In 1937, the United States appointed its first drug czar thanks to the passage of the Marihuana Tax Act and it was all downhill from there. In this week's episode, Scott and Miranda discuss the history of the War on Drugs and its impact on communities of color in the United States.
Links mentioned in the episode:
"The Long, Racist History of Cannabis Prohibition" by Dante Jordan
State Laws and Expungement via NORML
"South Park heads back to Middle-earth to lampoon performative allyship" by Dan Caffrey
Transcript
[MUSIC:
Miranda 0:03
Hello, and welcome to the heady conversations with Scott and Miranda.
Scott 0:08
Welcome in friends. This week's episode is going to be maybe a little bit heavier than you're used to from us.
Miranda 0:17
I would say so.
Scott 0:18
Yeah, certainly not unfamiliar territory or conversations, but just a little bit more focus on the nuts and bolts of why we feel the war of drugs to be racist in origin and nature. And you know why that's such a big deal to us overall.
Miranda 0:41
Yeah, it's pretty, um, awful, quite honestly, I'm like trying to find a better word, but legitimately, I can't, it's awful. And the fact that there is so much racial disparity in this industry is a crime.
Scott 1:00
Yeah, and, you know, obviously, we've talked about the Maryland market, and, you know, the lack of black growers here, and the, you know, relatively small representation, as far as dispensary ownership. You know, not necessarily lack of minority representation, but lack of specifically, black representation, absolutely.
Miranda 1:24
Ownership 100%. It's, it's getting, it's getting to the point where it's, it's just frustrating. So I mean, has been frustrating. But yeah, but yeah, the War on Drugs has been happening for a really, I mean, a long time we go back to 1937 when prohibition started.
Scott 1:43
Indeed, right. And that's when we have the creation of the country's first drug czar--
Miranda 1:54
Henry Anslinger.
Scott 1:56
Yep. And he is nothing short of a racist. Yep. If you go back and look at video or listen to audio interviews, or the man's written words, it is very clear that he, you know, he's more more often than not talking very openly, but in thinly veiled terms about people of color.
Miranda 2:24
I'm not even sure it's that thinly veiled. I listened to some interviews last night, and I was just aghast.
Scott 2:33
Right? If you even talking about what we call cannabis, right, so I intentionally try to use the word cannabis more often than not rather than weed rather than marijuana. Because the word marijuana itself was used to racialize the drug. So, you know, cannabis is obviously the technical term for the plant or the technical name for the plant. But they wanted to associate this drug with people of color, specifically, black and...
Miranda 3:11
Hispanic.
Scott 3:11
Yeah, Mexican predominantly, you know, obviously, transportation was not then what it is now. So a majority of the people that were coming across the border down in Texas, at that point in time were Mexican, ethnically, I think for the most part, and that's, that's where the drug was coming through the drug was coming through in Texas, and then--
Miranda 3:35
California.
Scott 3:36
Well, California, and also Louisiana. And that's where you get the tie in with the black community, and specifically...
Miranda 3:47
The jazz community.
Scott 3:48
Exactly. Right. So you know, a lot of folks don't know this, I would think, and, and a lot of white people probably just choose to ignore it. But almost all of the original Jazz pioneers, specifically Louis Armstrong, who many people consider to be the creator of what we know as modern jazz. But also Cab Calloway. I mean, Duke Ellington, you You name it, it was more rare for, you know, a jazz cat to not be smoking reefers. Right. And, and getting down with I mean, there's so many cool names for weed...
Miranda 4:36
What's your favorite one?
Scott 4:38
Oh, I don't know. I mean, you know, just all of it is so clearly, buzz and...
Miranda 4:43
Jazz cigarette is my favorite.
Scott 4:44
Vibe... Jive... You know, and I mean, you go back and you you look at the lyrics from these songs, you're like, oh, and it's very, very obvious. I mean, I suppose if you were not part of that culture in that community. but it is culture and community. I think it's interesting to note that, you know, the white Europeans that were already established and trying to keep control of this country had no strong relation to the cannabis plant as like natural medicine or as spiritual. You know, conduit. Right, right, our connection to ancestors--
Miranda 5:29
Or Gods.
Scott 5:30
Morality or, you know, it's, it's interesting to me that instead of, you know, learning about the plant, and, you know, welcoming, because we already knew about hemp's, you know, industrial benefits,
Miranda 5:45
Sure, that's been going on, I mean, money...
Scott 5:47
Right. Money.
Miranda 5:51
Right.
Scott 5:52
I mean, the Yeah, flag was made out of hemp, right. So, yeah, I mean, it's, it's just, it's just wild to me, that instead of choosing to embrace new knowledge, information, culture practices, we just double down on the racism.
Miranda 6:12
Yeah.
Scott 6:13
And, and said, No, let's keep these people out. And let's find a way to, you know, demonize this thing. Right. And that's when you start to get into, you know, this ridiculous propaganda about...
Miranda 6:28
19. In the 60s.
Scott 6:29
Well, I mean, even before then, before that, yeah, the Mexican weed, you know, you start to see...
Miranda 6:35
Oh, all of the different stories about how people were psychotic and killed their families and blah, blah, blah. And this was generally not even the black community but the Mexican community was targeted very much so in this aspect.
Scott 6:48
I think it probably depended where you were in the country, you know, who was being scapegoated and and hammer it you know, I think if you were in New Orleans, it was probably still more black people being harassed for it. But yeah, certainly in Texas, and like you said, California and other border states probably mostly, you know, Mexicans at that point. But yeah, then then we get into you know, prohibition like you said, where it's we still don't have the drug scheduling yet at that point.
Miranda 7:26
Right. But Nixon's making a big move over it. He's having a moment.
Scott 7:31
Industrial hemp has been, you know, banned and the farmers have given up on that. And yeah, now we're moving on to the, the culture wars basically.
Miranda 7:42
Yeah.
Scott 7:43
That was the the the next chapter of the war on drugs is, you know, the, the jazz cats led to beatniks and that whole scene...
Miranda 7:54
And beatniks went to hippies.
Scott 7:56
Right? Yeah. And and hippies started to become more mainstream, because then it got to the white music too.
Miranda 8:04
Yeah.
Scott 8:05
And you see classic rock songs about cannabis and people being outspoken and you start to see people like Ginsburg and and other beats.
Miranda 8:16
Absolutely.
Scott 8:17
Jack Herer publishes, The Emperor Has No Clothes, where he goes back and talks about, you know, what we already know, our medical uses for cannabis, you know, things that that are proven already to be beneficial from cannabis. And he does talk about, you know, all the industrial uses and all the dietary use, um, you know,
Scott 8:42
The, the full, whole spectum of the plant.
