Your Highness Podcast

7.08: Judgy Wudgy Was a Cannabis Advocate

Episode Summary

Diana and JR talk about how judgmental attitudes keep novices from truly embracing the cannabis space.

Episode Notes

Diana and JR talk about how judgmental attitudes keep novices from truly embracing the cannabis space.

Important links:

Lumi Bloom

Love You Three

Mitragaia

Curio

Listeners get 10% off using YHPOD on mitragaia.com

Transcript

Episode Transcription

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Speaker 1 [00:00:00] During the holiday season. I would like to take a minute to thank all of our listeners and guests for making this past year so special. Thanks to your continued support, we can keep doing our part to normalize cannabis by sharing the uncensored truth with the world. We are honored that you choose to spend time with us and we wish everyone a safe and healthy holiday season. Welcome to Your Highness podcast, where your hosts. I'm Diana Crash, and I'm here with J.R. Crash. 

 

Speaker 2 [00:00:57] Hey, everybody. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:00:59] I'm not sure how to introduce you because you're, you know, now my steady co-host and also my husband. So sometimes I forget that I have to introduce you in every scenario out in the world. But now that we're doing it podcast, it's even more important. So anyway, that is all to say. How are you doing today, J.R.? 

 

Speaker 2 [00:01:25] I am. I'm doing well. That was quite the amazing introduction as both your co-host and husband. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:01:35] We're going to start this episode as we start every episode with our fave pot. Fave, not pot. And since it's the gratitude season, let's just call it that, because we're not sure what we want to replace the word Thanksgiving with. But you are supposed to be thankful for things and that is a synonym for being grateful for things. So therefore, with this attitude of gratitude, we're deciding to do two fave pots. Just one fave not. But anyway, we're both going to talk about our favorite cannabis related and non cannabis related items or things or whatever. Anyway, I'm going to start and I'll start with my fave pot. So if you listened to the last episode. Thank you. First of all and secondly, you may have heard me talk about a company called Love You three. And they sent me a bunch of products to try out. And one of them is called Beauty Sleep. And the flavor is lavender is lavender. I was going to say lavender. 

 

Speaker 2 [00:03:02] It's a mixture of lavender and legendary. I say we just go with the 11. There is well, there's what we call things now. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:03:08] I mean, it could be called that because it's lavender and blueberry. So if you put them together, it's lavender and it's legendary because that's an amazing combo right there. Lavender. Blueberry. Yum. 

 

Speaker 2 [00:03:24] Every time every time I eat blueberries, I make sure to throw some lavender petals into my mouth as well, just to really get the full spectrum of of of taste and legendary ness there. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:03:37] Anyway, so these gummies are CBN and CBD gummies. So there's 25 milligrams of CBD and five milligrams of CBN in each one of them. And I'm a big fan of CBN, as you know, J.R so I'm a big fan of these gummies. They're delicious. I could eat the whole jar in one sitting. If I didn't know that it would knock me out for probably a couple of days. But anyway, so. Oh, do I want to take turns? All right, this is mine. 

 

Speaker 2 [00:04:13] Okay. Leads into the second one. My first one bleeds into. Okay. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:04:18] So my second fave pot is a CBD tea, which I have always wanted to try a CVT. I always thought it was like kind of like the pinnacle of luxury to have like a nice hot tea with CBD in it, you know, or a hot CBD tea. Anyway, that's, that's all to say that I've tried this company called Lumi Bloom. They sent me some samples and one of them was Vanilla Bean and CBD and it was so delicious. And I also had their mint and CBD tea, so I'm saving the camomile one for last. But anyway, as you know, I'm a big fan, especially right now. It's perfect time to drink tea in this weather. So check out Lumi Bloom and order yourself some and also love you three was who I mentioned earlier and I'll put the links in the show notes. What are your fave parts right now Jay are all right. 

