Program Notes

https://www.patreon.com/lorenzohagerty

Guest speakers: Annie Oak and friends

Photo source: Fortune420.com

Today’s podcast features a panel of distinguished women, all of whom are participating in various ways in the burgeoning new world of legal cannabis growing, distribution, and education. The panel assembled on the last evening in August at the 2017 Burning Man Festival, where they spoke in the Palenque Norte Lecture tent. You don’t have to be a woman to get a lot out of the information and experience of these amazing women entrepreneurs. Just give it a listen and you will understand what I mean.

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Transcript

00:00:00

Greetings from Cyberdelic Space, this is Lorenzo and I’m your host here in the Psychedelic

00:00:22

Salon.

00:00:23

And to begin today, I would like to thank

00:00:26

David P., who recently made a direct donation to the salon that I’ll be using to help offset some

00:00:33

of the expenses associated with these podcasts. So David, on behalf of all of us here in the salon,

00:00:38

I thank you for your help. Also, I’d like to thank all of my patrons over on patreon.com. There are now 39 active

00:00:47

patrons there. As you know, these fine fellow salonners are supporting my work in writing a

00:00:53

new form of autobiography, and thanks to them I’ll be publishing it, well, directly into the public

00:00:59

domain. That means that sometime around the end of this year I’ll be posting the finished book in several places online

00:01:07

where you can download it in PDF and Kindle formats for free

00:01:11

and in fact if you want to print and sell copies yourself

00:01:15

that’s going to be fine too

00:01:16

and no royalty is going to be required

00:01:19

because my wonderful patrons

00:01:21

all of whom will be acknowledged in the book

00:01:23

well these are the people who are essentially paying me up front to write it.

00:01:28

And I’ll tell you more about this once the project is finished, sometime near the end of this year.

00:01:35

Now, today, thanks to the hard work of Frank Nuncio and the volunteers at Camp Soft Landing,

00:01:42

we’re going to be able to listen to a panel discussion

00:01:45

that was held on the last day of August this year at the Burning Man Festival.

00:01:50

Their discussion was titled, Women in Cannabis, and according to the postcard that listed this

00:01:56

year’s Palenque Norte lectures, it was to be led by Emma Dilemma and Annie Oak. Actually,

00:02:02

we’re going to hear from several more women than just those two.

00:02:06

However, since they didn’t all introduce themselves by name,

00:02:10

I’m not able to give you a complete list of all the participants.

00:02:14

But my guess is that after listening to this panel discussion,

00:02:17

you’re going to want to get to know these amazing women a little better.

00:02:21

And since this, at least to me, is a really uplifting story of ways in which

00:02:27

the cannabis industry is now being led, in many ways, by women entrepreneurs, I think that we

00:02:34

should also have a little reality check before we begin, just to remind us that the war on drugs is

00:02:41

still far, far from over. You see, while the legal marijuana industry is growing by leaps and bounds,

00:02:48

there are still a lot of people who not only don’t have access to legal marijuana,

00:02:53

there are still quite a few people being held in cages for very minor drug offenses in some places.

00:02:59

Here’s a name to remember, Fate Vincent Winslow.

00:03:03

At this very moment, Mr. Winslow is serving life without the

00:03:08

possibility of parole in prison in the state of Louisiana for selling $20 worth of marijuana to

00:03:15

an undercover cop. Winslow is a black man and he is in prison for life. The dealer that he got his

00:03:23

pot from was white and wasn’t charged. Winslow was

00:03:27

found guilty of selling pot by a jury of 12 people. The 10 white people on the jury found him guilty

00:03:33

and the two black jurors voted not guilty. But the 10 white people predominated and today fate

00:03:40

Vincent Winslow lives in a cage. His crime, a $20 marijuana bust. In case you missed it earlier,

00:03:49

this is what I mean when I say that the United States of America is a failed nation.

00:03:55

In a successful state, things like this just don’t happen. I could pass along more stories

00:04:01

like Winslow’s, but I suspect that you already know many of them.

00:04:05

My only purpose in beginning today’s podcast with that downer of a story is so that our excitement

00:04:11

about the great things that are now taking place in the legal cultivation and sales of this

00:04:17

important plant, well, that we don’t forget our compatriots who happen to be living in some of

00:04:22

the more backward parts of this country and have no legal access to this medicine.

00:04:28

But now let’s hear some good news.

00:04:30

Good news about the leadership roles that women have

00:04:34

in the wonderful world of cannabis cultivation and sales.

00:04:41

Annie and the Women’s Visionary Congress did um the women in cannabis salon in oakland

00:04:47

this year that was a really amazing opportunity for us to kind of raise women’s voices in the

00:04:55

cannabis industry from like young trimmers to women who’ve been working in the industry and

00:05:00

have shifted the culture and industry through the decades and I think it

00:05:06

felt really important that we be able to like share and talk about that here and kind of

00:05:12

continue to document and raise women’s voices in the cannabis industry. Would you guys like

00:05:18

to introduce yourselves? I mean Annie would you like to start? Sure. I’m Annie Oak, and I’m delighted to be here with these ladies.

00:05:30

I am one of the co-founders of the Women’s Visionary Congress,

00:05:37

which sponsored this conversation about cannabis,

00:05:41

which took place earlier this year in Oakland.

00:05:43

conversation about cannabis, which took place earlier this year in Oakland.

00:05:47

I’m a cannabis consumer for over 40 years.

00:05:51

And I just recently bought a pot farm,

00:05:55

which I’m in the process of rewilding.

00:05:59

And I want to talk about that a little bit.

00:06:03

I’m Jasmine Victoria Hupp. I’m one of the founders of Women

00:06:06

Grow, which is the largest professional networking organization in the cannabis industry. You can

00:06:11

come meet other women in your area in about two dozen cities on the first Thursday of every month.

00:06:19

I feel like I have a long answer for this and I’m going to try to keep it really short.

00:06:23

I feel like I have a long answer for this and I’m going to try to keep it really short.

00:06:28

So I often get asked how I got involved in the cannabis industry.

00:06:32

And it honestly was such fate, like the cannabis industry chose me. And I’m just continuously evolving from, you know, starting the first cannabis investment firm to really focusing on personal growth for professional development.