Scott 8:43
The totality of the plant and and why it has been demonized up to this point. And he starts talking about, you know, the fact that 75% of the people in New York are being well, and that's the LaGuardia report. We should also mention, too, because that's before...
Miranda 8:45
Right.
Scott 8:49
Emperor Has No Clothes where the mayor of New York at the time. Actually. I believe he was mayor at the time.
Miranda 9:18
I think he was the mayor at the time. I just can't I was searching for his name. That was look on my face. And it wasn't happening.
Scott 9:25
Right. He actually goes ahead and orders a cannabis study be done. Where the, you know, the same things that we know today is still to be true, that there's, you know, very little possibility physical addiction, that you know, mental withdrawal and emotional withdrawal.
Miranda 9:48
Psychosis is rare.
Scott 9:50
Yeah, I yeah..
Miranda 9:51
I don't I'm I'm 99, I mean, I not being a medical professional. But the idea of cannabis psychosis is real. However, the reality of it being as far widespread as the war on drugs would like to make us believe...
Scott 10:08
Well, and certainly not drugs back in the time period between the 30's and 60's, right, you know, Reefer Madness who was the the gentleman that was demonized? Victor Lucado, I believe. Yeah. And he he was the one that famously murdered his entire family with an axe. And yeah, and Anslinger came out, no, you know, he was a pot smoker.
Scott 10:11
And that's what led to... Reefer Madness led to his his murder of this family and whatever.
Scott 10:42
Then we get into, you know, I mean, literally, you would go to see a movie on a Sunday with your family--
Miranda 10:49
And all you would get bombarded with is propaganda.
Scott 10:51
Yeah, there would be, you know, anti marijuana propaganda before the movie showing literally people jumping out of windows and, you know, people sexually assaulting women because they're so crazy on or women sexually assaulting men, because they're so crazy on cannabis, that they just can't control their behavior, their emotions, et cetera. So yeah, I mean, this is long before the the the lazy stoner was the just straight up psychotic stoner. Yeah, it was it was the actual rap on you know, if you smoked marijuana, you were going to lose your mind literally.
Miranda 11:33
And kill somebody...
Scott 11:34
is what they were going around telling people..
Miranda 11:36
or yourself.
Scott 11:36
Yeah. I mean, absolute, absolute, absurd, ridiculous. Very little basis in reality. I mean, cannabis induced psychosis is a thing. More often than not, I think it's been shown that it's in regards to like mold that is present in the flower more than it is the cannabis itself.
Miranda 12:01
As with most herbal medicine, if there's mold, there's always the possibility of some psychosis, right? Because that mold directly attacks the brain.
Scott 12:11
Right? Yeah, weird sidebar really quickly, but look up. How psychedelics may have played a role in the Salem witch trials.
Miranda 12:21
Yep.
Scott 12:22
Because there's some decent evidence that suggests that like a moldy rye crop that year might have had everybody in Salem tripping balls, just just a little bit. And I mean, I shouldn't laugh about women being burned at the stake. That is not funny at all. But yeah, anyway,
Miranda 12:40
We know your intentions.
Scott 12:41
I believe it. Yeah. Trust me, there there. There are witches close by, who not be happy if I was talking trash about witches. But anyway, back to the war on drugs. Absolutely racist it is every step of the way. So yeah. White people found out about weed through jazz and the beats and started to ask questions of their parents and grandparents and not necessarily just fall in line and go play football and then shut up and join the military.
Miranda 13:16
And there was also that coexisting between hippies and black people. What was happening. Yeah, exactly. It was just a giant community.
Scott 13:23
And so and now we're, you know, kind of fast forward up to 60's and 70's. And now we're in a time where laws are starting to be crafted, that no longer allow you to discriminate based on race. So you need something to become a proxy for race at that point. You know, if the Supreme Court has now said, Okay, well, you can't tell a black person that they can't live here. Because of this, that or the other Well, shit, what are the things that we associate with black people?
Miranda 13:53
Weed.
Scott 13:54
Yeah right, weed! Yeah, marijuana, reefers, you know, that's what we can do. We can start to criminalize this behavior. And that's when we get the creation of the DEA. Yeah, that's when you know, drugs get handed over, essentially, at that point, lock stock and barrel to law enforcement rather than the medical community.
Miranda 14:24
RIght, it was 1969 that our beloved President Richard Nixon pretty much identified cannabis as a national threat. Let's Let's all think about that a national threat his words, not mine, and then called for an anti drug policy at a state and federal level.
Scott 14:48
Yeah, and if you have any doubts about Richard Nixon and his feelings towards different ethnicities and races, there are lots and lots of audio recordings, that are called the Nixon tapes that you can go listen to where he talks about the fact that, you know, white people are fraternizing with negros and Jewish people are not keeping this cannabis out of their communities because they see it as a business opportunity.
Miranda 15:21
Watergate aside, this man was not a good person. Yeah.
Scott 15:23
Nixon was, yeah, Watergate, Vietnam. We got lots of stuff that we can hate Richard Nixon about. But yeah, go and listen to the tapes. And you will absolutely hear the racist overtones. And yeah, just just outright racism period. In the man's words, when he talks about the war on drugs, when he talks about hippies when he talks about, you know, Kent State and and this was all because, well, not all because but in large part because they didn't want these people out in the streets protesting the war.
Miranda 15:57
Yeah, and then in 1971, he officially declared the war on drugs, followed by '73. With the formation of the DEA.
Scott 16:07
Yeah. So like I said, this is this is the period where we go from medical institutions, being able to access these drugs and talk about these drugs at all. Even though we have the Schaefer report, right, which Nixon, himself orders a report, even though we've already got all this great information that LaGuardia put together for us back in the day, we've already chosen to ignore that for several decades at this point. Now, Richard Nixon says, Hey, let's do a new report. I bet now, you guys will tell me that cannabis is terrible. It's a gateway drug--
Miranda 16:45
And it's gonna mess up your family and your life, you're not gonna be able to go to work. So yeah.
Scott 16:51
Well, Womp womp.
Miranda 16:53
Wrong again!
Scott 16:55
Things didn't quite turn out the way old Dickey thought and in fact, the Schaefer report comes out and says, all of the exact same things that the LaGuardia report had said that cannabis is not you know, people do not get physically dependent with, you know, or violent regular use the Yeah, that psychosis is rare. If any, you know, again, that there are medical benefits to drug and well, I'm even kind of trying to start to get away from calling it a drug. At this point.
Miranda 17:35
It's an herb it's a plant.
Scott 17:36
Right. And and yeah, I've been listening to a podcast from up in Canada, The Cannabis 101 podcast.
Miranda 17:42
oh, right on!
Scott 17:43
And that's one of the things that he kind of harps on, and it really has made me think about it more, because it's not, it's not processed, like cocaine, right? It's not, you know.
