Your Highness Podcast

Ableism in the Cannabis Industry

Episode Summary

Jamie London Wollberg joins Diana to talk about experiencing a lack of accessibility and inclusion in the cannabis industry.

Episode Notes

Jamie London Wollberg, an unconditional love coach, joins Diana to talk about experiencing a lack of accessibility and inclusion in the cannabis industry. 

0:00 - Intro to Jamie
0:34 - Fave pot
5:18 - Fave not pot
10:29 - Lack of accessibility at industry events
16:30 - What are the most significant accessibility gaps in the industry
24:14 - Issues with a delivery service for their inaccessibility
33:08 - Call to action 

Important links:

Episode Transcription

 

Speaker 1

0:00

You're listening to your highness podcast. I'm your host, Dianna crash and today I am joined by Jamie London Walburg an unconditional love coach in plant powered healer. How are you doing today? Jamie?

2

Speaker 2

0:17

Namaste, Diana, thank you for having me. I'm doing very well grateful to be here.

1

Speaker 1

0:21

See, I need to start everything with namaste because it sounds so much nicer. Like it invites you in, you know. I'm just like, are ready to talk to you like I just love the way you say that. So, we are going to start this episode, as we do every episode with our recurring segment fade pot in Fave not pot where each of us discuss our current cannabis and non cannabis related item that we're just like really feeling right now. So I'm going to start with my favorite pot. And that is the organic CBD salve from the healing rose, which is an amazing small company in Massachusetts. They do a lot of great work outside of offering amazing products. So I definitely recommend checking them out. But the product itself, it's a lemon ginger with menthol, and I love mentally products, but some people don't. Right. Like it can be a little much for some people, but I love it. I love the smell and the feel. But this is actually so lightweight that it's not overpowering. And it works really well especially after a workout or if you're just old like me. It's really great for those sore muscles. So what is your favorite pot right now, Jamie?

2

Speaker 2

1:50

Oh, first of all, I love that recommendation looking into that immediately after this. My favorite pot is honestly the metaphysical cannabis Oracle deck, which is by my dear friend and spiritual mother, the amazing Maggie Wilson and illustrated by eg Whap and Ebay. I legitimately use it almost every single day I have the honor of being a part of the second inspiration. But truly it's really a magical journey that Maggie has gone through and received such a powerful deck whereby plant spirits of all kinds, but certainly cannabis is highlighted, comes together with spirituality in a way that is so profound whether you use cannabis or not. It's something that you can enjoy. And it's sitting right next to me and I just couldn't be happier to have it.

1

Speaker 1

2:39

That is so magical that you brought that up because she is a good friend of the show. She has been on many times. And she donated one of those decks as a giveaway for a recent dispensary event that I did. And the woman who actually won it said that she made an intention before she entered. Right. Like she had spoken to her other witchy friends and they said like make an intention. You know start doing that when you enter giveaways like I'm going to win this. And she did and what better giveaway. That's such an magical gift. I love that you're bringing her up. It's just so cool. And you're in the deck. You want to talk about that for a minute.

2

Speaker 2

3:25

Or I'm honestly still shocked to this day. I don't understand. I have the honor of this but I'm truly honored. Yeah, one day Maggie was like surprise. This is like way before it had come out. And you know, I had known that she was channeling the deck. I didn't realize at the time how long and she says you know, you're part of the stack and you're the last card and I was like what and when everything came together my understanding was that edge is how the illustrator likes to go by Edge had not seen what I looked like. Maggie only gave the description the channeling of what the card was and yet the card identical to me when people see it. I mean I have a little bit yeah, it's identical to me

1

Speaker 1

4:19

behind the scenes. Behind the scenes info people, you're getting it fresh right here.