00:06:45

personal growth for professional development and I most recently hosted a cannabis retreat for industry professionals and had 32 gondrepreneurs out in the wilderness with me

00:06:52

connecting and making space to really step into the opportunity to make a new industry yeah

00:07:00

I help people keep their businesses up and running with training and professional development.

00:07:10

My name is Maureen McNamara, and I’m the founder and chief facilitator with Cannabis Trainers.

00:07:16

Over 25 years of professional training and certification courses, and we launched in the cannabis industry in 2013.

00:07:24

certification courses and we launched in the cannabis industry in 2013.

00:07:34

My name is Chelsea. I’m also delighted to be here. Thanks for hosting. I am the business development sorceress at Key Coco, which is a cannabis infused herbal tea company based in the

00:07:40

Bay Area. I’ve been in the industry for about four years and now do things around

00:07:47

sales, events, marketing, government relations, and science with the testing. And I also host

00:07:58

women’s educational events in the industry as well.

00:08:01

in the industry as well.

00:08:06

I’m Laura Notini.

00:08:08

I’m really excited to be here.

00:08:10

My first burn, I got really heat sick,

00:08:12

and seeing my friends speak here was one of the only things I got out to do,

00:08:14

so it’s really cool to be up here today.

00:08:17

I have been an activist for marijuana legalization

00:08:21

for seven years,

00:08:22

and two years ago moved to Portland, Oregon to pursue

00:08:27

jobs in the industry that I tried to help create in other states I’ve been in. I used to organize

00:08:35

the biggest weed rally and parade in New York City. And yeah, now I’ve been trimming and living

00:08:44

in a state where it’s legal, and it’s fascinating

00:08:46

to have gone from the East Coast to the West Coast.

00:08:57

So I think I’d like to start with a question, and I think it’s for all of you guys, but

00:09:00

that more Marina proposed, which is, why is it important for women to be in leadership roles

00:09:06

in the cannabis industry?

00:09:08

Does anybody want to start there?

00:09:10

Why do we think it’s important to have women?

00:09:12

I think it’s tremendously valuable to have women in leadership roles

00:09:19

in the cannabis industry because there is, not that this plant is new,

00:09:23

the plant is ancient ancient but our capacity to

00:09:26

have this fully in the light is an opportunity to influence with a lot of feminine energy

00:09:36

and it’s a unique opportunity when there’s and again kind of a new industry to play in

00:09:45

and to bring your talents and wisdom into it

00:09:50

can influence the way legalization continues to occur

00:09:58

and how ending prohibition happens.

00:10:08

I think it’s especially important to have women leaders because cannabis that we know and love is a female plant

00:10:11

and that is so integral to everything

00:10:15

and it cannot be a completely male situation

00:10:19

because it is the female that is giving us all of this wonderful experience

00:10:24

and I think that’s really

00:10:26

important to remember. I think it’s also important that women are very involved and that we speak up

00:10:33

when we see things that are not great. I know there was a situation that a company had sponsored

00:10:40

some sort of after party. And there was instead of a naked sushi girl, a naked deli meat

00:10:46

girl, which was in really poor taste. And I think, you know, just things like that. I think we need

00:10:51

women who can be creative and speak to everyone about why cannabis is great. Not just advertise

00:11:00

like sex sells, because with recreational cannabis, that is an option but i would like to

00:11:06

think we can be more creative um i think it’s really important for women to be in the industry

00:11:14

um to maureen’s point that it’s a brand new industry and we have the opportunity to come in

00:11:19

and uh build an industry that involves us where we have have roles. And there’s less of a glass ceiling in this industry than others.

00:11:30

There’s more opportunity to go in there and be the innovators and the pioneers in building.

00:11:36

It’s been around for a long time, but now that it’s becoming legal, there’s much more opportunities for people.

00:11:45

becoming legal there’s there’s much more opportunities for people and i also think there’s a real need to do business differently than what we’ve been doing for a long time

00:11:50

and women can bring in new management styles and different types of hierarchies and businesses

00:11:57

that are not a hierarchy that are different structures that can prove, that can create a successful business model.

00:12:06

And I think women are also more focused on giving back to their communities

00:12:11

and building conscious companies.

00:12:14

And I think conscious corporations is a new kind of movement,

00:12:19

and you see a lot of women leading that charge, which is cool.

00:12:29

lot of women leading that charge which is cool i was gonna add um i think i saw this in like either one of your presentations or jane west’s presentations that like i think some like

00:12:34

statistics 75 of household household goods are actually purchased by women so having female

00:12:41

leaders kind of shaping the way the marketing goes, you can relate better to the consumer who’s buying.

00:12:47

So taking it from that perspective, having women lead the space

00:12:52

will help these companies better relate to their people

00:12:56

that are going to be most frequently buying the products.

00:13:03

I think the more women who own and run pot farms,

00:13:06

the better women are treated on those farms.

00:13:09

A lot of women work in the trim,

00:13:10

and a lot of those women work alongside mostly male owners,

00:13:16

and sometimes they’re treated well, and sometimes they’re not.

00:13:20

So we need to stand up for those women as well,

00:13:22

as well as those men, those agricultural workers.

00:13:26

I’ll do the statistics last then.

00:13:29

So marijuana is going to be primarily purchased by women in the future.

00:13:34

Because if you break down where marijuana goes as an industry, you have the medicinal side.

00:13:41

You have the holistic or kind of alternative medicine side.

00:13:44

And then you have the recreational or fun Friday night side, right?

00:13:48

So on the medical side, women are making about 85% of the health care decisions for their families.

00:13:54

So whether or not marijuana is used as a medicine in your home

00:13:57

is most likely going to be up to the mother of the household or the woman of that household.

00:14:02

Then when you move into the holistic side,

00:14:05

we see that women are the top purchasers of all those alternative trends, yoga, acupuncture,

00:14:11

body work, et cetera. So if you think of cannabis and body work or cannabis as an alternative health

00:14:16

method, again, women are going to be in charge of that purchasing decision primarily. That really

00:14:21

only leaves the recreational side where we see that women are buying the majority of

00:14:25

wine in terms of

00:14:28

take home and they’re desperate

00:14:30

for an alternative to alcohol

00:14:32

on a Friday night.

00:14:34

And so that’s where we see

00:14:36

women totally dominating the purchasing side

00:14:38

which is why you want women running your company.

