Brian Mayer on WNYC, the latest article by New Yorker staff writer Gia Tolentino begins with a

kind of hilarious moment in a certain way in which a convicted marijuana dealer

named Helen Miller gets a tip from another person incarcerated with him who happens to be

Anthony Wiener. Yes, that Anthony Wiener, the disgraced former congressman. Wiener tells Miller in

prison that New York State's new legal cannabis law includes first priority for dispensary licenses for people with marijuana convictions.

Gia calls it a legal weed as reparations program.

That encounter with Anthony Weiner was years ago, but as you may have noticed, New York still has very few legal dispensaries open. So the

heart of the article is about why, including some of the difficulties of doing legal cannabis

in a more social justice-oriented way than any other state. There are some successes, which

she also names, some broken dreams of people who are promised better, some hope for the future,

yes, and even a dispute over whether New York weed is of lower quality than that in other

legal states because of certain growing rules. The article is called In the Weeds. Gia,

always good to have you. Welcome back to WNYC. It's good. Great to be here, Brian.

Anything more to say about that encounter in prison between Halel Miller and Anthony Weiner?

Maybe it changed Miller's thinking about his future or anything else?

Well, Halel Miller, like so many people, you know, frankly, black and brown people who were incarcerated over marijuana,

he was having this experience where he was in jail watching people and, you know, mostly white people with

considerable amounts of capital behind them get quite rich doing the same thing that he was in prison

for. You know, so he was like, just why, A, just why am I still in jail?

And then, Weiner told him about this program called the card program.

He ended up applying, and I just want to say, Howie Miller did get his license.

So hopefully there'll be a store, two buds in the Bronx, hopefully open the spring.

...