2

Speaker 2

4:26

So it's, it was so incredibly divine and moving. It's an incredible card, really the source card, the last card, the culmination of everything that you learn within the deck. And it's just the deepest honor I there's really nothing more that I can say in English to convey what it means to be a part of this deck. Not only have the honor for Maggie but what the deck is truly capable of doing. And that card the mobility card is important to take Again, yes,

1

Speaker 1

5:01

I'm still learning about tarot, but I love how you just said that. Not any words I can put into English like, I feel that so much

1

Speaker 1

5:17

so my fav, not pot is still in the plant medicine family, but it's not pot. So silhouette actually sent me an aphrodisiac stack and it has a mixture of psilocybin. I know I'm going to say this wrong nor base Syston and Sylow sign. Alright, so anyway, it has a combination. I'm just going to read what it says here very quickly. When ingested, psilocybin has both serotonin. Forget it, I'm just going to tell you. I'm just kidding. I'll read it. It says When ingested, psilocybin has both serotonin or jerk neurogenic neurogenic. I'm saying that wrong. Dopamine or genic effects helping to mediate emotions and moods, such as anxiety, depression, cognition, sex learning and memory, appetite, and many other biological neurological and neuro psychiatric processes. So they harness the full spectrum power of entheogenic mushrooms. And they bring you a formula that has no preservatives, no toxic additives, and no nonsense. And the mushrooms are grown in organic conditions. And I know the person behind this brand, and I know he takes customer safety very seriously. So I'm really excited to try it and also the packaging. I freaking love the packaging. It's in such a cool box. And they're like the little micro dose gummies are like the perfect size. And so I really like what I've experienced so far with these. I've only taken one, but I'm excited to try it. I would I would my only recommendation would be to try it earlier in the day, because it can kind of wake you up. But anyway, that's not bad when you're about to have sex, right. So I guess that's a good thing. It just depends on your timing. Anyway, overall, I think this is a great experience. And I love how they make it very easy for you to take the microdose portions. So check that out. What's your favorite pot?

2

Speaker 2

7:49

Oh my god. Well, first of all, you are giving such good recommendations. I'm like, I need this mediately immediately. I'm a very big, big, big, big, big, big advocate of entheogens especially psilocybin, with cannabis has totally saved and changed my life. And everything you just said is everything I want in my life right now. So I've got that. My favorite. My favorite not pot product right now. It's it's tough for me to really choose but right now I'm pretty obsessed with this pink Himalayan rock salt lamp that I have. And it's it doubles as a massage tool and device and I also use it within Reiki for my clients. Because this lamp not only has just like a really lovely soothing glow that is you know, great for I mean, you can adjust it so that way it could be like a nightlight or it could be something that really lights up the room and give something very soothing. But also these massage balls like they are pure Himalayan rock salt, which is really great for clearing out lower frequencies, you know, really keeps the vibration of the space very high and you can use it on your own, you know, to just gently massage. You know, even just around your hands or holding it meditating with them. It can be really grounding and they can get very well warm and toasty from the lamp or you can have them cold. My clients absolutely love them and I love them as well. And that's definitely

1

Speaker 1

9:27

now I want a massage from you. Transport sounds great, right? I still haven't figured it out. I have one packed away from when I moved years ago and it's somewhere in storage and I have to take it out because I couldn't figure it out when I first got it as a gift from someone. I was like it's really cool. But you know, the whole pink Himalayan lamp was like it was a brand new concept at the time. So I was just like, Okay, I mean it's cool looking at And now I understand it more. But I don't know. It's packed away. So

 

I have no doubt.

1

Speaker 1

10:13

So switching gears a little bit, we talked a lot about accessibility on the show, or the lack of accessibility, rather. And you were also very vocal about this because it affects you personally. So can you share how the lack of accessibility at industry events has impacted you professionally?