00:14:52

Something I talked to you guys about before but what um what advice would you give to other women who are trying to break into this industry either as entrepreneurs or kind of seeing this new

00:14:58

this new industry really being in these states where it’s becoming

00:15:02

uh recreationally legal what kind of

00:15:05

advice would you give to these women come we need you join do it whatever talent you have from a

00:15:16

previous gig this industry is thirsty for what you have um the best advice I ever got when I was first starting to work for myself,

00:15:26

I was super enthralled with a woman and I was like, oh my gosh, I want to do what you’re doing

00:15:31

and how do I start doing that? And she said, just start doing your work. And I don’t think she’d

00:15:39

pick me out of a lineup of one, but I remember exactly who she is, where she was when she said

00:15:43

that, just start doing your work. And that’s what I would say. And that’s what I did to create

00:15:48

my business in the cannabis industry. So just choose it, jump in, just start doing your work

00:15:54

and come to networking events so that you can get a feel for what other people are doing in the industry. And it’s a, in my experience,

00:16:06

a very welcoming environment. Come on in.

00:16:14

I would recommend that knowing opportunities are abundant and that you don’t have to settle

00:16:21

for the first thing that comes at your door. And I think it’s really exciting because you’ll

00:16:24

go to a networking event or some big conference

00:16:26

and you meet all these people and all these things feel right.

00:16:29

And you have all these opportunities showing up and you want to, you just want to go for

00:16:34

it.

00:16:35

But like there’s space to breathe and really like feel into the people because you really

00:16:39

want to be working with people that feel good for you and who you are with in the setting

00:16:47

says a lot about who you are as a person and the industry is growing but it’s still very small so

00:16:53

really finding what feels true for you in your heart when you’re connecting with

00:16:57

these opportunities and operating from a place that feels like a full-body yes my advice would be to be educated to get educated

00:17:14

about the plant and everything that goes into it like I know but I’ve encountered

00:17:20

many bud tenders that don’t really know what they’re talking about and it’s really

00:17:26

disappointing and I think it’s not a good look for our industry that if you can talk intelligently

00:17:35

about the plant and sort of know what’s going on I also think it’s valuable to research every facet

00:17:41

of the industry because there are a lot of people that smoke weed but

00:17:45

they don’t know about dumping buckets you know like it’s it’s a lot of really hard work that

00:17:49

goes into making this plant available and accessible so if you are interested there

00:17:53

are a whole bunch of different areas to get involved and you know knowing about each of them

00:17:59

can help you find the right one. I think research is really important,

00:18:06

and having your own knowledge about the plant

00:18:09

and the different parts of the industry

00:18:11

can sort of help you decide where to get involved.

00:18:15

When I tell people I work in the cannabis industry,

00:18:17

a lot of folks still assume that that’s either growing

00:18:20

or working as a bud tender.

00:18:22

A lot of folks don’t realize that there are PR folks,

00:18:26

there are business development folks, there’s sales, there’s marketing,

00:18:29

there’s education, there’s trainers, there’s folks who are leading retreats.

00:18:34

I mean, it’s a massive opportunity, and there is so much opportunity right now.

00:18:39

So I think knowing what you want and what your own values are

00:18:45

and finding a company that aligns with those ethics and values.

00:18:49

For example, I first started in this industry with a vape pen company in Denver.

00:18:54

And it was really valuable because I started at the bottom and learned extraction

00:18:58

and learned the science of the plant and how it works to make infused products.

00:19:03

But after a while, I had a really hard time knowing that all these cartridges

00:19:07

and small battery pieces were just kind of littering the planet.

00:19:12

They were all disposable.

00:19:13

And that eventually led me to leave the company and find something that was way more eco.

00:19:18

And that was a value I realized over time.

00:19:22

So I think that’s an important part going into it. And then also

00:19:26

being an agent of the movement and of the plant. I think women are key to ending the stigma

00:19:33

in cannabis. And when there’s a well-spoken woman next to you who says she works in cannabis,

00:19:39

you know, if you’re a conservative-minded individual, that might sort of shock you a

00:19:44

little bit or open your mind, especially if you’re sitting on a individual that might sort of shock you a little bit or open your

00:19:45

mind um especially if you’re sitting on a plane and talking to a stranger and just very proudly

00:19:50

say i work in the cannabis industry and being able to be an agent for the plant and um what

00:19:56

what you’re doing is really important what are some things you guys would like to see

00:20:03

in the future of the cannabis industry?

00:20:06

Does anybody want to see?

00:20:10

I’d like to see more awareness about environmentally sensitive growing practices.

00:20:17

Somebody who just bought a farm that’s been used to grow cannabis for 25, 30 years.

00:20:29

a farm that’s been used to grow cannabis for 25-30 years. Some of those practices are really hard on the land. Some growers do a good job being environmentally sensitive. The growers

00:20:36

who own the farm that I bought fortunately did not use pesticides or fungicides, but

00:20:42

that has been relatively common. I had to test all the soil and water before I bought this farm.

00:20:49

And I spent about eight years as a business reporter covering the industry

00:20:55

and got a chance to see how some of the farming operations on public lands were done.

00:21:04

And in some cases, inorganic fertilizer is used and water is diverted,

00:21:09

and some of those practices can be really environmentally harmful.

00:21:13

I think there’s a real movement to a greater environmental awareness,

00:21:18

testing for pesticides and fungicides, the support for organic farmers,

00:21:22

and to be more environmentally sensitive and careful

00:21:26

with the land i want to see everything like just everything happen i want to see as uh using hemp

00:21:37

oil as a replacement for petroleum and for all of our oil-based products like we never talk about

00:21:42

the hemp industry and panels like this and i’m so excited about industrial hemp, and I have nothing to offer you on that whatsoever.

00:21:49

But if you are excited about industrial hemp, please go make that a reality.

00:21:54

And then on the cannabis side, I want to see every variation. I want to see

00:21:58

extremely medical products. I want to see holistic health products. I want to see cannabis massage available at the airport.

00:22:06

I want to have my edible served to me on a plane, although the air pressure kind of makes you might faint.

00:22:13

Not that any of us ever did that.