Miranda 17:53
It's literally is just a flower.
Scott 17:55
We grow this plant, we cut it down, we dry it, and then we use it for all these different purposes. Anyway, so this is when we we get into the scheduling, right of drugs. And this is when, you know, cannabis is set off to the side with lots of the psychedelics LSD, psilocybin,
Miranda 18:18
Right, all of the, yeah, wonderful, and also medically beneficial things.
Scott 18:23
You know, we can, I'm sure, at some point--
Scott 18:26
Historical cultures, using them for medical benefits, etc.
Scott 18:31
Whether it's spirit medicine, right. It's actual medicine, whether it's, yeah, there's lots of great research being done right here at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.
Miranda 18:42
For sure.
Scott 18:43
On different psychedelics, you know, treating PTSD and now I mean, man, Facebook gives me ads for ketamine treatments now.
Miranda 18:52
I've had a couple of friends who have done ketamine treatments.
Scott 18:55
I know several.
Miranda 18:56
Yeah.
Scott 18:56
Who absolutely swear by it.
Miranda 18:58
Yeah.
Scott 18:58
Yeah. I mean, the, the research indicates that very concentrated short treatments, these substances can last for months at a time. Yeah, the relief that you get. But anyway, anyway, there's I mean, you get cannabis scheduled as scheduled one, which is crazy, because you know, things like cocaine and heroin, ketamine, and, you know, lots of drugs that you can very easily overdose from. Lots of drugs that have you know, huge physical impact on your body, both while you're using them and also after extend periods of time afterwards, which we know cannabis does not even with you know, regular extended use of cannabis. If you stopped smoking cannabis today, you know, THC is out of your system.
Miranda 19:56
30 days.
Scott 19:56
30 days at the longest for most people You know, if you're an active person if you're, you know, we know THC is stored in fat cells...
Miranda 19:56
Right. So if you're a thinner person...
Scott 20:07
Thinner person, if you're a younger person and your metabolism moves more, or if your metabolism just moves more quickly in general...
Miranda 20:16
Lucky people.
Scott 20:17
Yeah, all these things just you wait whippersnappers. But yeah, anyway. So this is this is when you know, universities and doctors lose their access to do research in which you Hear us bemoan on a regular basis here on the show that we, you know, wish we had more research and, you know, now that Canada's legal and...
Scott 20:29
And now that I'm like, I generally don't like to bring, you know, family members into the situation. But my mother for the longest time in the 90s was running the cannabis research over at Hopkins. And I never quite understood what she did, because essentially, she would hotbox in a room with these people all day, and just make them smoke a bunch of weed.
Scott 20:44
Okay.
Miranda 20:45
Yeah, I'm like, What are you trying to figure out what this study and they're like, well, just to see, you know, how much THC will affect them, and if it if it will induce psychosis. Because it was the same thing with the alcohol study that they were doing at the same time.
Scott 21:23
Okay.
Miranda 21:24
But yeah, I'm like, But shouldn't you have been looking for other things? Like, wouldn't there have been a, you know, just to checking for other effects, like, oh, this person's mood got better, blah, blah, blah. I'm on a tangent. So please feel free to grab this back for me.
Scott 21:43
No, I mean, I think I think the point that you're making is even the research that was being done--
Miranda 21:50
Wasn't done well.
Scott 21:51
Yeah, it wasn't focused. It was. Or it wasn't focused on the right things.
Miranda 21:57
Right.
Scott 21:58
They were just like, What does weed do, as opposed to, you know, now we're starting to see where these drug companies are focusing clinical trials specifically on like, the article about, you know, cannabis and COVID. Yeah, the CBDa, the CBGa and things like that. And they're starting to, you know, I read another piece about a study that's focused on cannabis and diabetes treatment. Absolutely. As cannabis can be used to help regulate your body's insulin level and and either, you know, suppress or stimulate the the production of insulin, they think.
Miranda 22:41
RIght on, I need to look that one up.
Scott 22:42
Yeah. Anyway. Yeah. I mean, you know, obviously, there's so much information, we could literally do this show every day.
Miranda 22:49
Probably.
Scott 22:51
You know, there is no shortage of cannabis information coming out, especially when you pull back and do a global view right now and stop just looking at what's going on in your state or your city or your dispensary, even. Because I literally know some people that have gone to one dispensary, you know, since they got their card, right. Literally, they've never been anywhere else. I mean, you know...
Miranda 23:16
I mean, what's convient... and...
Scott 23:18
Not only that, but I think the anxiety thing.
Miranda 23:20
Yeah.
Scott 23:21
How many of us are using cannabis to some degree or another? Yeah. Because we struggle with you know, or experienced some kind of anxiety regular basis. So I think, yeah, once you get familiar with a space, you just want to keep going there.
Miranda 23:37
Yeah.
Scott 23:39
Anyway, back to the subject at hand. So yeah, schedule one. Research goes away. Hippies are now. Well, the Republicans won the culture war, I'd argue, right. I mean, there's this there was this movement to legalize cannabis that was coming from not only American hippies, but also internationally from like, the reggae community. You had people like Peter Tosh and Bob Marley, right, you know, singing songs about how not only you know, should you legalize it, but--
Miranda 24:13
It should be for everyone.
Scott 24:15
It should be for everyone. You know, you have Bob saying, you know, it's a magical herb. It helps you to know yourself. You have Peter Tosh, literally listing off things that cannabis is good for. It's good for asthma. It's good for tuberculosis. Yeah, and this was like literal. Yeah, I mean, these are literally things--
Miranda 24:39
And yeah, I'm sitting there when I was listening to that the other day, I was like, pinene, myrcene...
Scott 24:50
Hey, man, if those dudes knew what was up for sure. But yeah, now you get into the next chapter of the war on drugs which is cocaine. And you know, the distinction between crack cocaine and powder cocaine, which is totally absurd.
Miranda 25:09
Yes.
Scott 25:10
There is literally no difference chemically but you know, and what it does to your body.
Miranda 25:16
It's just a different form.
Scott 25:17
Yeah, how it interacts with your brain. Yeah, I mean, it was just you know, people people in, in the drug trade made it easier to--
Miranda 25:29
And cheaper.
Scott 25:30
Yeah. You know the addition of additives you could stretch the product. Right. And putting it in rock form meant that people could just throw it in a little pipe and smoke it as opposed to snorting. Yeah. But that's when we start to get into, you know, mandatory minimums and the the ridiculous sending sentencing structure. Which, you know, look, if you're going to argue that somebody that gets caught selling, you know, kilos of cocaine, crack cocaine, or heroin or any of that stuff should go to jail for a long time. We can have that conversation.