2

Speaker 2

10:36

Oh, absolutely. There's really not an aspect of the cannabis space professionally or personally, that I feel I haven't been impacted by in some way, when it comes to accessibility, have a really big health journey, which has led to either and, or financial, certain financial limitations don't like to look at it as that but in terms of what be understood, you know, mostly globally, right now, in terms of what my experience has been, and physically being legally disabled, and having a situation whereby, you know, not well enough, or not having an opportunity to have the space, and the events actually even created for that. So like, is there proper places for people to rest, and to have access to their own medicine and things like that. I mean, there's, there's so many ways that these events are not accessible. And I miss out massively by the cost by the fact that, you know, one can't necessarily travel with ease or how exhausting they are. And there's not really these facilities, or resources to protect you, or to help you in any case of anything.

1

Speaker 1

11:53

And I'm sure you get this a lot not to cut you off. But I know there was a very big industry event recently, and every year, people say the same thing to me, like you have to go you have to go get a press pass it you know, it's not about the press pass, first of all, which actually isn't easy to get the media passes. I mean, even if you could get that easily, let's just say that's not the issue. There is so much more to it, you know, and there are sensory issues and translation issues. And I mean, there's so many things that aren't even taken into consideration that when you go to give a reason why you can't go it's like, this is a lot to unpack in a very small conversation, you know what I'm saying? Do you get that a lot?

2

Speaker 2

12:42

I do. I get out a lot. I mean, I used to, even when I was in 10, out of 10 pain, and truly not understanding my neuro divergence, and really honoring my neuro divergence and what my needs were, I would just go to every possible event that I could, my circumstances were also kind of different. But I felt like I had no choice. At the time, I thought, If I don't go, I'm never going to find a way to help myself and others with this plant medicine, I'm never going to find my way into this industry, especially because these are pre pandemic times. So the concept of connecting the way that we do now from clubhouse to, you know, being more on Zoom, that wasn't as big of a thing, which seems like really, but it wasn't then it wasn't.

 

13:31

We can't think of a time when that was like five years ago.

2

Speaker 2

13:39

No, it wasn't happening. And now we have like incredible platforms like event high and things like that, where they're offering these opportunities to do things virtually and connect in that way. But you know, it's like, especially what you said the stimulation, that's a very new awareness that I've had about myself is that I would find myself getting super anxious at events and I was like, Oh, why am I happy? Everyone seems to be having the best time right now. And like feeling pretty miserable and yet excited to be here. What's going on? And it's yeah, there's, there's really no reprieve. There's no rest for you know, the mind the eyes. There's not a lot of mindfulness, that I find out a lot of events unless you're specifically going to a cannabis event that is geared specifically within that. And even then, I don't think that's always taken account for so it's something that's necessary. Another big thing that I continue to encounter is bathrooms. So I'm a trans non binary person and basically every event, there's very rarely gender neutral bathrooms. And that is something that can create a lot of stress for people I've gone through. You know, I've been going through medical transition and so Regardless of how I identify, I know what bathroom, I can go to safely, where people will not, you know, make as much of a fuss. But that's, that's horrible that I even have to think about that. You know, I just want to go to the restroom.

1

Speaker 1

15:16

It is That's exactly it like that you shouldn't even have to bring that up, as you know what I'm saying? I mean, of course, you know what I'm saying. But it's, it's that kind of a thing. It's like trying to tell people all of the problems is it, then they think, oh, or they think but you know, they they label you as being like, difficult or whatever. And instead of just dealing with the issue, it just blows my mind still, that this industry, which is a lot, largely based on the fact that people need this plant to move to talk to survive. At every event, they still just leave out all of those people who need those basic aids, you know? Anyway, so there is a lot to unpack there. Like I said, I mean, you're bringing something to the conversation that I don't even have any experience in so there for we were uncovering even more an accessibility here, right. But like, in a bigger sense of the word, let's take events out of the equation, what do you think are some of the most significant gaps in accessibility in the cannabis space? Like professionally, what are you encountering?