00:22:27

want to see it as a as a fully embodied um you know great uh recreational option um and a replacement of alcohol and cocaine being kind of our party drugs i’d like to see more conversation

00:22:37

around the stigma like on a deep-rooted level i personally personally was in the industry for three years and I moved home because I was

00:22:47

dealing with my own illness and I was wondering why the cannabis wasn’t working for me, right?

00:22:52

I was known to treat all of these symptoms and because I was back in my parents’ house where I

00:22:58

lived and grew up and got punished for smoking cannabis, I was able to access this stress recording in my body that was blocking my

00:23:07

ability to integrate the medicine. And it’s because my, my mind knew that it was right,

00:23:13

but my body was so used to going, um, going home after consuming and dealing with my dad,

00:23:20

like staring me in the eyes and like, like trying to confront me with my usage.

00:23:25

He would search the car when we got back from school

00:23:29

and find a seed and be like, I found this in the car.

00:23:32

I’m like, oh God, Jesus Christ, Dad.

00:23:35

So there’s a lot of conditioning around how bad it was

00:23:39

and you think about the DARE campaigns and all of this feeling

00:23:42

and knowing that on a collective level,

00:23:45

there’s so many people that have died because of this families have been broken up the mexican drug

00:23:49

cartel so it’s it’s pretty violent and when i was home and dealing with my illness i was smoking

00:23:55

and i was hiding it from my parents still even though i knew it was a medicine even though i

00:23:59

worked in the industry for three years even though my parents fucking invest it in cannabis company now

00:24:05

cannabis companies then. And so I was like, Oh my God, I still feel like I’m doing something wrong.

00:24:11

And so finally realizing that allowed me to drop into the medicine from a place that it became a

00:24:19

teacher plant, right? Because we think about ayahuasca and ibogaine and all of these plant medicines that really help us get a reality check on what’s clear for us and our truth. And I started working with

00:24:31

cannabis in that way, in that form. And the only reason why I got there is because I recognize how

00:24:36

deeply ingrained I thought that this was wrong. I mean, there’s people that have cancer and they are

00:24:43

given prescriptions for cannabis and

00:24:45

they won’t take it because they feel like they just don’t think that that’s right. It’s bad.

00:24:50

It’s illegal. It’s a schedule one drug, right? So it’s like there’s so much work to do around

00:24:56

healing the consciousness around cannabis. And so I’m really looking forward to

00:25:00

bringing that awareness further into the industry and seeing more of it.

00:25:04

to bringing that awareness further into the industry and seeing more of it.

00:25:13

I look forward to medical professionals being trained in the endocannabinoid system.

00:25:21

That when my mother, who’s healing lung cancer, asks her doctor about cannabis, because I begged her to, and he’s like, no, I don’t think that’s going to be a contribution to you in any way,

00:25:27

that she would get a different answer.

00:25:29

Along with that, I’d love to see more and more research,

00:25:34

so that as the paradigm shifts,

00:25:38

and as my mothers of the world would consider plant medicine,

00:25:44

that she’d have something,

00:25:46

and there is, there is research, but more tangible to be like, telling you it could help.

00:25:53

So that’s what I’d like to see.

00:25:58

Research was also my hope for the industry in the future, and it’s happening.

00:26:02

my hope for the industry in the future.

00:26:04

And it’s happening.

00:26:08

But I think we’re going to discover a lot of really amazing things about what the plant can do that we might know empirically

00:26:12

but don’t have really hard evidence with specific ailments or certain issues.

00:26:18

But, you know, like our goal as a company at Kikoko

00:26:22

is to get women and people off of pharmaceuticals

00:26:26

and provide an alternative for alcohol.

00:26:28

That’s really what we’re trying to do.

00:26:31

And I think only when there is a full integration, like what Jasmine was talking about,

00:26:36

and this research, can we truly do that.

00:26:39

Because there’s a little bit of research out there,

00:26:42

and as a product creator, we can create products on that research, but it’s shaky.

00:26:48

There’s a lot of sort of empirical evidence. that doesn’t yield very many beneficial effects

00:27:05

or doesn’t have the same type of terpene and cannabinoid production

00:27:11

as other cannabis plants grown in places like California or Colorado or Oregon.

00:27:17

So I think when this research comes out,

00:27:20

that’s just going to really change the game for both people who are creating products

00:27:25

and who are educating and using.

00:27:27

It’s going to be a nice big shift.

00:27:32

I, too, look forward to cannabis everywhere.

00:27:37

I think that it’s really important to have full access to it.

00:27:40

I use it for migraines even sometimes.

00:27:43

I think it’s safer than a lot of over-the-counter meds

00:27:47

that people take. And so people think of medical marijuana as needing a specific condition,

00:27:52

but there are a lot of ways to use marijuana medicinally that have nothing to do with like

00:27:57

a chronic condition. It could be you have a sunburn and you want to put some salve on it,

00:28:01

or like you bumped your knee and that’s going to help there too in fact i think topicals are fantastic because they’re a really nice way to ease people

00:28:10

into the idea of using cannabis differently they’re not psychoactive and they can really

00:28:16

just help the body feel better i also look forward to home grow being a thing that is everywhere

00:28:23

and people being able to really have a relationship

00:28:27

with the plant in the way that they want a lot of people won’t want to take the time to grow their

00:28:31

own plants they’ll want to go to a store and get something that’s been made for what they’re

00:28:35

looking for and that’s great but i think if you want the opportunity to grow your own plant then

00:28:41

that’s something you should be able to do. And I love writing recipes and teaching people how to infuse their own cooking oils, because

00:28:48

I think that can be very empowering to be able to create your own medicine.

00:28:53

So I just look forward to seeing every single part of the situation from home grow to like

00:29:00

widespread cannabis products that anybody can use.

00:29:03

widespread cannabis products that anybody can use just a comment on that um it’s such an interesting thing to i have two grandmothers

00:29:15

one of which was from japan and uh has bad arthritis who i’ve been trying to get to use medical marijuana and

00:29:25

medicinal oil and stuff like that forever,

00:29:28

forever and ever.

00:29:29

Just like,

00:29:30

check it out,

00:29:30

check it out.

00:29:31

And she’s like,

00:29:31

okay.

00:29:32

And then she’ll like never use it.

00:29:33

Cause she’s like,

00:29:34

I don’t know.