Miranda 26:19
And also remember in 1976, Jimmy Carter tried to get everything off of a schedule.
Scott 26:24
Yeah. Carter. Yeah,
Miranda 26:27
He tried to end marijuana and other drugs. He tried to end the federal criminal penalties. That's what I'm trying to say, for any of that.
Scott 26:38
But by this pointyou already have--
Miranda 26:41
You're knee deep.
Scott 26:41
Yeah. Specifically, because you now have the for profit prisons is or is right, which is in place. And basically what that does is makes the sheriff's reliant on the money that they get for for each prisoner they have right you know, you want to talk about welfare queens or welfare moms...
Miranda 27:06
Let's talk about for profit prisons.
Scott 27:08
As as Ronald Reagan loved to, you know, create this notion that there were, you know, these women out here just having baby upon baby so they could get bigger checks. Look, are there some people out there like that? I'm sure there are, are most people choosing to live their life that way? Absolutely not. It was just another racist innuendo to try to demonize black people that were on assistance at that time. But the sheriff's you know, their, their budgets are absolutely determined by the amount of people that they have.
Miranda 27:42
Quotas, I mean, it's still quotas.
Scott 27:46
And they get addicted to the money. And in a lot of these places, states like Louisiana, states like Mississippi, and Alabama, you get to the point where in some of these parishes and some of these towns, the largest employer is the jail. Yeah, you know, so now, there is incentive to lock people up, because that's your job security. That's the job that your son's gonna have. That's the job.
Miranda 28:15
Exactly right.
Scott 28:15
It's gonna get that's the only job now that industry has left the country and gone overseas. You know, because capitalism demands cheaper and cheaper labor so that we can get bigger and bigger profits for our CEOs and our shareholders. Yeah, so you've now got this situation where cannabis is considered to be not as bad as worse than worse than cocaine and heroin. It is a felonious charge.
Miranda 28:50
Yep.
Scott 28:51
And you've also got now these mandatory minimums and these three strike laws and the zero tolerance policies. And, you know, how does that affect black people more than white people? Well, we've talked about that before. Right?
Miranda 29:08
Right.
Scott 29:08
If usage is exactly the same across the board.
Miranda 29:13
Yep.
Scott 29:14
Study after study, since we started studying has shown that regardless of color, regardless of ethnicity or socio economics, you know, regardless of whether your rich or poor--
Miranda 29:29
religion--
Scott 29:30
White or black, it doesn't matter, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, atheist, errbody smoke weed. It's just a universal truth. I remember being on the plane to go to my first Cannabis Cup at 18 years old. And we were looking around at the people that were on the plane with because the planes going to Amsterdam, and you're looking around going, these people can't be going to smoke weed. Old people, it was black people, it was Indian people, it was white people, asian people. And then we get off the plane and we went with with High Times 420 tours. And there's a dude like holding up the sign, 420 tours this way. And damned if 70% of that plane wasn't there for the Cannabis Cup. Yeah, and it was just like, mind blown. You know,like shit.
Miranda 30:29
It crosses it's It's the great uniter.
Scott 30:31
Well, cuz you know, at 18 years old, like you think you're Billy badass cause you smoked weed. Like I was, yeah, man. Like, I'm like my heroes. I'm like these jazz cats. I'm like these, you know like these rasta dudes, you know, fuck the man.
Miranda 30:45
Right! Right!
Scott 30:46
I'm expanding my mind. Everybody does it. Everybody like when people are exposed to cannabis. Hello again. All of our bodies have an endocannabinoid.
Miranda 30:56
Absolutely.
Scott 30:58
Whether you like the feeling you get from being high or not, there's probably some cannabinoid that would make you feel good in some way, whether it's calming or pain relief, or sleep aid or what have you. But yeah, we we've now associated it in this country with a felony offense. Yeah. And then we've made it illegal.
Miranda 31:22
And carry large, large jail times.
Scott 31:24
Right. And that's how you end up with people like Mr. Noble.
Miranda 31:28
Oh, yeah.
Scott 31:28
That we talked about before, when we talked about the BNoble project and those products, and, you know, other people that we've, you know, advertised as being involved with the Last Prisoner Project. Where these these folks with, you know, a joint worth of marijuana, or a couple grams worth of marijuana, not even something. Yeah, I mean, it's just the the smell of marijuana in their car was enough to get them stopped and detained or what have you. But these, these stories are absolutely absurd. And you want to talk about, you know, the collapse of the family, you know, conservatives love to talk about
Miranda 32:08
the collapse of family values, and etc.
Scott 32:11
When when you locked up an entire generation.
Miranda 32:16
and divided families, because they didn't look like you. Right. We have
Scott 32:20
the most incarcerated country in the history of the world yet, you know, it's, you know, 2.4 million
Miranda 32:31
something awful like that, are in jail.
Scott 32:33
Are in jail for drug offenses. I want to say, yeah, it's it's absurd, you know, in 2017, or 2018, I believe is the last numbers I could find. Over 650,000 people were arrested for crimes involving just cannabis.
Miranda 32:53
Yes.
Scott 32:53
Not not drugs overall.
Miranda 32:55
No, just cannabis.
Scott 32:56
Just cannabis. And, you know, it's we've we've talked before briefly in the past about, you've got people becoming millionaires and billionaires off of this plant, while you know, their neighbors a state away or sometimes right in that very state. Right. Right. Because even in a state like California, the the expungement wasn't statewide. It--
Miranda 33:23
No, it's just a different counties.
Scott 33:24
Yeah, like San Francisco did it. And they're not the only state like that, you know, I believe Utah is the same way. Well, you know, it's just such an odd and beyond odd. It's just criminal. You know, the the disparity and the inequity in, you know, these these stocks being traded on Wall Street, while people are literally being arrested today, for these minute amounts. And because of these ridiculous sentencing laws, which, you know, and it's not just Republicans, I should say, because, you know, like you said, Carter tried to do it. Well, he didn't.
Miranda 34:06
People say they do and they don't.
Scott 34:10
You know, we've we've got we've got bills in the works now that are trying to push through cannabis banking, and that'll go a long way to kind of...
Miranda 34:20
Absolutely.
Scott 34:21
Changing things nationally. Because yeah, with with the existence of federal prohibition, that the federal government can still come in and snatch up your assets if they really want to.
Miranda 34:32
Right.
Scott 34:33
Even though your state says that cannabis is legal and has created a framework for you to do cannabis business. That doesn't mean that the federal government needs to respect those laws.
Miranda 34:43
Exactly. And there's currently 25 states that have expungement on the books to some degree or to some degree or another, right.