 

Speaker 2 [00:05:32] So a couple of weeks ago I made mention that one of the things that I was still looking to work on was my focus issues where I have a problem focusing. I ended up going and getting some of these Turpin infused shoes by the company Curio here in Maryland. And you know going off of its if it's profile because it is a terpene infused chew with it having pining in it, I thought maybe that would help me focus. So when I was trying to think of my favorite pint, I was like, Let me try one of these chews so I can focus because I was having a hard time thinking of my favorite pot. So I started showing these chews. Let me just start off by saying that the texture to chew is really amazing. I'm big on that. I hate eating a gummy that takes like 10 minutes to chew, you know, just let me chew it in, like, a couple seconds and let me swallow it. So I chewed the chew and it did help me focus and it helped me focus enough to focus on the chew itself. You know, how about that? As a as a full circle situation? It was the chew all along, the. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:06:44] Full spectrum, shall we say, situation. 

 

Speaker 2 [00:06:48] I don't want to say that because I don't want to confuse people that this is a full spectrum product. But it did it did circle me back around like my own little Wizard of Oz moment that I had what I needed all along with my pie with that that bleeds into my second one being the terrapins pining embittered carry out the you know better carry off lean as a terrapin was my favorite pot a few weeks ago and now I kind of want to shine some light on to pining pining. You know, because of the Shea, I'm not allowed to say it's a bronchial dilator, but it has been known to kind of help aid in breathing, making it a little bit easier to breathe. It also gives a lot of really good focus. Unfortunately, someone that has a lot of anxiety and stuff like that, you can sometimes focus on the wrong things. Someone like me, this brain is like an absolute nightmare. Sometimes you end up focusing on the completely wrong situation and you can't get off of that focus. And that's where you start coming up and hearing these stories about paranoia and people having anxiety attacks and panic attacks from cannabis. It's a lot of times because they have a very strong sense of sensitivity to pining. So when is paired with something like Peter to carry awfully in a kind of helps steer your original thoughts into a more positive direction so that when you start locking in and focusing in on that, that thought is a positive thought and not a negative thought. So people out there that have high anxiety, you know, pining is something that you want to look for because you don't want to have it in too high of a concentration without another terpene to kind of help steer it or pull it back. I found that machine is really nice, a kind of pulling it back, keeping you from legging into the heavy focus. But if you still want to have a very strong focus, but you don't want to end up latching on to a thought that could be incredibly negative, pairing it with something that's really aggression better carry off lean as well will keep you from having these really intense panic attacks. So for that, my favorite part is both these Turpin infused choose from curio, which taste amazing and they work absolutely wonderfully along with the the Turpin itself pining where for me needs to also be paired with a terpene like being a carry ethylene or machine. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:09:22] Thank you for the lesson. That was very informative. 

 

Speaker 2 [00:09:27] You're welcome. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:09:29] So my fee, not pot, has been my fave, not pot before because it is one of the best TV shows I've ever watched in my whole life. And unfortunately it was canceled because it was speaking too much truth to power. And that is the good fight. And I finally finished the last couple of episodes, as you know, you were there, J.R. But it is just the way they ended it. I mean, you're never going to be 100% happy with the series finale because especially when it's something as transformative as the good fight. And if you're out there and only watch The Good Wife, I promise you it's a completely different show. Do not base your judgment on The Good Wife, because it's not the same at all as the same characters, but it's not the same show. And anyway, they ended it in such a poetic way, and it really bummed me out because it's over. But it was really done well. And I hope that they have several spinoffs and I'm here for all of it if they do, and we'll be talking about it somewhere in these these audio spaces at some point. So anyway, I won't give away too much about that right now. What's your fave part right now, J.R.? 

 

Speaker 2 [00:11:03] My fave na pot. Um. Well, I mean, I'm just coming off an incredibly debaucherous season for myself. I got that new flannel shirt there. Tyler Yeah, it just. It's all just pure debauchery. That new Taylor Swift album came out. The pumpkin spice was flowing. It was a wild time, so I needed to calm down a little bit, you know? How was. I was taking it to the edge. Taking it to the limit, if you will. So mine is actually just hot cocoa. It took me a while to really think of what I wanted to do with it. And I'm going to go with hot cocoa. You know, it's nothing beats just those times where you're it's dark, it's getting dark early and you get yourself a nice, warm cup of cocoa. And, you know, you're watching some Christmas movies. You know, we start watching those this year because, you know, magic is alive in the in the crash in the crash household home. So just magic and hot chocolate and Christmas movies, you know, after such a a raging season that I just had in the autumn time, you know, with that that drop of that amazing album from from the T Swift, it's nice to just be able to wind down and kind of get grounded again with a nice cup of hot chocolate. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:12:30] Are you trying to say your Scorpio season was rowdy? 

