As one of Donald Trump’s final acts in the White House, the outgoing president is putting his pardoning powers to good use. On December 22, former Hip Hop producer and Snoop Dogg collaborator Weldon Angelos was one of 15 people who received a full pardon from Trump, four years after Barack Obama brought his 55-year sentence to an end.
According to Complex, Angelos was convicted of selling $350 worth of weed to an undercover police officer with a concealed firearm and handed 55 years without parole in 2004, one year after the deal went down. Last week, Angelos expressed his relief in an Instagram post but insisted more work needed to be done. The post noted Angelos’ deep involvement in criminal justice reform and deemed him a “champion of second chances.”
He wrote in the caption, “Feels great to have been fully pardoned by the President of the United States. Now it’s time for more pardons and commutations. #freetc.”
Angelos executive produced Snoop Dogg’s 2002 project We From the LBC Soundtrack but around that same time was also a target of a sting operation.
Law enforcement was attempting to zero in on him and other Hip Hop figures in an effort to pop them for drugs/firearm possession. After Angelos was taken into custody, he was offered a 15-year plea deal — but didn’t take it. Subsequently, he was convicted of 13 different charges involving drugs, firearms and money laundering. Due to mandatory sentencing, he was slapped with the giant sentence, which many saw as entirely outrageous.
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“The sentence was unjust, cruel, and even irrational…because his appeals have been exhausted, the only solution for Angelos is a Presidential commutation,” Judge Paul Cassell, who oversaw the case, wrote to President Obama in 2016. “I urge you to swiftly commute his sentence.”
Snoop added, “He had to provide means for his family and himself. It wasn’t like it was a violent crime he was committing – he was just hustling.”
Obama eventually commuted Angelos’ sentence the same year, leading to his release. Now with the full pardon, his record will be expunged while his rights will be fully restored.
If Trump wants to win back the America (that he legitimately lost) he could by executive order take canibus off the schedule 1 substance list and do a mass pardon of every weed conviction in the US. Dealers will hate that though cuz they will loose their hustle to walmart, target, and gas stations.
You obviously don’t live in a state where there is legalized marijuana. There is plenty of black market weed sales everywhere buddy. And Walmart etc can’t just sell weed like booze. In every state that marijuana is legal, dispensaries are stand alone businesses that ONLY sell marijuana and CBD products. The regulations, compliance and taxes are through the roof. If the government wants to jerk your licenses, they usually can find a way, as most employees and owners are stoners and can’t pay attention to the rules. It’s not that simple. If Trump does federally legalize marijuana it would make the black market flourish. States that are very conservative would have to revisit their marijuana laws. It would open the door for sales.
That’s the move trump provides Jordan jumper
I live in a state that only has legal medicinal. I dont know Colorado politics. What I do know is lots of people in big tech with Bill Gates type money are waiting for full federal legalization before they invest. The type of people that can afford licenses and turn weed into a fucking McDonalds. They dont want to risk investing 5-10 billion without that Federal stamp of approval. And then you know what happens ? When weed gets legalized nationally, you have a celebratory period. Then weed becomes the new beer. You get a new generation of kids and teens grows up thinking weed is what there parents do so it must not be cool. (Think of grandpas pipe or chewing tobacco) The cool factor will be totally gone because it will legal. Using weed to get pussy, forget about it. Women wont need guys to get high. The term “plug” will become ancient history. They will be vaping fruit flavored weed in a weed starbucks thats served to you by a barista.
That the biggest load of bull I ever heard. I smoke weed because I like to smoke weed not because I think its cool. “Grandpas tobacco Pope” stfu I almost chocked on my smoke reading that
Grandpa smoked his pipe because he liked to smoke it too. That doesnt mean smoking legal weed is gonna be any cooler than drinking legal beer from a gas station. Just use prohibition as the example of what follows decriminalization. It becomes old after a while just like vaping is killing cigarettes because of young people. It is what it is.
Joe Biden’s crime bill put blacks in jail. Trump is in favor of letting unjustly convicted blacks people out of jail. The outcome….black people vote for democrats because Trump is racist. I wonder if snoop is still going to hate trump even after he let his friend out of jail. Or if he’ll go back to loving him like he did before it was “woke” to hate on people who speak their mind.
Obama released him numbnuts. Trump basically just wiped his record clean
Yeah, tell that to the Central Park 5….
Public service announcement- Regardless of which party is in office, rather it be a Republican or Democrat, both party doesn’t give a fuck about us, all they care is making their pockets fat and having power over us Americans. We all need to wake up and bring unity of all races, because one race is no more important than the other and (yes, I do agree blacks have it a little harder than whites,) but instead of rioting, looting and burning shit down and fighting between of which party is the best, we need to unite and take over our corrupted government (Republicans, Democrats, Independent or any other party) replace and imprison every politician in congress, so we can show the re-elected politician’s that we ain’t down with corrupted political parties…
Some of ya’ll ain’t been paying any attention the last 2 months. Biden’s administration, and Harris specifically already campaigned on this and promise to expunge the records of people booked for weed. Time will tell if they follow through, but you won’t ever see Trump campaign or move on it, it was never a popular move within the Republican ranks, it’s Democrats who push this agenda. Although red states are starting to vote for decriminalization or legalization for rec or medicinal use in bigger numbers recently, it’s happening. Someone already mentioned removing cannabis from the list of schedule 1 narcotics, this is a must. Beyond that they need 1 of 2 bills to pass the senate, the safe act is one of them. It allows banks to get behind these businesses so they can actually deposit cash and start taking credit card or debit payments. Also opens the door for institutional investors to get behind these companies and invest bigger funds like hedge funds and pension funds. These are all cash businesses to my knowledge. If they make tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands in a day, they need to take that doe to a safe house or something, I don’t think they’re able to deposit it.
Old Casper here didn’t read the part of the article that said TRUMP pardoned Weldon. LOL. Soak that in then get back with us on your “he isn’t going to” opinion. He just did. Wether he’ll federally legalize shit or not is a different story. He should, it would really piss of his detractors that he would be the name associated with bringing down marijuana laws etc. I got one hate the guy and voted against him twice. Imagine every time someone sparks ip they have to think of his stupid face. LOL. We’ll see.
Happy for the man, will it change his life? Maybe..Regardless gonna cop that, chop that, smoke that chronic, fuck the pigs and them weed hating ass mafuckas
WOW!
Trump is still trash. But hey, best of luck to the people of color who have been pardoned.