Scott 34:53
And we've talked before about some different cannabis companies that do work with programs that focus on expungement, GTI, Green Thumb Industries, which that's the Rise Dispensary, and the Rythm and Dog Walker products. They do a lot of good work. I know Ethos is another dispensary here in Maryland, but they're also a multi state operator. And I happen to know, one of their executives whose job it is to do community outreach and things like that. And he was just telling me the other day about how basically his entire 2022 is focused on doing expungement events and putting in touch with those resources and those programs. So, you know, we're starting to see more of it, we talked about Flow Hub has a percentage of their profits that goes towards it. I was recently reading about another Last Prisoner Project program called Roll One Up For Justice.
Miranda 36:03
Yep.
Scott 36:03
And that works the same way where if you go to, you know, Taco Bell, or whatever they offer you to, you know, round up your purchase.
Miranda 36:12
Exactly.
Scott 36:13
So certain dispensaries have agreements with the Last Prisoner Project where their patients can choose to--
Miranda 36:21
Roll it up!
Scott 36:21
Either roll up their donation, or their total to the next dollar amount, or even just make a flat amount donation, you straight up say, Hey, can you put $20 towards the Last Prisoner Project on top of that.
Miranda 36:36
Right.
Scott 36:37
And here in Maryland, it's only two dispensaries, and I will give them a shout out for participating in this program. So that's The Living Room and Green Goods.
Miranda 36:47
Right on!
Scott 36:48
So The Living Room being Evermore's dispensary--
Miranda 36:52
And Green Goods being Vireo's.
Scott 36:54
Green Goods being Vireo's, yeah, so if you like 1937 and those products, that's a decent place to find that stuff. Anyway, word. But yeah, we don't normally shout out dispensaries. But if you're doing good stuff like that...
Miranda 37:08
You're gonna get a shout out.
Scott 37:09
Yeah, I mean, if you're having an expungement event, or if you're doing stuff where you're helping people get recertified on the cheap, or, yeah, feel free to reach out to us about that stuff.
Miranda 37:20
For sure. I'm, I'm really a little confused about the Maryland law regarding expungement. Because it seems like the prisoner themselves has to petition for themselves to have their record expunged.
Scott 37:35
And and I don't think that is that uncommon, and that's--
Miranda 37:40
that it's very similar to Massachusetts.
Scott 37:43
And I think, Michigan as well.
Miranda 37:47
Okay.
Scott 37:48
I don't... I did a lot of reading on alot of you know...
Miranda 37:50
and it all started to bleed together.
Scott 37:52
We'll put up some supporting information on these things.
Miranda 37:55
Defintly.
Scott 37:57
And, and try to help you, you know, and if you're in a market and you're having trouble finding these things, like feel free to reach out to us.
Miranda 38:04
Yeah, let us do some homework for you.
Scott 38:06
You know, shoot us a message. We're reading about cannabis things all day long. Anyway, there's a decent chance that maybe we're researching something that you're curious about, or, yeah, please reach out and let us know. And we'll do our best to help you find that information. But--
Miranda 38:25
And the petition can only be filed four years after the sentence. So you have to sit with a sentence for four years, at least.
Scott 38:33
Here in Maryland, you mean?
Miranda 38:34
Uh huh.
Scott 38:35
Yeah. So I yeah, in different different states have different times, different states have different stipulations on like the level of thing that can be expunged. Sometimes you do need a lawyer, sometimes you can represent yourself in these things. It just depends. But, you know, again, that's why we don't have a problem talking about and featuring companies that are focused on these things. Because, hey, if if some cannabis company that you're giving your money to, for your medicine, is willing to provide you with some resources, or some muscle, you know, a form of, you know, whether it's legal counsel, or just, you know, guidance on links to use to...
Miranda 38:35
Most definitely.
Scott 38:37
Search down the information for your state or your city or what have you. Yeah, why not? You might as well let them do that for you. For sure.
Miranda 39:33
They should at least be responsible for some of that as far as I'm concerned.
Scott 39:37
But yeah, so that's, that's the war on drugs.
Miranda 39:41
Yeah.
Scott 39:42
And that's, you know, and it's still going if you have any questions about any of that stuff or where we got, you know, facts or figures all of this information is readily available. Yeah. You know, like we I think we mentioned The Grass is Greener Documentary with Fab Five Freddy, who we talked about before, is a great research resource that talks about most of the things we just talked about, and then some, and really kind of goes into again, you know, how, when, when they couldn't use race anymore, they just decided to use drugs as as a proxy, right. And even though white people use drugs in the same, you know, percentages and amounts as black people, this this false equivalency of you know, being black or being Mexican, and using the devil's lettuce or my god was was created. And that's why we have the stigmas that we have. And that's why it's important to, you know, try to end the stigma.
Miranda 40:54
Absolutely.
Scott 40:55
You know, get it out there to the world that, you know, cannabis is not a drug is an herb, you know, is a natural plant that we have been using as human beings now for literally 1000's of years.
Miranda 41:14
Yeah.
Scott 41:14
Yeah. Now the reason that we have all these different names for cannabis, you know, ganja and the..
Miranda 41:20
Code names.
Scott 41:22
Well, and just the literal names. Yeah, right sinsemilla. And indica and sativa. And kush. And hash, hasish. She's is because it's been all over the world. Yeah, you know, every, every culture, every race, in our has used this plant as a way to heal their bodies to calm their minds to you know, get creative.
Miranda 41:59
Yeah.
Scott 42:00
You know, I mean, jazz is widely regarded as one of the greatest gifts that America has given to the world. And it was created by black people. And it was created by black people that were using cannabis on a daily basis.
Miranda 42:17
Let's be honest, all music was created by black people.
Scott 42:23
Then we get into, you know, we all came from Africa. So...
Miranda 42:29
I'm just saying.
Scott 42:30
Yeah, no, absolutely. Hey, you're you're talking to the right guy. I've been a percussionist for you know, 36 years now? 34 years, 34 years now. And yeah, that's absolutely. You know, that that was such a huge part of my exposure to cannabis.
Miranda 42:52
Yeah.
Scott 42:52
And my exposure to black culture and black history. You know, I mean, when Black History Month started, that's immediately what I changed my banner on, you know, Zuckerberg"s paradise was, was this picture of these, you know, badass Louisiana jazz musicians? Yeah, from the 30s. You know, I I own about 1200 vinyl records, and probably about 900 of those are jazz records.
Miranda 43:21
I mean, I'll say that, you know, some of my first like, exposure to rock and roll was Screamin Jay Hawkins.
Scott 43:27
Right.
Miranda 43:28
Which then led me down to Alice Cooper. Yeah, I mean, there's like a serious like, flow. With all of this.
Scott 43:37
The most honest, white musicians will straight absolutely tell you. We got this mu-- You know, the Rolling Stones will tell you, we wanted to be the black kids from America.