 

Speaker 2 [00:12:34] It was wild. It was wild. Have you seen the flannel shirt? I mean, come on, people. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:12:43] I'm going to cancel this podcast right now. If you don't stop it with this sweatshirt, we're going to get canceled. 

 

Speaker 2 [00:12:49] J.R. I'll just segway it into the flannel panel. Show that. Aaron that's next spring. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:12:58] Oh, yeah. You're you're going to start wearing it this spring. 

 

Speaker 2 [00:13:02] Yeah.

 

Speaker 1 [00:13:03] Flannels and spring. 

 

Speaker 2 [00:13:04] Flannels and spring flannels and springtime. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:13:07] All right, this is going too far. 

 

Speaker 2 [00:13:12] Feel like I'm being censored here on Flannels. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:13:16] I feel like you wedged that in there because this is the only place where you won't be censored by me. So nice move. 

 

Speaker 2 [00:13:25] Well, I mean, like. You censor me just some day to day conversations. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:13:31] Yes.

 

Speaker 2 [00:13:32] That is true. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:13:37] All right. So today we're talking about something that has been plaguing us for some time. And that is the the judgment the judgment that exists in this space, in this being the cannabis. And I should just say the plant medicine space in general. Plant medicine is a term that is I would probably deem it a buzz word. I have actually done that in my writing. It is a buzz word, but it is it is a real thing that exists. Plant medicine has been around for centuries and if you just do a little bit of research, you can find that throughout history. All of the cultures have used plant medicine to some to some regard. And yet the stigmas around using plant medicine continue even as. Certain medications or plant however you want to qualify them. As. As things become. More. Legal and accepted socially. There also seems to be more of a judgmental. Take about how those medicines should be consumed, where they should be purchased, and basically who should have them. Right. And you would think that that would be the opposite, right. The more that we all be, the more that states come online in a medical or adult use way. We would think that there would be more acceptance. But even in the beginning of this podcast, I was I was getting I was on the receiving end of a lot of the judgment, the judgmental behavior, I should say. For example, I didn't know what the Entourage effect was when I first started the podcast. I was in Florida, which barely had a medical program at the time. So access for me was a completely different situation than it was for my guests who were in California or Colorado. And instead of having the attitude of, Well, why don't you know about the Entourage effect, it was very much, Well, you should know. What are you even doing? Talking about cannabis if you don't know. So what are some things that you saw in the beginning, J.R., and like in that kind of a way? 

 

