A former television reporter for an Anchorage, Alaska CBS News affiliate is for once making headlines instead of reading them announcing her resignation Sunday evening by saying live on air: “Fuck it, I quit.”
Charlo Greene’s unexpected sign-off came seconds after she finished playing her audience a report concerning the Alaska Cannabis Club — an organization that aims to establish connections between medical marijuana cardholders and suppliers in the Last Frontier State, where patients have been able to legally possess, use and grow small amounts of weed with a valid doctor’s prescription since the passing of a ballot measure in 1998.
Greene was beginning to debrief KTVA viewers about the report during Sunday’s program when she changed course and instead announced a previously unreported affiliation she has with the Cannabis Club — and then just as quickly quit live in the midst of the broadcast.
“Now everything you've heard is why I, the actual owner of the Alaska Cannabis Club, will be dedicating all of my energy toward fighting for freedom and fairness, which begins with legalizing marijuana here in Alaska," she said. "And as for this job, well, not that I have a choice but, fuck it, I quit.”
Greene soon after told the Alaska Dispatch News that KTVA was unaware of her role with the Cannabis Club or her plans to part ways with the network, and an NBC News-affiliate has since confirmed that state records show the organization is owned by Charlene Egbe — Greene’s legal name. KTVA apologized after the incident on Facebook “for the inappropriate language” and said Greene, who had been quite clear about quitting, has been terminated.
"If I offended anyone, I apologize,” Greene told ADN, “but I’m not sorry for the choice that I made.”
As footage of the incident began to circulate around the web, the Alaska Cannabis Club’s social media accounts soon directed followers to a video featuring the now-former news anchor further explaining her reasoning for resigning.
“Nearly a century of marijuana prohibition and stigma has stained America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. But we have a chance to start taking back the right,” Greene says in the clip.
“Advocating for freedom and fairness should be everyone’s duty. I’m making it my life work to uphold what America stands for truly: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — ideals that now need to be defended,” Greene continues. “But I can’t do this alone. I need you in the very least to start the conversation. Talk to a friend, a mother, a co-worker, brother, anyone. Just share your own ‘My Marijuana’ story. Show them that we smokers are responsible, contributing members to society.”
“Changing one heart and mind at a time is the only way to legalize marijuana and bask in lady liberty’s glory,” Greene says before formally offering her endorsement of Ballot Measure 2— a law up for vote on November 4 that, if successful, will allow adults in Alaska to possess, grow and sell weed without requiring a medical script as currently state rules specify.
"The proposed initiative will take marijuana sales out of the underground market and put them in legitimate, taxpaying businesses,” Tim Hinterberger, a sponsor of the bill and a developmental biology professor at the University of Alaska, previously told the Huffington Post. “Replacing marijuana prohibition with a system of taxation and sensible regulation will bolster Alaska’s economy by creating jobs and generating revenue for the state."
If Alaskans vote ‘yes’ on Ballot 2 — an effort that Greene says is a “a vote for liberty, freedom and fairness” — then the state will become the third in the US after Colorado and Washington to allow adults to legally purchase and possess restricted amounts of marijuana for recreational purposes. Federally speaking, however, pot sale and cultivation remains illegal.