Miranda 43:49
Because they were cool.
Scott 43:50
And we'll tell you we want it to sound like those old black guys from America. You know, they were killing themselves in the UK to get access to those records.
Miranda 43:59
Yeah.
Scott 44:01
And the same with the the Jamaicans, yes, you know, the same with ska and dub and reggae. And you know, I mean, that all got co opted and and adopted in the better scenarios, by white people all around the world, which is fine, as long as you give credit and recognition to the Big Momma Thornton's and the Screamin Jayhawkins and...
Miranda 44:26
Little Richard
Scott 44:27
And Louie Armstrong...
Miranda 44:29
James Brown.
Scott 44:30
James Brown and...
Miranda 44:32
the list goes on and on.
Scott 44:35
Problematic as some of these people may have been in their personal lives. The music that they gave us is directly translated and related to, you know, ancestral experiences and cannabis communication and creativity in in huge ways. But yeah.
Miranda 45:00
Let's move on to some good news. I know, we get we tend to get a little a little dark in this situation sometimes because it is really just a fucking mess. But this week, we did file in Maryland, the legalization bill. So in anticipation to get that done looks like if the vote goes through July 1 2023 will be our legalization date. Which is I think, exciting. I don't know why it's taking them so long. But of course, Maryland does drag ass. Just in general. With getting stuff done.
Scott 45:43
We have that wait and see mentality.
Miranda 45:45
Yep.
Scott 45:46
Of watching all the neighbors do it for and figuring out what they did or didn't do right or wrong. And I mean, let's be honest, we do have some money here in the Maryland industry that is certainly pushed very hard to keep things medical only, to keep us from having home grow. And that so several bills were put forward.
Miranda 46:12
Right?
Scott 46:13
It looks like we are guaranteed at this point to at least get a referendum.
Miranda 46:17
Yeah.
Scott 46:17
And yes, like you said, they're they've started to lay the groundwork for what those things might look like, I think the best one that I saw, which in my opinion is not all that great, but would go ahead and make adult use legal, right. Decriminalize up to 2.5 ounces, I believe, with the ability to purchase up to one and a half ounces for each person and two plants.
Miranda 46:49
I haven't seen anything about the plants, which is concerning to me.
Scott 46:51
This was news that I just saw yesterday.
Miranda 46:54
Okay, well, that's good.
Scott 46:55
And this was the Luke Clippinger.
Miranda 46:59
Yep. That would be bill.
Scott 47:00
I believe that would be the bill and and that was the one where? Well, we also have Jill Carter. And then we also have...
Miranda 47:08
There's three of them, I believe right now, but this is the most recent one.
Scott 47:13
And the one that that yesterday, at least they said will definitely be put on the floor for a vote.
Miranda 47:20
Good.
Scott 47:20
So yeah, two plants. That is not...
Miranda 47:25
That's not nearly enough.
Scott 47:26
It's totally ridiculous.
Miranda 47:27
Especially if you're a medical patient.
Scott 47:30
You know, we've talked before, right about how different plants do different things about how different terpene expressions. Excuse me. Just to have a mother plant. And then to get clones off of right. You know, well, that would be two plants right there. One mother plant one clone at a time. That's not how growing cannabis works.
Miranda 48:01
Right?
Scott 48:02
When you grow cannabis, you start 6, 8, 12. You know, I mean, it depends how much room you have to grow.
Miranda 48:11
And also like not every plant is going to be viable.
Scott 48:14
Right, exactly.
Miranda 48:14
So that's why you need to grow more than two plants.
Scott 48:17
So you grow X amount of plants. And then from that crop of plants, you identify the 6, 7, 8 plants that look the strongest. You know, if you're growing from seed and it's not feminized seed, you're you've you've got to separate out the males.
Miranda 48:36
Exactly.
Scott 48:37
And then if you want to get into your own cultivars and stuff like that, you can even keep different males around to then pollinate different females with the pollen from different male plants. To creating your own. You know, this one was more sleepy, this one was more energetic this one smelled and tasted super piney for this reason. You know, that's that's how, again, we're not growers.
Miranda 49:04
I'm also hopeful that two plans will lead to four and four will lead to six.
Scott 49:08
Well, yeah, I you know, you got to start somewhere. I know. I know that lots of people will be thrilled to have any ability to legally grow plants. I'm one of those people. I'm not one of these people that believes that we should dig our heels in and wait for perfect cannabis legislation because it's not going to happen here in Maryland or in any state. I am a firm believer that you get what you can get and build on and strive for more. It's right history indicates whether it's in Canada or here in the states that as time goes on as they see the tax revenue.
Miranda 49:46
Yep.
Scott 49:47
You know, I mean, every state comptroller around this country saw the revenue that started being generated in Colorado back in--
Miranda 49:58
Oh yeah.
Scott 49:59
20 Whatever it was, I think 2016, 2014, I don't I don't remember when Colorado went adult use. But you know, it, they they expected it to be. And I'm just throwing numbers out, they expected it to be 300 million, and it ended up being 1.2 billion.
Miranda 50:19
Right.
Scott 50:19
Now, something like that.
Miranda 50:20
And it's gonna be a lot.
Scott 50:21
They literally had to give tax money back to business. Because it was written into their legislature. Right, right, is that there was a ceiling? Yeah. And there should be, you know, I mean, every other business, or every other industry, I should say, has ceilings as far as you know, the limits of profits that they can be taxed on. And so, but yeah, that's here in Maryland, and it looks like we are finally going to get a vote, because last year, we had some really good legislation that was put forward too, and then it was never presented to be voted on. So it all ended up being for naught in the end, so hey, if you're interested in the laws and the progress in your state, and want us to talk about that, let us know, again, we're happy to do some research about your area and talk about that as well. If you feel like something like is particularly interesting about the way things are being done in your state or your country, especially as it relates to equity, social justice, or any of that, for sure. I'm expungement. You know, we're happy to shout out an area where we know those things are going on. Well, you know, those things are going on.
Miranda 51:39
Have you seen the new Gary Chambers ad?
Scott 51:42
Which?
Miranda 51:43
Where he burns the Confederate flag?
Scott 51:45
Yes, I mean...
Miranda 51:47
Bless that man!
Scott 51:51
Here for it all day, every day,
Miranda 51:53
His campaign has raised over $400,000.
Scott 51:57
He's absolutely killing it.
Miranda 51:59
He really is.
Scott 51:59
You know, and and this, this all links back right to this conversation that we're having, because a lot of his critics are now saying, Well, look at him, he's traveling all over the country, you know, these Democratic politicians have to get support from outside of their area. Well, he should get support from outside of his area, because he's talking specifically about the inequity and the injustice--
Miranda 52:23
Absolutely
Scott 52:24
Of the racist war on drugs, as it pertains to people in Louisiana. But that pertains to people in Maryland, and in New York, and in Ottawa, and in...