00:29:35

And then on the opposite side,

00:29:38

my father’s mother would,

00:29:40

who came here as a Mexican immigrant,

00:29:43

um,

00:29:44

to work in on farms they would take cannabis and they

00:29:47

would make salves for like working farmers when they were sore would be using that and that was

00:29:53

just a traditional thing that was done and with poor mexican farmers that they would just get the

00:30:00

marijuana and they would grind it down with some fat and they would use it on sore joints and

00:30:05

sore parts of their body so it’s an interesting parallel to see like the culture of like the

00:30:10

integrated culture of like no this is terrible and also like no this is medicine and yeah I

00:30:16

absolutely want to see it to feel more comfortable for all people of all ages to feel like that’s a

00:30:22

something integrated and something that they feel safe doing.

00:30:26

Do you have

00:30:27

something that you want to see in the future of the industry?

00:30:34

I’m, as a business reporter, really

00:30:36

interested in the financial impact

00:30:38

of the cannabis industry.

00:30:41

I’m living

00:30:41

now in the Sierra foothills

00:30:43

and I think that

00:30:47

at least in California, Humboldt was maybe phase one

00:30:50

of the cannabis industry infusing an entire

00:30:54

economy, Mendocino was maybe phase two

00:30:56

and now the Sierra Foothills, Nevada City is phase three

00:30:59

and I’m very interested in grey market economies

00:31:02

and how the cannabis business has really changed entire economies and entire communities and how that money has been used.

00:31:13

And I’m really enjoying watching the explosion of artists and small businesses in a place like Nevada City right now and what people are doing with that money,

00:31:25

which I think is slightly different than how that money was used in Humboldt and Mendocino.

00:31:31

And I think it’s a very interesting phenomenon. I think it’s financed a lot of art and a lot of

00:31:38

culture and a lot of small businesses. And the fact that a lot of people can’t put that money

00:31:43

in the banks due to banking laws and money laundering laws

00:31:46

has had a kind of funny upside

00:31:49

because that money has gone directly into the community in some cases

00:31:53

and it’s been very interesting to see what people have done with it

00:31:57

and how that’s really benefited entire communities

00:32:00

and revitalized entire economies.

00:32:08

All right, this is something I really wanted to ask all of you what’s your favorite strain of cannabis we joke about using this as like if we ever don’t

00:32:18

have a door list for a party but we want to make sure that everyone coming in is like cool with

00:32:21

marijuana we’re just going to ask that at the door like what’s your favorite strain if they can give

00:32:24

like a good answer right away then we know you

00:32:26

know they actually consume cannabis in some way and if they’re like i don’t know do you have free

00:32:30

drinks um so i’m really into jack herrera right now yeah i think that’s my answer

00:32:40

uh my girlfriends and i have really been enjoying pink panties recently.

00:32:49

I honestly have no idea because I have so many goddamn samples and I just smoke whatever I find around the house and I don’t even read the name and I’m like, whatever.

00:32:58

I really honestly have no idea.

00:33:01

I will second that.

00:33:03

That’s exactly the same place I am.

00:33:04

And flour is not my primary consumption

00:33:07

I enjoy like

00:33:08

half a cookie is my

00:33:11

play place

00:33:12

so infused products

00:33:15

about a 5

00:33:17

milligram

00:33:17

sweetgrass kitchen chocolate chip cookie

00:33:21

and they grow their own

00:33:22

planties there and it likes it’s uh it’s it likes

00:33:28

to get the dance party started so it’s more of a sativa yes lots of cannabis always available

00:33:37

but i do love the jack strains as well it’s high in a terpene called pinene, which is kind of a smell you get

00:33:46

when you’re walking through the forest and it’s just rained and it’s really good for memory and

00:33:51

creativity. So I really enjoy that. But I’ve also really started enjoying a one-to-one CBD THC

00:34:00

flower, which is becoming more and more common to find in dispensaries.

00:34:06

Yay.

00:34:07

And it’s just less cerebral and less edgy and a little more body,

00:34:13

but not in the same way that an indica is a body.

00:34:15

It’s just kind of relaxing and tingly up here, too.

00:34:22

I am totally a sucker for the hazes.

00:34:25

If it’s a haze, I’m probably going to like it.

00:34:28

I studied in the Netherlands in college,

00:34:31

and it was the first time that I really could trust a strain name

00:34:34

because, like, I had, you know, dealers back east,

00:34:37

I literally heard them making up the names.

00:34:40

They’re like, oh, this smells like pineapple.

00:34:41

Let’s call it Pineapple Express.

00:34:43

You know, like, can’t trust anything.

00:34:45

But there is this one strain at this one coffee shop called LSD, which made for some funny conversations when we were all like, let’s go to Amsterdam and get that LSD.

00:34:54

And our classmates were like, what? And we’re like, no, it’s just weed.

00:35:13

And then I would say one of my favorite things that I love to tell people about now is hash oil distillate is really amazing to cook with because I’m primarily a dabber. So that’s how I discovered it in the first place. It can be dabbed. But the process of distilling the cannabinoids removes all of the terpenes.

00:35:22

So it has none of the cannabis taste that some people don’t like

00:35:26

that keeps them from being able to eat edibles and it’s already decarboxylated so you don’t have

00:35:31

to worry about toasting it in the oven to activate it you can even just eat it right out of the jar

00:35:35

and so I really love using that in edibles particularly and I think it does a really nice job.

00:35:48

Yeah, I think that there’s a really large market in cannabis consumers who are older people.

00:35:55

And I’m wondering how product producers and marketers

00:36:00

can effectively reach out to particularly older people

00:36:05

who might be new to the cannabis experience.

00:36:08

I would say start by hiring older people into your team and into your community,

00:36:13

and we’re going to have better answers over here.

00:36:19

It was a couple years ago that the Drug Policy alliance put a call out for models non-model models to

00:36:28

have shots of a variety of diverse ages and just a diversity in these stock photos of people

00:36:40

consuming cannabis because when news stories were coming out they would choose

00:36:46

stock photos that were not relatable to the majority of people and I think something like

00:36:54

that is a great way to begin to change the perception and I love what Chelsea said earlier

00:37:01

is for everybody that’s in the cannabis industry to proudly come out of the cannabis closet and say what we’re up to in the world.

00:37:13

I think if your story as a cannabis company has, you know, if the founders are older people

00:37:22

or if it involves older people,

00:37:25

to really tell that story and make that a big part of your company’s identity.

