ALBANY — The front doors on a new retail marijuana shop along Everett Road are painted red — a tribute to the “red line” logo on the bags of weed that had been a hallmark of the Robinson family’s bustling marijuana trade a quarter century ago in Albany.
For Mark A. Robinson, a 60-year-old Albany County legislator who had once been the de facto leader of that illegal enterprise, the impending opening of his licensed cannabis storefront — Robinson’s Dispensary — marks a major milestone in the legacy of a family that endured the hammer of the nation’s war on drugs.
“I’m just so overwhelmed that we are where we stand today,” Robinson said during a recent interview at his new shop at 106 Everett Road. “I’m a people person. I hustled on a block where 30 other people did the same thing I did, and I was still able to eat. … If cannabis was legal at that point in time, I would have been a success story then.”
In the summer of 2000, the lucrative illegal enterprise that he had built with his brothers, his former girlfriend and other associates was the subject of a front-page Times Union story that would prove to be their undoing.
At the time, Robinson’s marijuana business was centered in Arbor Hill, where street gangs from New York City were trying to infiltrate the drug market with crack cocaine sales, an intrusion that was sparking homicides, shootings and a culture where almost no one cooperated with the police.
The story highlighted how Robinson had been arrested more than 40 times but never spent a day in prison — a result of his careful steps to make sure that he and his associates never possessed more than relatively small quantities of the marijuana they sold. They made their transactions brazenly in what was essentially an open-air drug market on North Swan Street, along with other areas of the city.
Robinson had initially resisted being interviewed by the Times Union. But when told the newspaper was going to profile him whether or not he answered questions, he relented, but said he would only do the interview on North Swan Street.
He suggested the reporter come accompanied by his bail bondsman, Earl Costello, who was armed and well-known among the clientele in that area who often relied on his services.
“You ever see a rainbow, and at the end of the street is the pot of gold? Well, this is the pot of gold,” Robinson said, sweeping his arm toward North Swan Street during that May 2000 interview.
The story also noted how Robinson, nicknamed “Gotti” on the street, had been a paradoxical figure in the community: He made a living breaking the law, but also gave back, including organizing and paying for neighborhood picnics, buying school backpacks for kids from poor homes and resisting — sometimes with force — the efforts of violent street gangs to pollute North Swan Street with crack cocaine.
While Albany police arguably tolerated the Robinson family’s marijuana business, federal prosecutors took note. In March 2001, Robinson and three of his brothers — Eddie, Charles (who goes by “Obar”) and Stevie were indicted on federal criminal enterprise charges that would put them in prison.
Several associates, including Mark Robinson’s former girlfriend, Renee Lumpkin, were also snared in the case; Lumpkin, who would initially serve four years in prison, is still close with Robinson and is opening her own retail marijuana shop soon in Glens Falls.
Looking back, Robinson, who along with Obar spent eight years in prison, and his tightknit family reflect passionately on how the disproportionate law enforcement of marijuana in communities of color had almost destroyed their lives.
Their brother Stevie, who a federal judge later determined had been wrongly implicated in a homicide — ended up receiving a 15-year prison sentence that was nearly twice what his brothers received. He endured a brutal prison experience, has struggled with mental health issues and grappled to reintegrate within the Albany community.
‘Find the killers’
Mark and Obar Robinson, who recently opened his own retail marijuana shop — “Hold Up, Roll Up” — in a former KeyBank building on Washington Avenue in Albany, noted the unfairness in what the criminal justice system did to them compared to the thousands of illicit shop owners selling pot across New York today.
Indeed, rather than prison — and even though many of those shop owners are pulling in millions of dollars in illicit sales — they generally face potential fines or the padlocking of their businesses under new laws adopted by New York.
Still, Mark and Obar Robinson are pragmatic about their federal convictions and how they emerged from that experience. Mark Robinson was elected to the Albany Common Council in 2013 and served one term before losing a bid for Common Council president to Corey Ellis. Last year, Robinson was elected to the Albany County Legislature, representing the Fourth District in Albany. For more than a decade, he and his brother Charles have been active in real estate as they fought hard to redevelop some of Albany’s most challenging properties.
They also benefited from the support of their parents, who have both passed away, and especially the unwavering guidance they had received from their father, Eddie.
“You know, my dad, before he passed away, he was like, ‘son, I believe in you. I believe in your dream,’” Mark Robinson said. “But he also said, ‘the only thing I ask of you is to make sure that your brother (Stevie) not only be exonerated … (but) that they find the killers of his best friend.”
In 2005, the Times Union published a story that raised serious questions about the homicide case Albany police and federal prosecutors had built against Stevie Robinson — a case that apparently had relied on false witness statements and ignored credible leads that led to several violent New York City gang members who were ignored as suspects.
Three years ago — two decades after Stevie Robinson had been convicted, imprisoned and later became trapped in a cycle of post-release parole violations — U.S. District Senior Judge Lawrence E. Kahn ordered an end to the government’s control of him. The judge cited Stevie Robinson’s struggle with mental illness, a condition the judge noted had been exacerbated by being “prosecuted for a murder he did not commit” based on what the judge determined were “debunked charges.”
Lumpkin and Mark and Obar Robinson have all emerged from the ashes of that prosecution. As they gathered last week at the Everett Road shop, they recounted how it has taken a frustratingly long three years since New York legalized marijuana to get their foothold in the retail marketplace. Their efforts unfolded as the beleaguered state Office of Cannabis Management has faced fierce criticism — and a recent leadership shakeup — for its bungled rollout of the state’s retail marijuana industry.
Although their experience as “justice involved” individuals should have arguably pushed the trio to the front of New York’s licensing program, which favors those with past marijuana convictions, they are still grateful for the opportunity despite the delays.
Mark Robinson said he had to sell some of his properties to “stay afloat” during the arduous licensing and permitting process.
Still, “I’m blessed, you know,” he said. “I’m happy for my family. I’m happy for my co-defendant (Lumpkin). … I’m not sour, because I know who I am and I know how I touch people.”
Robinson said that his shop is scheduled to celebrate its grand opening on Thursday morning at 11 a.m. It is situated in a stretch of Everett Road that is heavily clustered with medical offices and surgical centers. It will include many recreational-use cannabis items, but his marketing also will focus on serving customers who are seeking products that may help them cope with insomnia, pain or other physical health problems.
The shop has a section that will offer starter plants and instructions for customers interested in growing at home, as well as a kitchen area where smoothies and other cannabis-related food products will be produced. He said his staff will include a nutritionist.
And he said he’ll seek to work with local lawmakers to enhance his shop’s legitimacy in the area and plans to introduce himself to the many medical professionals working nearby.
But his shop, he said, will always be closed on Wednesdays. He said that is a tribute to his best friend, 22-year-old David Hemingway, who was fatally shot in an Albany apartment in August 1993 by a young man who Robinson said had been recklessly playing Russian roulette with a loaded handgun.
Obar Robinson, whose Albany shop opened earlier this summer, winced as he reflected last week inside his brother’s new shop on their journey to becoming cannabis shop owners.
“Not too many people survived what we survived,” he said. “I lived the physical journey where I couldn’t dream, but everybody else could dream. … But the beauty is, we stayed true to who we are; that’s why we are still standing right now. Because we understood that, like our parents said to us, this is our dream.”
H/T: www.timesunion.com