Speaker 2 [00:16:27] Well, a lot of it had to do just with with knowledge bases. Certain things about the plant became more. People began to become more knowledgeable about the plant and certain areas where it was already legalized or at least having a medical program. Things like Terrapins were being thought of a lot over on the West Coast in California, and then even in the beginning stages of Colorado and no one else in the country really had that strong of a grasp of it yet, because we really didn't have that knowledge. You know, you also have the complete different end of the spectrum where you had someone like me who we were living in Florida at the time and, you know, so we were purchasing off of, you know, from the legacy market. But I was also writing, you know, webinars and stuff like that for companies about the science behind cannabis. But when it came to just regular knowledge, like strange names and things like that, that was a little bit out of my end of my wheelhouse because when I was purchasing it off the legacy market, it's not like I had a menu sitting in front of me. You're pretty much just getting what you were getting. So while I knew a lot of the science, I didn't know a lot of just regular common terms. So when I ended up, you know, getting into the medical industry in Maryland, you know, one of the first things that I was asked was, you know, what's your favorite strain? And and I didn't have an answer for them. And then I'll still see that today, you know, as somebody that possibly wants to get into the industry, you know, what strains they like. And they won't have an answer for me. And when they say it, it's almost like they're embarrassed, but they should never have to be put in a situation where they feel that embarrassment. Everyone is on a completely different track and journey with this plant, and you can't expect everyone to be fully knowledgeable or as knowledgeable as you think that you are, because we're all learning new things every single day. So, you know, when we're putting people in a situation where they're embarrassed to admit what they don't know, they then put themselves in a space where they feel like they can't ask to learn more. And because of the judgmental ness of why know more about the plant? Because I'm from the West Coast and all that stuff like that, that gets in the way of just people being able to learn on their own and being met where they are on a knowledge base at that time. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:19:17] Exactly. You brought up a lot of good points. Okay. First of all, the legacy market, even calling it that might even be outdated as you're listening to this in some way, because like you just touched on, we're always learning new things and terminology is constantly changing. For example, a recent guest that I had on after we were done recording said, I want you to know that the term Entourage effect is outdated. We don't use that anymore. And I'm like, we do. Because everywhere that I am existing online and and I write about the plant often and I have not seen that this is a dead term, but for some people it is. For example, again, string, you just talked about strings. Well, now people say cultivars, people will roll their eyes at you if you say strings in certain spaces, which is unnecessary, because, like you said, it creates shame. It creates another barrier for entry because people feel like it's not an accessible space, it's not an accessible plant. And this is why the stigma continues to reign supreme. And this is why prohibition propaganda continues to thrive, because we we being the experts and I'm not an expert, but I'm saying, like people who have been in this industry for some time, we we have a tendency to maybe roll our eyes at certain people asking certain questions. Right. So that's that's natural human nature sometimes I think. Right. But we have to check ourselves even thinking about changing the way that we word certain things like I've always been of the opinion that I want all substances to be legal. Right? So long as you're not harming someone else with them. Well, what does that mean to me? What I consider or perceived to be harmful may not be what someone else considers to be harmful. And just to touch back on the legacy thing, because I'm thinking about what I might not consider to be harmful. A lot of people in this industry have opinions about the legacy or rather non-legal market and how people are still purchasing from that market because it's it's where they have access. You know, not only is it more financially accessible for some people, but for a lot of people, it's the only way to get the products that they need. 

 

Speaker 2 [00:22:04] Yeah. And I mean. There's people that look at cannabis as medical, and then there are people that view it purely on a recreational aspect where they do a socially. You know, if you're looking at it on a medical aspect, you have to also come to terms with the fact that people are going to sometimes need other medications. You know, for myself, I have never shied away from the fact that I am a believer in the melding of eastern and western medicine. I'm not going to just flatly demonize Western medicine because it's given us a lot of amazing things like penicillin. I personally am asthmatic, so like I stated before, you know, during my favorite pot, there is pinyin, which is found in pine trees. That does help kind of open the airways, you know. But if I'm having an asthma attack, I'm not going to run and start sniffing pine cones and licking pine needles. I'm I need to take my albuterol inhaler. So, you know, a lot of judgment also comes from the aspect of people feeling like you have to be this this purist, that if you are a proponent of plant medicine, that you automatically have to demonize aspects of Western medicine. And unfortunately, I mean, not not I mean, unfortunately to me, I believe that that's that's false. I do believe that there is too heavy of a ratio in our society where people do heavily lean towards Western medicine and don't embrace Eastern medicine enough. But to say that you can have only one and not the other and live a fulfilling life is the same blind spot that both sides have. Yeah. You remember seeing your doctor and explain to them how you're getting benefit from CBD and cannabis and you see that that smirk on their face or that role in their eyes. And you remember how you felt. Well, now people on the other end are making people that need. Western medicine, making them feel the same exact way. You know, we're not here to judge where people are on their journeys with anxiety, things like ADHD. Like I said, I need help with focus. I personally discontinued my ADHD pharmaceuticals. Have I found anything in plant medicine that works that as well? No, I have not. That is something that I'm still actively working towards. But just because that's my journey doesn't mean that it has to be everyone else's journey. And I'm not here to make anyone feel less than because they are still on ADHD medicine. Maybe they are on Xanax, maybe they are prescribed opiates and they take them because they're in excruciating pain. And that's the only thing that works for them. It is not our place to judge. Just like we didn't want to be judged when we tried to come out to our doctors as cannabis users and plant medicine users, we as well can judge the other side of the fence for just trying to find relief in their day to day. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:25:27] Well, exactly. That's why this plant over pills or, you know, plant plants are better than pill plants versus pills, however you want to word it is kind of a dangerous way of wording things, really, because for one, a lot of our plant medicine is actually in pill form. So it's it's technically not accurate. And for to like you said, a lot of people need a balance. And I have several autoimmune diseases. And while I'm not on pharmaceuticals for them right now, that could change very quickly. So, yeah, exactly. The judgment about people using pharmaceuticals, people using other forms of plant medicine that you don't agree with. For example, kratom, we use kratom as a form of pain relief, and it's done a lot of good for both of us. We've been using it for many years, and one of the suppliers that we use most often is meet your guy who is actually our sponsor for this show and listeners can get 10% off any non sale item on meet your guy dot com by using the code y h pod that's mitra guy a dot com am i t r a g a a dot com. But anyway, so I've seen people conflate kratom with other opiates and I've seen people have attitudes about using psychedelics and. 