00:37:32

And I think events, educational events, is a really strong way to reach these folks.

00:37:39

And I think making it, reaching out to maybe assisted living homes or directors of these facilities that work with older people,

00:37:49

a lot more of them are becoming very receptive to learning about cannabis.

00:37:53

And I think that’s where I got my grandma to use cannabis for her arthritis about two years ago.

00:38:00

Because she called me and she was finally like, I’m in so much pain, I’ll try anything.

00:38:05

But it took her a while to get there. And it’s all about the education for these folks. So

00:38:11

providing a space and putting together a couple hour tasting event, an educational event with

00:38:20

non-medicated and medicated options is a really good way to bring people in.

00:38:27

I think putting things in relatable forms can also be really helpful,

00:38:33

like full extract cannabis oil or Feco or RSO, depending on what you call it.

00:38:41

People use that for cancer treatment.

00:38:44

And you can eat it right out of the syringe,

00:38:46

but a lot of people put it in capsules,

00:38:47

and that makes it pretty approachable to just take a capsule,

00:38:51

and that’s like taking a pill, you know,

00:38:53

or putting it into an edible or using a topical.

00:38:58

I think topicals are a great gateway

00:39:00

because they don’t break the blood barrier,

00:39:03

and they’re just really helpful,

00:39:04

and you can tell

00:39:05

immediately that they are helping and so I think you know focusing on things like that it’s not

00:39:10

like you’re sitting around smoking a big bong although that can be very fun there are lots of

00:39:16

different ways that can make cannabis more approachable so definitely getting the word out about that.

00:39:30

Great. I think we’re pretty close to time.

00:39:32

Do you guys have questions for them?

00:39:33

Yeah?

00:39:35

We’ve got a lot up here.

00:39:39

Hey, so what about moms?

00:39:42

In the California push for legalization recently,

00:39:43

everybody was like, oh, but moms.

00:39:46

Moms are going to be like, oh, but think of the children.

00:39:49

And they’re going to be this big pushback against legalization.

00:39:53

Do you all see ways to get through to moms?

00:39:55

Do you all see this is a non-issue?

00:39:56

Are moms just not going to give a shit? Are moms going to be like, is it about older moms, older people being more conservative?

00:40:03

And then as today’s 15 year olds become moms

00:40:06

they’re just not going to give a shit and be like whatever my kids

00:40:07

are a pain in the ass I’m going to stop crying I’ll smoke a J

00:40:09

right like

00:40:11

how do you see this dynamic playing out

00:40:13

are they like allies or

00:40:15

tricky demographic and like legalization

00:40:17

or what have you

00:40:19

I think the most

00:40:24

surprising thing was that the starting seed of legalization,

00:40:27

successful legalization, was actually by moms with these epileptic kids, right?

00:40:32

The big turnaround in public opinion on marijuana happens around Sanjay Gupta

00:40:38

coming out and being like, hey, I was wrong.

00:40:40

I’m America’s doctor, and these kids really need this medicine, and it works.

00:40:44

So moms are

00:40:45

incredible strong ally for legalization if they had had any experience with the product. But then,

00:40:53

of course, we also have tons of moms and tons of dads who are scared of cannabis or really

00:40:59

don’t necessarily know a lot about cannabis itself, but are afraid of the consequences of prohibition.

00:41:07

Yeah, I was actually going to say something similar.

00:41:10

I was at the signing of the bill in Pennsylvania,

00:41:14

which was, I think, what, 2016,

00:41:16

and everybody that was in the room,

00:41:20

the majority of the people were all moms with their children.

00:41:23

They had very sick children,

00:41:30

and a lot of them were wheelchair bound. And it was just so empowering to be with all these mothers that actually really, you know, forced that bill to be passed. And I’m actually, I’m

00:41:36

friends with Daylon Leach, the state Senator who authored the bill. And he said these people would

00:41:40

sleep on his floor just to like keep the the needle moving forward with

00:41:45

this one they wouldn’t give up and then you said something about um i don’t know you said something

00:41:50

about um you know how do we like change the way people are relating to cannabis and is it so many

00:41:57

i’m probably not repeating this right but there’s something that inspired what i’m about to say now

00:42:01

and um daylon leach he once quoted in an interview I did with

00:42:06

him. He’s like, Jessica, for every, every one person that’s born 10 people that are for prohibition

00:42:14

die. Right. So it’s like, eventually it’s just going to go away, you know, and you know, we’ll

00:42:20

do a lot of work to get there before that all cancels itself out like that but i just think that’s an interesting thing right yeah education and research there’s undoing old programming

00:42:33

and once that happens it’s going to be easier and easier

00:42:37

yeah i think moms is a big a big group of people. You’re going to have moms.

00:42:46

There’s moms in California who will picket a new dispensary going up in their neighborhood because it’s not in my neighborhood.

00:42:54

But you also have moms that are finding a lot of relief from cannabis.

00:42:59

Some of my business partners are mothers.

00:43:02

And it’s really amazing to see their approach in educating their children about cannabis and what they do.

00:43:09

There’s other parents who are more afraid to tell their kids what they do.

00:43:14

But I think moms in particular, especially working mothers, they’ve got a lot of shit on their plate.

00:43:21

They’re trying to be mothers, good partners,

00:43:25

you know, productive people. They’re running around like crazy. They’ve got a lot going on,

00:43:29

and they arguably need cannabis more than anybody. So I think more and more of them are catching on

00:43:35

to that, and there’s more alternatives to smoking now available, such as tea and cookies and

00:43:42

topicals and products that seem a lot more friendly

00:43:46

than having to smoke something and create smell in the home.

00:43:50

It’s much easier to keep it a subtle part of your lifestyle.

00:43:56

So I see a lot of the delivery services and dispensaries

00:44:00

and other product manufacturers in California have mentioned

00:44:04

they are seeing a big

00:44:05

uptake in the soccer mom type and there’s more options curated toward that crowd.

00:44:13

So it’s changing quickly and it’s very interesting and awesome.