2

Speaker 2

16:43

I'm gonna be mindful of not saying names, even though people will figure probably this out, there is a very big company, when I first moved to Los Angeles that was booming, about six years ago, maybe, maybe a little bit less. And it was looking very good and very exciting that I was going to be hired on and I was essentially given an offer. And my offer was not only fiscally not feasible for what the expectations were, how, like, which to be just transparent, it was gonna be a budtender role. But more importantly, it was, they had basically no time off, I believe it was like three days of like, sick days and vacation days, or something like it was a tiny, tiny, tiny amount. Now, I had been incredibly transparent from the very beginning about what my needs were health wise, and how this was not possible. And they were like, you know, they, I think raised the amount they were gonna pay me like a quarter and basically were like, here's this better. And I'm like, No, are you like, I don't have the like, you're gonna, you're basically setting me up to get fired. And because you have the legalities and things, you don't have an HR in place to protect me. And I didn't end up taking that role. It didn't take long for this company to eventually get massively under hot water for how they treated employees and many, many other things. Ultimately, my desire is not to slam down a company, my desire is for change. My desire is for anyone and everyone who wants to be a part of this incredibly powerful and important and beautiful industry, who wants to make it more loving and more beautiful and more healing, they need access in one way or another to participate. They deserve that. And patients and, and professionals alike, need to not have to fight in order to have these abilities if they qualify. Or if they are in need, then that should be met. Because this is a plant that was placed here to help us. We have all of us an endocannabinoid system as well as our first children. And ultimately, we are deeply connected, we have a bond with this plant. And I believe that it is actually unjust for us to not have access to that to anybody in any way. Right. And that includes professionally, I later had jobs in the industry of those roles, and I was fired and nothing will ever come of that. I was fired over text message because I started to have emergency health issues again.

1

Speaker 1

19:51

I am so sorry that happened to you and I've had that happen in other spaces. Not this one specifically, mostly because I'm self employed, but So, I have had people completely just ignore my boundaries that I set, you know, professionally, like, I need these accommodations because, you know, of XYZ and they don't even consider it. But yeah, and also, as far as access that you brought up about the plant, like, this is something I will always harp on, because it is very expensive to have a plant medicine routine, especially if you don't live in a place where they're practically giving away the cannabis, right? Some states is very cheap right now. But we're where I am, it's not. And I have yet to see a real comprehensive employee program. And not even just employee like people that want to hire you as a content writer, or just as some as someone to help your business in some way, giving them a huge discount, and I'm talking more than your, you know, retail like worker discount, I'm not talking like 10 15% like a huge discount, like, I would like it to be free. But you know, that's probably going a bit far. But how can you really, first of all, tell people how great the product is, if you don't if you can't even afford it yourself? But also, if you're a company that is purporting to care about people in who need it for health reasons, then why aren't you making it easier for them to access it? Like some kind of a health plan? You know?

2

Speaker 2

21:42

I agree more. And actually, I don't think that it's going too far to say that these spirits are to be free. And I, I Yes, that's a very bold statement, because one says, well, then how does everyone get paid in this industry? We find a way around that. Right, we find ways around being free to access, for example, parks, and yet the people that run the parks get paid. Right? We have to remember that our government owns the patent to CBD. Why do we think that is? Okay, so there's a lot of waking that is required, in order to really see what is actually blatantly in front of you. This is a powerful medicine, powerful people are absolutely aware of how powerful this medicine is, and how it opens people's minds and opens people's hearts and allows for them to access their awareness and their freewill more than ever before. So the fact that the access is not as effortless when it comes to financial or even just receiving it and finding a way to have it, whether it's legally or by way of experiencing a health journey, where it's challenging to get it yourself or receive it. and anything in between. There's very, very clear reasons as to why that's happening. Just remember that this is a plant that's been here much longer than us and connects to something that is in each one of our bodies. You deserve to have this medicine. You deserve to connect with the spirit. It's for you. It helps to have your whole body function, all of your biggest systems in your body function best by that endocannabinoid system working well.