 

Speaker 2 [00:27:19] It's like a weird tribalism, right? You know, it's where it's like they can't be united under plant medicine. And you have people in cannabis that look down on create them. You have people in the kava communities that look down on cannabis. You have people looking down on psilocybin. You know, these are all things that could be used together to treat multiple things. You know, unfortunately, a lot of people these days spread a lot of misinformation about the benefits of cannabis and have created like this this mythical thing that can cure all things. And that's not the case. You know, it does do amazing things for certain things, but there are things that create them can do and the kava can do that, that cannabis cannot. There are things that psilocybin can do, you know, as far as treating and helping to to manage depression, psilocybin has them all beat. But there are things that cannabis and create them in COVID can do that that psilocybin can. And there's so many other things outside besides that, besides just those for, you know, we can be using these things together to create a very homeostatic being within our bodies. And instead of doing that, we choose tribalism instead. Whereas I'm teaching cannabis or I'm teaching psilocybin or I'm team kava or what have you, instead of treating everything together as one thing. And then you find that same tribalism taking place with things like alcohol, you know, where people are like, well, you know, I consume cannabis, you know, but at least it's not alcohol when, you know, at that point you're not even looking at it on a medicinal level, you're looking at it purely and recreational as social use. So there is no difference whether you're using cannabis in a social setting or you're using alcohol. And it's just social setting is still doing the same thing. It's still impairing. You said that you can't really make your best judgments. Because you're not using it on a medicinal level, which is fine. There's nothing against that. But don't try to demonize somebody for doing the same exact thing just with a different substance. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:29:31] Well, I mean, you hit the nail almost all the way on the head where I see a lot of people saying all cannabis use is medicinal and fine if that is the narrative, I'm here for it. But if that's the case, then allow people to use whatever they need to use to. Medicate on their own. If if they if they think that alcohol is medicinal, then so be it. Who are you to say otherwise? You can say, oh, well, lots of reports say otherwise, lots of data. There's tons of research. Well, they can find that research. They can educate themselves. But having a judgment even from a harm even from a harm reduction standpoint, okay. Having these judgmental attitudes does nothing more. Men make it unsafe for people to use whatever it is that they use, however they use it. Right. I mean, that's another place where I see a lot of judgment is the harm reduction. You know, just discussing harm reduction, I shouldn't say people who are in the harm reduction space are judgmental. And for those who don't know, harm reduction. Incorporates a spectrum of strategies that includes safer use, managed use, abstinence meeting, people who use drugs, quote unquote, where they're at and addressing conditions of use along with the use itself. And because harm reduction demands that interventions and policies designed to serve people who use drugs reflect specific, individual and community needs. There is no universal definition of or formula for implementing harm reduction, and I pulled that from the National Harm Reduction Coalition website. And this isn't like a full on endorsement of this or. And it's not not one either. It's just what I need to do more research about them, even though I agree with what they're talking about. But that is like the perfect, in my opinion, encapsulation of harm reduction. But I mean, you came from the medical side of things and so you have a better understanding of harm reduction and how that intersects with cannabis. 