00:44:19

I feel like people talk about the children a lot but but if you really think about it, like legalizing is so

00:44:25

much better for the children because drug dealers don’t ID. So that immediately cuts off the easy

00:44:31

access in states that have legalized. There has not been an increase in use for people that are

00:44:37

underage. If you’re a parent that has a child and, know realistically that child may experiment with cannabis they might

00:44:46

be facing all sorts of sanctions like students have had their federal student funding taken away

00:44:52

because they were caught with a little bit of shake and parents now can you know drink as much

00:44:59

beer as they want but in some cases get cPS called if they’re using cannabis. So even beyond like

00:45:06

being able to treat sick children with this medicine, that’s really important. There are

00:45:11

so many reasons that it’s so much safer for every child for it to be legal. So hopefully, you know,

00:45:18

I know some people that are very passionate and protesting are probably not open to having a

00:45:22

conversation. But just being aware

00:45:25

of those kinds of things and bring them up in conversations with people you know and then maybe

00:45:31

they’ll talk about it with people they know and maybe you know we can we can start doing the right

00:45:37

thing for the children which is legalizing weed and having a cannabis industry.

00:45:48

I look forward to a time when the use of cannabis is not used in child custody

00:45:50

cases against women

00:45:52

and mothers and when the

00:45:54

Department of Youth Services does not try

00:45:56

to take away the children of women

00:45:58

who use cannabis and both those

00:46:00

things still occur across the

00:46:02

country and I think that’s worth

00:46:03

fighting against.

00:46:20

So not everybody has a great relationship with cannabis and the you know certainly you know in all of this you know talk about reducing the stigma and all this talk about you know, in all of this, you know, talk about reducing the stigma and all this talk about, you know, I see, you know, uh, like even brands recommending like daily consumption of, of things

00:46:32

and stuff like that, that there are, there, there, every person’s different. And I’m just curious

00:46:36

how all of this fits with that reality to how, how do we respond and how does the industry respond um to uh the fact that it’s it’s

00:46:49

not necessarily the best fit for for everybody um and how they use it so when people feel like

00:46:58

cannabis may not be for them a okay and to still encourage the awareness of medicinal benefits and the ending

00:47:09

of prohibition and all of the repercussions and ripple effect of that is so powerful so you know

00:47:16

i can choose not to drink vodka and someone else can choose not to consume cannabis, but to allow safe access for it,

00:47:25

is I think what people, even non-consumers,

00:47:29

can hopefully get behind.

00:47:35

I think there is a big underlying theme in cannabis,

00:47:38

which is having the freedom and the civil right

00:47:43

to choose your own medicine.

00:47:45

And for some folks, that isn’t cannabis.

00:47:48

And I think it’s important that especially new industry members,

00:47:52

as they join our industry and start working in the business,

00:47:55

that they learn that as well.

00:47:56

Because we all have these endocannabinoid systems,

00:47:59

much like a skeletal system or a nervous system.

00:48:02

We have our endocannabinoid system.

00:48:04

And we all produce our own cannabinoids called phytocannabinoids.

00:48:08

And some folks just, you know, have enough or they, you know,

00:48:12

whatever the science is there that we’re the neuroscience,

00:48:16

we might not need an infusion of external cannabinoids in our systems.

00:48:20

And everyone’s different.

00:48:21

And that might be because, because you know there’s variation in

00:48:25

our cb1 and cb2 receptors in our body or we just have different placements of them so it’s it’s

00:48:32

going to be super interesting to learn why it’s really beneficial for some people and not and

00:48:37

i think it’s really important to guide people whether you’re a bud tender or someone who does

00:48:42

education that experimentation is really important because we can all drink a glass of wine and generally feel

00:48:49

the same thing but cannabis leads to a very can be very different experience

00:48:56

for a lot of us too I think that cannabis is

00:49:05

great for most people

00:49:06

whatever that means

00:49:07

it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re using THC

00:49:10

CBD has a lot of great properties

00:49:12

and it doesn’t get you high and anxious

00:49:14

the same way that THC does

00:49:16

maybe it is using a topical that doesn’t

00:49:18

break the blood barrier

00:49:20

maybe it’s taking advantage of industrial hemp

00:49:23

there’s all sorts of

00:49:24

amazing things that can come out of this plant

00:49:26

even if you’re not putting it into your body

00:49:29

or using it in the way that people think.

00:49:31

And I think it’s important to evaluate each person’s experience

00:49:36

and why they’ve had a negative experience.

00:49:39

For example, with dabbing, I’ve written a few guides for beginners

00:49:43

because it can be really intense. And I’ve talked

00:49:46

to a lot of people that are like, oh, I’ll never do that again because I got sweaty and anxious.

00:49:51

And they had just had one that was way too big. And it’s unfortunate. And then I’ve been able to

00:49:57

help people have really good experiences when they’ve tried it again because you can just get

00:50:02

the little flavor and it’s so good. So yeah yeah i think if somebody or maybe somebody ate in a whole entire edible we had some

00:50:09

writers do that when weed first became legal and it’s too much so maybe just try five milligrams

00:50:16

and see how that goes um so i think yeah there’s definitely a person to person situation but

00:50:23

hopefully everyone can enjoy at least the hemp part

00:50:26

yeah I just wanted to

00:50:39

touch on the mother thing

00:50:40

there’s an organization called

00:50:42

Parents for Pot

00:50:44

and there are 15 chapters throughout

00:50:47

the United States, and they work mainly their parents who have children or their parents who

00:50:54

have been incarcerated for marijuana. And our organization, I serve on the Alaska board,

00:51:02

we try to help people who are suffering from, you know, the prison

00:51:06

system, family members being involved in that, and also the education and medical. So parents

00:51:12

for PAW. It’s parents number four PAW. Thank you for sharing. Thank you so much.

00:51:21

Tanya, and then we have to respect Andy.

00:51:26

Actually, just to

00:51:27

touch on Troy’s question,

00:51:30

just to share,

00:51:32

in my dream world,

00:51:34

marijuana and the excitement

00:51:36

around the cannabis as a medicine

00:51:38

that’s been generated

00:51:39

in the last decade

00:51:41

would ideally lead

00:51:43

a more mature way of looking at medicine in general,

00:51:47

especially in plant medicine, that every one of us is different,

00:51:50

and we have to understand how our body works and realize that there’s not one answer for everybody.

00:51:56

And that’s true about the pharmaceutical, like conventional medicine industry as well,

00:51:59

but that’s not how it’s presented, and that’s why people think, oh, it works, then it works.