1

Speaker 1

23:44

You're so smart. I just love that was great. I loved it. That's I'm so excited to have you are and if you can't tell it's why I'm like stumbling my words so much. Because I just love everything that comes out of your mouth. All right. So I mean, at least that I hear I don't hear you all day long. But

1

Speaker 1

24:12

I'm so not switching gears, but kind of it's in the same vicinity. But we're going to be talking about a different experience that you had. You recently had an issue with a pretty big delivery service for their inaccessibility. Do you want to talk about that a

2

Speaker 2

24:31

little bit? Oh, 100%. Now this time, we're talking names because this is now public information. So and again, I want to be extremely clear that I am coming with unconditional love here. I do not want this to be a tear down. This is not productive. What's productive is leaders in the company listening and creating changes that impact people and us celebrating where we go for I'm there, if we continue in my belief to shame, various decisions that are made, it makes it very difficult to have a conversation with love and for someone to hear it and for changes to be made, right, because when we are pushed against when we are talked down to, we don't want to listen, right, that's just like inherently a human behavior. So the reality of the situation is that for quite some time, now, I have been a patient and consumer of the delivery service ease. And I was in my round two of having COVID Very recently, and I had expressed to the service that I really wanted, I mean, unusually, they would come to my door anyway. But that I really needed them to come to my door, because I was dealing with COVID, round two, but that I had tested negative, and I would, you know, wear a mask, and basically just kind of pure my handout to hand out my ID and everything. Sure. And I'm, I'm waiting for my plant spirit to arrive. And I had virtually nothing left. And I was feeling truly terrible, I couldn't even believe that I was negative. Because of how terrible I was feeling. I couldn't even really stand. And I live alone currently. So there was truly no one who was going to be able to help me with this or to necessarily take care of this for me. And suddenly, I get a message from the delivery driver that they're here and they cannot find parking, and they're refusing to get the effort to, to deal with parking, and to actually come and bring me a mess. And I said, Well, I your delivery service, I'm using you because of my health journey. And because of I have COVID Right now, but I've just tested negative, it's just that I'm still dealing with all this circumstances, like, I assure you, I can show you many of the tests, you know, if you want whatever, and they refuse to come in, and then I get a message that my deliveries canceled, that they cannot deliver to me because of COVID protocols. And whatever else. And I was shocked, I was completely shocked. This, to me was a new level. And at the very beginning of the pandemic, there was this challenge because of the legalities having to do with, you know, being able to pay with a card or paying able, you know, to pay with cash. And there's all of these different restrictions, especially depending on what county or what city or what state you're in, or all of the above for most of us. In California, it's like very restricted based on very specific locally to where you are crossed over with the federal restrictions. And so you know that and initially, it wasn't considered essential, which was madness. And then they finally said, okay, it is an essential thing. And so they made it a little bit easier for delivery services. I've had no problem in that regard with ease before. And I was incredibly upset and disappointed. And not only be for myself and how I was feeling. Also thinking about everyone else. Yeah, who is in this need and understanding how big this company is and how widespread it is. And it you know, so immediately, I was like, I was so sick that I didn't even have the energy, honestly, in the bandwidth to address this on social media. Like I had completely unplugged. I was basically sleeping extended 20 hours a day. And I reached out to Maggie and I was like, You're not gonna believe what happened. And she was like, This is unacceptable. And she took to Twitter in a very vague way. Which I you know, I said

1

Speaker 1

28:56

I'm only laughing because she sent me a voice note like right when she did it. So I was like, Oh, I knew exactly what she was