Miranda 52:36
The in justices are all over!
Scott 52:37
Yeah.
Miranda 52:38
It's not like it's just in this certain part of the country, it is all over the country.
Scott 52:43
Yeah, as long as one of us is, and all that, it's, there's power in numbers. And that's why this stuff is important. You you support people, even if they're not in your area, if they support the ideas and beliefs that you support, and feel like they're strong, important ideals. And I certainly think the case is made for, you know, if black lives matter to you, if black people matter to you...
Miranda 53:16
If you have black friends.
Scott 53:19
Yeah, there's, there's a good chance that someone in your life has been affected by the racist war on drugs in some way, shape, or form, even if it was just, and I shouldn't say just because I shouldn't minimize in any way, even if it was a traffic stop, even if it was feeling unsafe, or uncomfortable. You know, because they had smoked a joint and now they're being pulled over by a cop in a neighborhood where they're not from or pulled over in a state that they're driving through. Or, you know, I mean, I know I'm always more conscious of my cannabis usage when I'm around my black friends.
Miranda 54:00
Yes.
Scott 54:01
Because the reality is, we're more likely to be stopped. And if we are stopped, they're more likely to be detained, more likely to be charged, they're more likely to serve time, you know, all these things that we've talked about in the past, you know, are still true today, in a lot of places. So, you know, if we, if we harp on or if we focus on I should say, these issues on a regular basis, it's because you have the ability with your dollars to support good causes...
Miranda 54:36
And make the change.
Scott 54:37
Yeah, I mean, even in a state like Maryland, where our options are extremely limited, you know, whether it's the Roll One Up for Justice or whether it's you know, like we've talked about pre rolls, where percentage goes to Last Prisoner Project.
Miranda 54:53
Or even shopping at a black owned business.
Scott 54:55
Yeah.
Miranda 54:56
Or dispensary.
Scott 54:57
Yeah, you know, placing an order with True Growf. Smoking some Bouqe'. Oh, that's something else cool that I saw the first ever top to bottom, black owned product was unveiled. Just yesterday, I want to say up in Massachusetts, our buddies. We haven't. We haven't officially met. But I've met you at a Leaf event so and we're proud to support your product. So our friends from Bouqe' did a pre roll with a black owned grow up in Massachusetts. So the cannabis is black owned.
Miranda 55:40
Right on!
Scott 55:41
It's rolled in is, you know from a black owned business and it's being sold in--
Miranda 55:46
I love it!
Scott 55:47
A black owned dispensary up there. We'll post that to our stories on the The Heady Conversations Instagram account, so you guys can check that out.
Miranda 55:47
That's awesome. I love that!
Scott 55:51
If you're up in the Massachusetts area definitely look for the Bouqe' pre roll that you can get now that supports black businesses from top to bottom.
Miranda 56:10
So, let's talk about Snoop.
Scott 56:11
Yeah, speaking of pre rolls. Our man for shizzle had something rolled up and ready to go when he stepped up on stage. And I mean, frankly, I don't understand...
Miranda 56:24
what the big deal was.
Scott 56:26
Not only do I--
Miranda 56:27
I mean people are like losing their minds though.
Scott 56:29
All these, oh my God, Snoop got caught. Excuse me. Do you think Snoop Dogg did not know that there were cameras on every single angle and every moment, please. You know, if Snoop wanted to smoke off camera, Snoop could have smoked off camera before he stepped up onto that trailer.
Miranda 56:51
And he was still palming when he was on the trailer.
Scott 56:54
an, right. People make it sound like took like two or three quick hits before the performance started.
Scott 56:59
No no no no no.
Scott 57:00
Nah! Nah! And they told him he couldn't wear a bandana. He went ahead and repped a whole set from head to toe. They told him he couldn't smoke. He went ahead and had his blunt in hand. The whole damn time.
Miranda 57:14
Yep.
Scott 57:14
Yeah, no. Look, I'm not an NFL person.
Miranda 57:18
I only watched the halftime game honestly.
Scott 57:21
I walked away. My sister in law actually coached one of the Bay or sorry, not coach. My sister in law has never been a football coach. She she was a schoolteacher for a long time. And she taught one of the Bengles. She was a teacher I think down in Texas. But anyway, so we kind of had a family rooting interest for the Bengals for for you know, shits and giggles as they say, but yes, definitely tune in the halftime show. I'm a hip hop kid.
Miranda 57:51
Me too.
Scott 57:51
We're 90s kids, you know, as far as you know, when we were actually...
Miranda 57:57
That was our music. I mean, not our music, but, yes. We appreciated it a lot. The music that we love an awful lot.
Scott 58:09
Both Miranda and I listened to a little bit of everything. But yeah, we we both very much believe in the golden age of hip hop from the 90's.
Miranda 58:19
100%.
Scott 58:19
But yeah, Mary J, I thought could have had a little little bit more time up there.
Miranda 58:24
I agree.
Scott 58:24
Definitely a Mary J a fan. But yeah, this this surprise that Snoop would smoke up on stage. But a huge moment nonetheless. Like or not. It was a big deal. Yeah, it was a huge deal. And the fact that I mean, I haven't heard anything about him being fined. Have you?
Miranda 58:43
No, not at this point.
Scott 58:45
Right. Which I mean, if I was Janet, I'd be a little pissed personally.
Miranda 58:50
Seriously.
Scott 58:52
Sorry, sister. But yeah, I mean, I certainly don't want Snoop to be fined.
Miranda 58:56
No, and you know, there is a law I mean, we're not a law but there are rules in the stadium that you can smoke anything,
Scott 59:02
Right.
Miranda 59:03
In the stadium.
Scott 59:03
Right. And it's interesting, especially because of I mean, I don't think we discussed but there was there still prohibition on cannabis ads.
Miranda 59:13
Right.
Scott 59:13
Right. So we have the the broccoli ad that you may have seen and if you haven't again, we can post that to the Instagram story and to the Facebook group and all that good stuff. But yeah, you know, you can't talk about cannabis openly.
Miranda 59:29
You can't photograph cannabis, which is why broccoli is being used in place of--
Scott 59:34
Right.
Miranda 59:34
Actual herb.
Scott 59:35
Yeah, so wink wink, nudge nudge, you know, we're gonna get around it, you know, until we can talk about it. I mean, you can there are cannabis billboards. I know here in Baltimore.
Miranda 59:45
Yeah, we have seen a few of them.
Scott 59:48
I think I've also seen billboards for individual products now.
Miranda 59:52
And grow and growers.
Scott 59:55
I don't know that I've seen--
Miranda 59:57
Like I've seen a Varano billboard.
