In this episode, Diana and JR talk about the controversial topic of whether or not a person should have consumption experience before entering the cannabis industry. Ixchel Mooney of Mujeres Valley Fairgrounds talks about the current state of the cannabis industry in New Mexico for our local look segment.
In this episode, Diana and JR talk about the controversial topic of whether or not a person should have consumption experience before entering the cannabis industry. Ixchel Mooney of Mujeres Valley Fairgrounds talks about the current state of the cannabis industry in New Mexico for our local look segment.
0:16 - Welcome to Your Highness Podcast
0:48 - Fave Pot
3:10 - Fave Not Pot
9:40 - Main Segment
27:22 - Local Look
Chapters:
(00:16) Favorite Cannabis and Non-Cannabis Items
Favorite cannabis and non-cannabis items, Real Housewives of Salt Lake City finale, and Vamps movie discussed.
(09:39) Lack of Interest in Cannabis Industry
Understanding the 'why' behind hiring non-cannabis-experienced individuals and potential challenges in the industry.
(17:54) Tax Stress in Cannabis Industry
Cannabis companies face unique challenges due to high taxes, lack of banking support, and limited career options.
(28:46) NM's Cannabis Industry
New Mexico's cannabis industry faces challenges with competition, barriers to entry, unfulfilled promises, and lack of support for local businesses.
(38:11) Sustainable Campground and Event Hosting
Nature's journey to create a sustainable campground and event space, challenges of off-grid living, indigenous plant revival, and empowering community connections through events.
Important links:
Use code YHPOD for 10% off at Mitragaia
Use code HIGHNESS to get 15% off at The Healing Rose
00:16 - Diana (Host)
Welcome to your Highness podcast. I'm your host, diana Crash, and I'm your co-host JR Crash.
00:27
I'm glad to be with you again today, JR. As we do with every episode, we're going to start this off with our recurring segment, Fave Pot Fave Not Pot where we'll both talk about our favorite cannabis and non-cannabis related item at the moment. So I'm going to start my Fave Pot right now is actually a pre-roll that I got the chance to try. It's by THC Design. Thc Design and it's called Crescendo I guess that is the name of the stream. Yeah, yeah, Thank you, You're welcome. And apparently one best pre-roll in California by Weedmaps in 2023. And LA Weekly and Farmers Cup. So I don't normally like straight sativa, but this one had very high limanine, had very high limanine, mercine and cariophiline content. Turpenes those are my favorite. Those are my favorite turpenes. Those are my favorite turpenes.
01:41 - JR (Host)
They're turpenes that are most dominant in Indica's.
01:45 - Diana (Host)
Yeah, so I very much enjoyed that and I can't wait to try more. So what is your Fave Pot right now?
01:54 - JR (Host)
JR, my Fave Pot is a relief bomb by Svann Wellness. Fun fact about me I'm old.
02:05 - Diana (Host)
So sometimes, how is that fun?
02:08 - JR (Host)
Fun to some, I guess. But yeah, sometimes my body just hurts for random reasons, and the last time this happened it was my neck. I wrenched up my neck doing the very strenuous activity of sleeping and it took me a while to actually find something that was actually kind of calming the muscles and relaxing my neck, and this bomb did an amazing job. So I'm going to have to go with Svann Wellness Relief Bomb as my favorite pot this week.
02:42 - Diana (Host)
I really do love that bomb. I love that as well, and I like that it doesn't have an overpowering scent. It's very subtle.
02:50 - JR (Host)
Yeah, because that's actually important to me. I don't like heavy scents and at first I didn't want to use it because I didn't want that really heavily menthol smell. And it really didn't have that. It was quite nice.
