ALL STAR 2011 - Ozone Magazine

and take his place? We should be putting allthat money into education and prevention.Sounds like the prison system is quiteprofitable for the private companies that runthem.Absolutely. That’s why they only allow theprosecutors, judges, and police officers toinvest in them. Everyday citizens can’t investin the prison industry. All of the prisons in theUnited States are private. If you’re a governmentworker, you can invest. It’s definitely aprofitable business.In a perfect world, if you were in charge ofthe government’s War on Drugs, what wouldyou do?I’d start educational programs in the schools.There are basic principles I’ve learned. Anybodyin any position can make money if theyknow these principles. And that’s what I’mdoing now – I go all over the country and talkto kids and teach them these principles. Forexample, 10% of everything you earn is yoursto keep. You must save 10% of your money,and that’s the money you’re going to get richoff of. Invest it wisely.You’re working on an autobiographicalmovie, right?Yeah, I just signed my movie deal. I’m producingit, writing it, directing it, everything. We’rethinking it may take two or three differentmovies to tell the whole story. There’s a lotthat went on in my life. There’s the reporter,Gary Webb, who broke my story in 1995 andthen [supposedly] killed himself. There’s theNicaraguan connection, which involved OliverNorth and President Bush and Ronald Reagan.They were all tied into my case. I got mydrugs from the Nicaraguans. Then there wasthe Freeway Task Force, a bunch of cops puttogether to bring me down. After they startedseeing all the money I was making in the druggame, they couldn’t resist. They went frombeing cops to being robbers and dope dealersthemselves.head with a shotgun.Two shots to the head and they ruled it asuicide?I was in jail [when he died] so the only thingI know is that I didn’t do it. I can guaranteeyou that, because I was in Texarkana. They justdid an article about me and Gary Webb andeverything in the Pasadena Weekly.How would you explain the alleged CIA/crackcocaine connection to the younger generation?We’ve always heard that the governmentput crack and guns in the hood. Howaccurate are those statements?We found out for an absolute fact that my guy,who I got my drugs from, was a Contra. TheContras were backed by the CIA. The CIA knewthat they were selling drugs and turned a blindeye. Not only that, but the CIA went to theAttorney General and asked her to change thelaw. There was a law that said that they mustreport drug dealing if they knew about it, andthey had that law changed so that they didn’thave to report it. Those are facts that the CIAhas admitted.What other projects are you working on?I’m doing my record label now. I’m looking forartists right now and I’ve got a group I’m puttingtogether. I’m finna lock down Hollywood.I felt like the movie was the most importantpart. I wrote a book...The rest of this interview is featured in OzoneMagazine Issue #85:Who’s going to play the role of “Freeway”Ricky Ross?I’ve been talking to Columbus Short prettyseriously. He’s come on harder than anybodyelse. I spoke to a lot of people about it, though.Nelly, Tyrese, Scarface, Don Cheadle, LarenzTate, Denzel Washington. Snoop Dogg askedfor the role. Mark Wahlberg, Brad Pitt, andLeonardo DiCapro are interested in playingGary Webb, the reporter. Gary has a prettysubstantial story too. He was a prize-winningwriter who came up dead. Two shots to theOZONE MAG // 75