Scott 59:59
I definitely have not seen I know I've seen one for chews from a brand that I will not name off of 83. And I know I've seen--
Miranda 1:00:09
It was off of 83 too.
Scott 1:00:10
I know I've seen one for Maggie's, which is a dispensary I don't mind mentioning. But yeah, otherwise, they're still very much a, you know, which again goes to this stigma of, you know, cannabis being treated as this dirty thing. You know, we can still have alcohol ads on billboards and still do all over the place, we can certainly have alcohol ads on the radio and on TV. And, you know, it's, I think it's a fairly easy argument to make the cannabis has more health benefits and societal benefits than alcohol does.
Miranda 1:00:48
Right.
Scott 1:00:49
You know, whether you're looking at incidents of violence or you know, things like liver disease, and I mean, there's so many cancer, even, you esophageal cancer, I mean, there's so many things that are linked to continued prolonged regular use of alcohol. Whereas cannabis is still pretty much just the smoking for the most part.
Miranda 1:01:14
Yeah. Which has its own issues, but hey!
Scott 1:01:18
There are ways to mitigate that right?
Miranda 1:01:20
Sure.
Scott 1:01:20
You can be responsible and kind to your body and and use like a table top vape or portable vapors like that, where you're not getting as much smoke or you can use an RSO or a terps sap to make your own edibles or even your own suppositories and things like that. So there are healthier ways to use cannabis. Miranda and I are just kind of old school.
Miranda 1:01:43
Yeah, like to smoke it.
Scott 1:01:45
Llike our joints and our bowls and occasionally bongs and yeah, good stuff.
Miranda 1:01:51
So yeah. Um, well, we've got that South Park episode that was kind of shocking, I don't want to say shocking. They don't really shock me anymore. But I haven't watched it in a long time. And then I heard, you know, starting to hear like little things about it. And I watched it last night. And wow, the framing of performative allyship in the cannabis industry, right, was highlighted so very deeply.
Scott 1:02:22
And this is something that, you know, we we heard from Abby when she was a guest on the podcast, you know, there are lots of cannabis companies that say they're doing this or that, but don't necessarily put their money where their mouth is, or put their hiring practices where their mouths are...
Miranda 1:02:44
Or pay people.
Scott 1:02:45
Yeah, even.
Miranda 1:02:46
Yeah. So yeah, it's just I mean, there's a lot of performative allyship in the cannabis industry. It's ugly, it's awful. If you want a lighter take on this, tune into season 25 Episode Two.
Scott 1:03:03
Season 25, you know I mentioned last night that we were gonna watch this episode, we could talk about it. And she literally said South Park is on?
Miranda 1:03:12
That was my sort of reaction as well.
Scott 1:03:16
But Matt and Trey have been tackling these issues for a long time.
Miranda 1:03:20
Definitely.
Scott 1:03:20
Now I mean, if you watch South Park then you know about Tegrity farms, you know, where they kind of have been poking fun since the very beginning of the legal cannabis industry, Colorado, which is where they're from, you know, talking about performative everything and you know, the very corporate and commercial nature of where cannabis is going already in the states. But yeah, so if you if you want a lighter take than Miranda, sitting here giving you a rundown of the war on drugs from from start till present, tune into that South Park. If you want a really funky and great curated documentary about it, you can tune into Grass is Greener, which focus is the man, the myth, the legend Fab Five Freddy. And, yeah, yeah, big ups to Snoop. Keep on going Gary Chambers, you know, if you've got a couple of bucks to throw his way.
Miranda 1:03:26
We'll have we'll have a link to that.
Scott 1:04:32
We'll keep posting the link so that you can donate to the Last Prisoner Project. And I think we have the ability to actually do a little fundraiser through the Facebook group too. Yeah, we're going to do that. I think we're going to throw up a little fundraiser for Last Prisoner Project with just a small goal. I don't know something like $420 Do something. Today is International Day of Action. For the Last Prisoner Project is going on. So I made a donation myself, we'll be posting a story that goes through again, kind of the history of the last prisoner project and what they're working towards, and companies that you can support to throw money their way. Yeah, please folks pay pay attention to where your dollars go. You know, make sure that black people are benefiting from this industry that is benefiting from this plant that they have been persecuted for. incarcerated for, you know, had their families torn apart. Because of for literally, you know, the last couple 100 years, but specifically, the last almost 100 Now, but yeah, I'm here in the United States. Since the creation of you know, prohibition and the war on drugs. It's, it's time to end prohibition, it's time to end the stigma.
Miranda 1:06:03
You know, it's time to let people out of prison.
Scott 1:06:05
Yeah. No one should be in jail for weed.
Miranda 1:06:09
Amen.
Scott 1:06:09
Period. It doesn't matter if you call it cannabis or marijuana. Yeah, no, no one should be in prison for for using this plant. It needs to be rescheduled. And, and these records need to be expunged. It's not good enough to have access to the plant for white people that yeah, know how to get a card that have the money to get a card that have the, you know, money to pay these prices for this medicine. In a lot of areas, you know, and a lot of people say, well, we don't need adult use, we've got medical, well, when states get adult use the prices for medical go down.
Miranda 1:06:50
Yeah.
Scott 1:06:50
Because the taxes on adult use help to subsidize the medical medicine for the people who need it. So that's, that's a reason why adult use is important whether you've got your card or not. Right, you know, it's it's not good enough for you to be protected. For you to have safe access. You should want everybody to have safe access.
Miranda 1:07:11
Yep, Amen to that. Well, we're gonna wrap this up...
Scott 1:07:17
Like us, follow us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your support, and continued listenership. I am Your Cannabis Coach.
Miranda 1:07:26
And I am Our Lady of Maryjane.
Scott 1:07:29
And yeah, www.theheadyconversations.com is where you can find your transcripts, supporting information, resource, references...
Miranda 1:07:38
Links.
Scott 1:07:39
All that good stuff. Yeah, this is episode seven. And it's been a whirlwind.
Miranda 1:07:45
And thank you.
Scott 1:07:46
Thank you for letting us do this. And coming along for the ride. We will talk to you next week with our friend Brittany from B Baked Las Vegas. And she's going to tell us all about her amazing edibles. And being a black woman in cannabis.
Miranda 1:08:06
Yeah. I can't wait to meet her.
Scott 1:08:08
Yeah, that were that were unfamiliar with you know, we're leaving Maryland via zoom.
Miranda 1:08:13
Yeah.
Scott 1:08:14
So we'll, we'll see you next week, folks. Thanks so much be well to each other.
Miranda 1:08:19
And don't be a racist piece of shit.
[MUSIC:
Miranda 1:08:25
I don't remember. Isn't that terrible.
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