 

Speaker 2 [00:32:04] Well, I think I mean, first of all, the judgmental nature behind the substance that a lot of people are looking at as far as harm reduction is is a little it's a little weird to me. You know, it wasn't that long that the cannabis itself was looked at very much with the same gaze as some of these more illicit substances that people are dying from. So to automatically cast judgment is a little off putting on that, but primarily just looking at it on a medical standpoint, a lot of the times these people end up on these substances, not because they woke up one morning and said, hey, I think I think this might be a good idea. This might be my day to try this jams and they just go for it. A lot of times it is people that had been taken down the wrong path through medicine. Not only situations where people were put on things like opiates and then weren't able to get off of them and then able to afford them. So they started getting them off the street. But there were people that were ignored by medical providers. You have people like Kurt Cobain, who it's now believed started his heroin addiction because he had Crohn's disease and because no doctor or anyone would listen to him and just assumed that it was all in his head or he was just some some junkie, quote unquote, that they just ignored him. So he had to try to find relief in other avenues. So these are people that are struggling in their own path. And when you're looking at something that's that's harm reduction, it's more or less just looking at the empathy of of individuals as who we want to. You know, we as a society do we want to be that empathetic, you know, society that will look out for people that are at their lowest. Or do we want to demonize them and and make them feel less than and make them hide even more? You know, well, I mean, I personally believe in the decriminalization of of all drugs, treating it as a health situation and not a not a crime situation. So you even have a lot of people on, you know, a more liberal side. You know, don't think that this is something that only conservatives feel. There are a lot of people that lean liberal, you know, moderates, liberals and people on the left even that they view these people in such a negative space and view, you know, the idea of treating it as a health issue, as a negative, not realizing that a lot of times things like this are set up to help monetize and move forward the prison systems and things along those lines. And instead of looking at the betterment of society as a whole. You run into a lot of people that view it more along the lines of what it's going to do to their their property values or what it's going to do around their neighborhoods instead of making sure that everyone in their neighborhood is safe. They view it as well. Let's just get the things in the neighborhoods that I don't like that's not visually appealing to me out of the neighborhoods. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:35:45] I agree. And you brought up the fact that liberals or. More left wing politicians are guilty of the same stigmatization. And I actually showed you this Twitter thread earlier from Dr. Fabian Pitre Steinmetz, who is a harm reduction advocate. And he's referencing another tweet where apparently Trump recently called for mass executions of drug dealers. And this person called or this person referenced the fact that the death penalty for drug dealers has long been popular among both Republican and Democrat politicians. And he even pointed to a bill that Joe Biden practically authored singlehandedly that allowed for this to be in effect. So anyway, this Dr. Fabian is saying death penalty is still not the answer, particularly not towards a behavior everybody is indulging in, namely using and sharing of psychoactive substances. And then he has a bunch of emojis that signal chocolate, alcohol, mushrooms, prescription drugs, tobacco, coffee. And really it's just a perfect illustration of what we're talking about here, because everyone is pretty much using some type of psychoactive substance. I shouldn't say everyone. Okay, that's a bit of a generalized statement, but I might be generalizing a bit much there. But I would say most everyone that I know does. 

 

Speaker 2 [00:37:38] Yeah. And it's this weird, this automatic go to two to death penalties. You know, I think a lot of times people need to get rid of this this fallacy that their drugs just aren't going to exist anymore, that they can just make them stop existing. You know, you hear a lot about people want to reinforce borders or, you know, kill drug dealers because that will make drugs. And, you know, like I personally want to live in a world that doesn't have guns. Do I think that's going to happen? I do not. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:38:12] Oh, what's that country? We should have we should have looked into this before we started. But there is a country that decriminalized drugs and they don't have the crime that people thought that they would have. What was the Norway? 