2

Speaker 2

29:06

behind the scenes info. That's right. I love her so much. And so ultimately, I like get this notification because it's from Maggie and I see also like, whatever the first couple of words, I was like, wait a minute, this sounds like it's about me to check, and I proceed to respond. If I recall correctly, a shared some screen grabs. This is on Twitter, and you can follow this with I believe she was using her metaphysical AF Twitter. And then my Twitter would handle would be Travis CI. And we eventually got a response from I believe either the CEO or one of the founders of ease, apologizing public, all sort of sort of thought kind of a hat Big apology, but I'll take it. Like, you know, it's brave to tweet it. It's brave to respond. I honor that, I honor and I respect that deeply. However, still waiting to see what happens. It's been quite a few weeks now. And the response was essentially, you know, we're sorry, this happened, we're aware of this policy change, we're rewriting it right now. And it's like, wait a minute, I had COVID. Before, this was not an issue, like, What do you mean, the policy, you know, change, like, you know, but the response what that I had was okay, you know, thank you. We're standing by waiting for this. Thank you for addressing it. And I have not attempted to order since I'm curious to see what's happened. You know, if they've changed anything, I'm surprised that they wouldn't think to reach back out. I haven't seen anything publicly that's been stated. So that's a concern right there.

1

Speaker 1

30:59

Absolutely. And I'm so thank you so much for bringing that up and for having the courage to talk about it publicly. Because these big companies think they can just go around being so accessible, but especially a delivery service in the cannabis industry, like that is your whole thing, right? So why wouldn't you try to do everything you can to make sure that you're accessible to people who are sick, because as a chronically ill person, I know what it feels like when you don't have access to your medicine. I mean, people see you a certain way. So they think that you're, you're pretty much fine. You're dealing with things, but you're pretty much fine, right? Because it's that whole like, you don't look sick thing, but people don't see you crawling on the floor, and you know, writhing in pain and or like in the fetal position, you know, what I'm saying? Like, they don't see that they just see, like, when you have your makeup on, or when you're looking halfway decent, and you're online, so they think it's okay, you're fine, you know, but they don't think about all of these other things. Like, what if you don't have access to your medicine, it's not just like a Lottie doll sort of thing for people, certain people, right? A lot to see this, my words aren't working today, which is because my neuro divergence is kicking in very strongly today. But you get what I mean by that, right? Like, people kind of perceive that everything is fine, because for some people, all they do is smoke when they want to, you know, some people is I just want to use this on the weekend, and that's fine. But for some people, we need that to be able to function and every day. So yeah, 1000. I'm just so grateful to you, because you are always calling these things out, and you do it a lot more eloquently than I've been able to lately. So I appreciate it.

33:04

I appreciate everything that you do. Before we end this episode, do you have any calls to action? And where can people find you?

2

Speaker 2

33:16

Thank you, I would say that my call to action is to go look into the mirror. And tell yourself that you love yourself three times. And do that every single rising. And do it with your whole heart. And if you don't feel comfortable looking in the mirror, or that is not something that is accessible for you then simply reflect inward and tell yourself, I love myself, I love myself, I love myself or we love ourselves. We love ourselves, we love ourself, whatever pronouns resonate with you, so that way you are feeding that unconditional love into your world because my purpose is anchoring and the remembrance of unconditional love back into Gaia and the collective. And so by you doing this by you, experiencing unconditional love within yourself, you express that and reflect that. When we love ourselves unconditionally. We love all unconditionally. And when we love all unconditionally, then we live in the exact world that we wish to truly create. And it's one that is certainly much more accessible and enjoyable than this one. And you can find me at Travis CI essentially everywhere and anywhere where Jamie Linden Wahlberg and I'm honored to receive you Travis ci.com, or he'll dot me slash Travis CI or where you can get a hold of sessions and I'd be honored to serve you. Thank you so much, Diana, for having me. This is a true honor.

1

Speaker 1

34:51

Thank you. Thank you. I was going to say maybe you should take over this podcast Okay, Yeah, but I know you already have so many ways because you do an IG live right and you have a lot of other ways for people to hear your beautiful words. So I really recommend finding, finding you. I recommend people finding you. Yeah, go to those places. And thank you again for spending your time with me today, Jamie. And until next time, stay high and beautiful. Bye. This episode was brought to you by Mitra Gaia, the top rated kratom online supplier with same day shipping and an amazing customer loyalty program.