the year, sees Saturday as another chance for Colorado to prove its support of the sport amid World Rugby’s ongoing selection process for the 2031 World Cup.
“I see myself playing in the 2027 World Cup (once healthy again), and also in 2031,” Golla said. “It’s not often that your home country gets to host a World Cup, let alone you get to play in it. And then on top of that, potentially having a game in my home state in the World Cup representing my country, that would be amazing. Only one can dream of all the stars aligning in that perfect figure.”
In March 2025, the Denver Sports Commission hosted delegates from World Rugby as part of its ongoing, separate bids to host the 2031 Men’s and 2033 Women’s Rugby World Cups. While the bid for the women’s tournament is further off, the bid for the men’s tournament — one of the world’s largest sporting events — is heating up.
Last fall, World Rugby announced that 27 total cities entered the application phase. At the end of this year, World Rugby will reveal the formal candidates, and the host cities and venues will be announced following the Rugby World Cup in the fall of 2027. Eight to 10 cities are expected to be named hosts, according to Denver Sports Commission executive director Matthew Payne.

“We’ll continue to work with World Rugby on portions of the bid as they request them,” Payne said. “And so we’ll continue to give them information during this applicant phase with the whole goal of getting into the candidate phase.”
The 2023 men’s Rugby World Cup in France generated $1.95 billion in total spending, according to the Denver Sports Commission. Should Denver be named a host city, Empower Field will host matches due to its capacity, while Dick’s Sporting Goods Park and Infinity Park will serve as training venues.
The USA Men’s Eagles, which did not qualify for the 2023 Rugby World Cup, have much to prove in the year-plus leading into the sport’s biggest stage next year in Australia. The Eagles, who have never advanced past the pool stage of the tournament, are a combined 2-21 over their last six World Cup appearances. In Japan in 2019, the Eagles went 0-4 with a minus-104 scoring margin.
So beating Portugal in the 7 p.m. match on America’s semiquincentennial, and then notching wins over Zimbabwe (July 11 in Charlotte, N.C.) and Spain (July 18 in Cary, N.C.), would be a good start. None of the other three nations are rugby powerhouses, as they’ve combined for only five World Cup appearances.

The Nations Cup, which also features Tonga versus Zimbabwe on Saturday at 4:15 p.m. at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, will conclude with three additional rounds in November.
“We want to be able to compete at a Tier 1 level (which consists of the world powers, while the U.S. is Tier 2) around our set piece,” Eagles head coach Scott Lawrence said. “We feel like we have the players and the athletes to do that. We want to have a defense that stays in the fight with discipline and is physical.
“If we think about the game on Saturday and we back up from it, we’ve got to keep the end in mind, which is the World Cup. So it’s really around a new intensity, a new approach to the way that we’re building into that World Cup. And we think of Portugal as a first step along the way.”
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Seattle, WA
USA Coach Mauricio Pochettino To Throw Out First Pitch At Seattle Mariners Game
U.S. men’s national team coach Mauricio Pochettino will throw the first pitch before Friday night’s Major League Baseball game between the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays, which the team was invited to attend.
Pochettino played catch with a few of his players before Friday’s practice at Husky Soccer Stadium. The U.S. plays Belgium in the World Cup round of 16 on Monday at Seattle Stadium.
Pochettino has also joined tens of thousands of fans in singing John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” after the USA wins. The 54-year-old coach, who was born in Argentina and lives in Spain, has fully embraced the American experience this summer.
U.S. forward Folarin Balogun, who was born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn to Nigerian parents but raised in London, marveled at the opportunities he, his teammates and the coaching staff have been afforded.
“I think that sort of stuff can only happen in America. So, I’m very, very proud,” Balogun said. “This is a unique experience for me, being in the World Cup in your home nation. And, I think you’re seeing, we’ve been able to be so focused, but, at the same time have so many things we can do to distract ourselves and to take our mind off the high-pressure environment. This evening will be another opportunity to do that.”
Reporting by the Associated Press.
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