(WWJ) Some celebrities launch perfume and clothing labels. Detroit’s own Richard Wershe Jr., or “White Boy Rick,” is releasing his own marijuana brand.
Wershe, 52, is the longest-serving non-violent juvenile offender in Michigan’s history and served 32 years in prison for drug offenses. He was locked up at the age of 17.
He was granted parole in Michigan in 2017, but he owed 22 months in Florida, after credit for time served, for a racketeering and conspiracy charge to move stolen cars in the Sunshine State. He became a free man in July 2020, three months ahead of schedule.
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Wershe’s cannabis brand is called the 8th—a reference to the 8th Amendment in the U.S. Constitution. The 8th Amendment prohibits the government from imposing excessive bail, fines, or “cruel and unusual punishment” for criminal defendants.
The proceeds will go towards legal defenses for the release of “wrongfully or excessively imprisoned drug offenders.”
“If you’re from the inner city, the odds are against you and you’re going to receive a much harsher sentence than someone that comes from a good family with a good attorney,” Wershe said in an interview with the Metro Times. “So there’s a lot of inequality and injustice in our world, and especially in the inner cities. I’m gonna be the rep for the inner cities.”
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A judge sentenced Wershe at 17-years-old in 1987 for possessing 650 grams of cocaine. It eventually came to light that Detroit Police used him as an informant to bust drug gangs on the streets of the Motor City since he was 14.
His story made international headlines after the revelation that, at the request of Detroit Police and FBI agents, he infiltrated local drug gangs and turned in evidence that lead to the conviction of more than a dozen dealers and gangsters. According to his attorney; it was thanks to Wershe that the FBI busted a gang of Detroit police officers who were transporting drugs from the Wayne County Airport to the streets of the city’s east side.
This July, Wershe filed a $100 million lawsuit against the FBI and Detroit Police claiming his Constitutional rights were violated when he was used as an FBI informant as a teen.
He is teaming up with the company Pleasantrees, a Michigan-based “Cannabis and Retail Cultivation” business, to launch his brand. It will be sold exclusively at their stores in Hamtramck, Prudenville, and East Lansing. It is available as of Friday.