 

Speaker 2 [00:38:28] I can't think of it off the top. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:38:29] Well, I'll come back to this, but I know that I feel like it's the same country that banned guns. But I could be I could be completely talking out of my ass. But I know that there was a country where whether. 

 

Speaker 2 [00:38:40] You ban guns or not, that's not going to keep them from existing. Right. You know, and it's going along the same process. I think I want to live in a world without guns. They want to live in a world without drugs. Neither of us are getting what we want. So instead of just constantly just saying, hey, let's make pretend like I can create a world that doesn't exist. How about we look at ways that will actually help and benefit people instead of living in this fallacy? You know, it's and you see this all across the line, these hard stances of of lack of gray area. You see it in, you know, private Christian schools when it comes to sex education, the demand of abstinence. You know, you see it with these these programs for people that they have drug issues, you know, with the abstinence, you know, you can't take anything. These are not actual they're not solving anything. You know, it's it's literally in some cases, making it worse is creating this fictionalized idea of something that can actually be achieved. There will always be drugs. Well, I like to live in a world without heroin. Yeah, that sounds awesome. That sounds super ed. Is that going to happen? No. So the people that do end up in that world, do I want them to die or do I want them to find a better way and be safe? Obviously, I want them to find a better way and be safe. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:40:00] And some people microdosing heroin. I mean, that's a thing that that exists. But I think that we should probably end by reading the first two principles of the harm reduction. The National Harm Reduction Coalition has principles that they base their practices on. And I think that pretty much encapsulates what we're saying right now. So the first one is accepts, for better or worse, that licit and illicit drug use is part of our world and chooses to work to minimize, to minimize, not to minimize, to minimize its harmful effects, rather than simply ignore or condemn them. Which is exactly what you were just saying, I think. Cause. Yes, they do exist. Do I want my son to get his hand on a trash can, which is apparently like a you have to. 

 

Speaker 2 [00:40:57] Explain what a trash can. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:40:58] Is. Well, I don't really I mean, I have not. It's like a. 

 

Speaker 2 [00:41:01] Whole smorgasbord of drugs in one drug. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:41:04] Yeah. I mean, I think. I don't know. I don't know that for a fact. I just know what I've heard on the news. But it could be. 

 

Speaker 2 [00:41:10] Completely fictitious for all we know. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:41:12] Right. I mean, and that is the importance of education, but it's also the importance of of normalization and also having these conversations without judgment. Right. Because the second principle is understands drug use as a complex, multifaceted phenomenon that encompasses a continuum of behaviors from severe use to total abstinence, and acknowledges that some ways of using drugs are clearly safer than others. So, you know, this whole conversation, I want people to know that we are not saying that there are not safer ways of using certain drugs, because that is obvious. I should say it's obvious, but to me it's obvious. I do acknowledge that there are safer ways. 

 

Speaker 2 [00:42:04] Well, that's the point. We want the, you know, people to have access to the safest ways in other safer ways out there. And instead of just. Ignoring the save for ways and saying, just don't do it. You know, that's not going to solve any issue. It's giving access to these safer ways. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:42:23] Right. Exactly. And just dropping the judgment, you know, minding your business. 

 

Speaker 2 [00:42:29] Drop it like it's hot, you know, hot potato. That judgment. Yes, I'm making that same now. Hot potato and things means a drop in it. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:42:40] Okay.

 

Speaker 2 [00:42:42] You heard it here. Hot potato. 

 

Speaker 1 [00:42:47] All right. So in our next episode, we'll be returning to discussions about. This industry on the employment side of things. So we are still looking for people to share their stories. If you have anything that you'd like to tell us or anything that you think that we should cover in this series, please let us know. But until next time, stay high and beautiful. Bye bye. Thanks for listening. You can find us on Instagram at Your Highness podcast or on Twitter at Highness podcast. Be sure to rate us on iTunes and subscribe.