00:52:25

Anyway, but my question is actually about what your perspectives are on how the growing cannabis industry and women in cannabis particularly can intersect with social justice and criminal justice and what’s happened where there’s a privileged class that are getting to use cannabis in a more conscious way,

00:52:29

and obviously not all over the country,

00:52:31

but there are millions, I don’t know,

00:52:35

there’s so many people of black and brown color

00:52:38

who are in prison for cannabis at the same time,

00:52:42

and I’d love to see this industry, our industry,

00:52:45

be more proactive in fixing that problem.

00:52:51

So the really cool thing about the cannabis industry

00:52:53

is you have a really diverse group of people coming together.

00:52:57

And you have your Wall Street bankers and your counterculture hippies.

00:53:02

And there’s a lot of opportunity to do good

00:53:05

because a lot of the people that are applying for their license

00:53:09

to get these grows and manufacturing things going,

00:53:13

they have to talk about their community plans

00:53:15

and how they’re going to give back to the community

00:53:17

where the center is going to be.

00:53:19

And I’m thinking specifically about Oakland, California.

00:53:23

They have this project called the Hood Incubator.

00:53:26

And there’s also an equity exchange program that works with people that have been incarcerated

00:53:31

to get them linked up with companies who will work with them to help them create a company

00:53:38

and just make up for the suffering that they’ve done.

00:53:41

So that’s like a far advanced example of something that, you know,

00:53:46

the communities are doing to address that very problem.

00:53:53

Yeah, I think maybe Oakland started this trend,

00:53:56

but in applying for our license in Emeryville,

00:53:59

a big part of the application is how is your company

00:54:04

and your placement in our city gonna

00:54:06

going to help the community and they don’t ask for anything specific they are asking the the

00:54:14

applicate the folks writing the application how they can help the city so they’re encouraging

00:54:20

folks to research what the city is lacking or what what what opportunities

00:54:26

there are to give back and then to create a plan for that so I think there’s a really exciting

00:54:31

opportunity for local government to get involved here and create a program for license applicator applications to encourage that yeah i think it’s also being like mindful like i definitely helped

00:54:50

organize a lot of events in new york city and we always made sure that we had a diverse group of

00:54:56

speakers that included women minorities like all sorts of people that can really give perspective on every facet of the situation.

00:55:06

So when there are events and opportunities to share people’s stories,

00:55:10

I think it’s just very, very important to include those stories for sure.

00:55:15

And, you know, education, like everything.

00:55:18

But it really is just talking to people.

00:55:20

That’s what changes people’s minds and helps progress move forward

00:55:24

or the personal

00:55:25

connections so thank you ladies so much for being here i want i don’t want to take up too much more

00:55:35

time because of annie has a naloxone training after this but i really want to thank each and

00:55:41

every one of you for being here and sharing your stories and sharing your work.

00:55:45

And how important it is for us to take the opportunity to raise women’s voices, especially in things that are considered not women’s work.

00:55:56

So thank you.

00:55:58

I hope that you guys will join us in the future with the Women’s Visionary Congress.

00:56:02

We’ll definitely be having, I think, some more women in cannabis events in the future.

00:56:06

So thank you so much.

00:56:18

You’re listening to The Psychedelic Salon, where people are changing their lives one

00:56:22

thought at a time.

00:56:23

salon where people are changing their lives one thought at a time.

00:56:30

I think that all of us here in the salon would like to thank these women for helping to build the cannabis industry. And I also want to compliment them for being so courageous about

00:56:35

speaking out and organizing events to help educate people about the benefits of this wonderful plant.

00:56:43

Now, contrary to what some people may think,

00:56:45

this most definitely is women’s work.

00:56:48

And I’m not talking about just trimming.

00:56:51

Organizing and operating a cannabis business

00:56:53

is as much women’s work as it is men’s work.

00:56:57

As a Daily Toker, I salute you all for your hard work

00:57:01

and for the risks that you’ve taken

00:57:03

to push this issue along to where it

00:57:06

is now today. Well done, you cannabis workers. You know, this is, well, it’s turning out to be kind

00:57:15

of an unusual podcast for me. Usually I try to keep things upbeat, and if I hadn’t brought things

00:57:21

down a bit with my introduction, well, this would be a real rainbows and bunnies podcast. But there are things about life which we sometimes have to confront,

00:57:31

even when they aren’t all that pleasant. And one of those things, of course, is death.

00:57:37

And so I’m going to close today with a little remembrance of one of our fellow salonners

00:57:42

who has now moved on to another dimension.

00:57:52

His name was Rob O. And to tell the truth, I’ve never met Rob, but I think that a few years ago,

00:57:57

he and I interacted on some forums back during the time that the Dope Fiend was still doing his podcast. Anyway, a week or so ago, one of my Twitter followers and fellow salonner, Mark from Bat Records, posted a tweet that read,

00:58:09

A great supporter of the show from the early days, Rob O., friend of McKenna, passed on last Saturday. Journey well, old friend.

00:58:19

Well, I got in touch with Mark to learn more about Rob, and this is what he said.

00:58:24

I got in touch with Mark to learn more about Rob, and this is what he said.

00:58:32

Unfortunately, Rob passed away last Saturday at the age of 65 from natural causes.

00:58:35

He appears to have died peacefully in his home.

00:58:39

Rob was a well-loved Welsh psychedelic legend.

00:58:43

He was introduced to shamanism by Terence McKenna,

00:58:52

and Rob then introduced many others, especially through your podcasts, which he would distribute to would-be psychonauts, along with other things.

00:59:01

Rob cultivated sativia plants at home, using them and his knowledge of shamanism to defy the odds against 30-plus years of lung disorders.

00:59:06

He was well regarded and will be sorely missed by all who knew him.

00:59:13

And in my opinion, I think Rob will also be sorely missed even by those of us who didn’t know him personally. I can still remember the first time that I read the famous meditation

00:59:18

that John Donne wrote in 1624, almost 400 years ago, and part of it goes like this.

00:59:27

No man is an island entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.

00:59:35

If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were,

00:59:47

the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manner of thine own or of thine friends were.

00:59:49

Each man’s death diminishes me, for I am involved in humankind, therefore send not

00:59:56

to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.

01:00:01

And for now this is Lorenzo signing off from Cyberdelic Space. Be well, my friends.