03:02 - Diana (Host)
Yeah, I agree, I as well, like Svann. So, anyway, my favorite not pot right now is a little bit of a delayed response, but you know, I think, that the world at large is still discussing this topic on some level. I think if you go on social media right now and look up Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, you'll find yourself going down a rabbit hole pretty quickly. So if you are a Bravo holic, like I am, then you're well aware. But if you're not, there was a finale of the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City that like changed the game of reality television. I would say I think, like, going forward, everything will be different for reality television. I mean, I feel like it has to be, and yeah, I can't really say much more than that if you're not into Bravo, other than to say that the way that this finale ended was like, was like gossip girl and mean girls and it was just like all of these things that hit on for people in my age group was like wow, ok, that just happened.
04:13
This isn't a really great description, but all I'm trying to say is that the finale was epic and there were a lot of twist and churns and they continued after the fact. And it's really interesting to see someone infiltrate, to see someone infiltrate a group like that and then like, cause that much chaos. It was pretty entertaining and I was here for it. So what's your fave? Not?
04:41 - JR (Host)
pot. Right now, my fave not pot is a movie. It's a movie we recently watched and I'm going to tell you. This movie, while both being an objectively not good movie, is also incredibly amazing, and it is called Vamps. It is written and directed.
05:01 - Diana (Host)
Incredibly amazing. I don't know about that. Oh it's incredibly amazing.
05:05 - JR (Host)
It's written and directed by Amy Heckerling, which you might know from the Clueless, from Clueless and all right, some bad aspects of it. I was about to tell you what this movie is about, and I can't because it just seems like multiple things happening and that's just it, and we're okay with that. Also, the budget's not really there and it looks like it was filmed in chronological order, so the longer the movie goes on, the less budget they have to the point where, at the end like the effects are just absolutely atrocious.
05:38
But this is such campy, just fun, cheesy, it's just amazing. It has Alicia Silverstone, christian Ritter, both of them just absolutely slaying it. You have Sigourney Weaver just killing it, like always. Justin Kirk you might know from Weeds playing a Ukrainian vampire just top notch entertainment right there. And then you have Malcolm McDowell playing Vlad Tempish, or Vlad the Impaler, who Dracula is based off of. He basically takes up knitting so that he doesn't kill people anymore. This is just some of the amazingness that you can expect with this movie.
06:13 - Diana (Host)
I'm going to interject that it is the perfect movie to watch while smoking a pre-roll yeah For a bong or whatever. It's a great. Get a little high, watch something stupid. That also keeps you on the edge of your seat.
06:27 - JR (Host)
I mean, I wasn't on the edge of my seat but I was loving it.
06:31 - Diana (Host)
I was loving every aspect, yeah, but you were on the edge of your seat because you didn't know what was going to happen next.
06:35 - JR (Host)
Yeah, and I was kind of on the edge of my seat going like, why is this happening? Yeah, because sometimes scenes happen, just because, yeah, it's okay, because I'm telling you this movie has the potential of being a cult classic. I'm talking about, like, house of yes, level the potential.
06:50 - Diana (Host)
it's been out for over 10 years. Sometimes it takes a while.
06:53 - JR (Host)
Sometimes it takes a while because people don't know about it and I'm here to deliver it to them. If you like House of M, some of those early Katie Holmes weird movies that don't seem to make sense, then you're going to love this. It doesn't really make sense, but it's an amazing movie. I recommend you watch it.
07:11 - Diana (Host)
I wouldn't say amazing, but I'll let you go with that.
07:14 - JR (Host)
I rated it an eight on IMDB.
07:16 - Diana (Host)
Wow, okay, yeah, so you really liked it All right.
07:21 - JR (Host)
Well, I enjoyed it very much so.
07:24 - Diana (Host)
I would say if you're a fan of Clueless and you watch True Blood, then this might be really up your alley.
07:32 - JR (Host)
Yeah, also movies like House of yes there's really niche, obscure, weird movies that don't need to make sense but don't have to. Then, yeah, this is Top Notch, top Notch Campy Entertainment.
07:50 - Diana (Host)
All right. Well, I did watch it with you, so now you're making me think I didn't watch the same movie. But hey, you know what? Oh, no, I know that you did. It takes like, don't take my like.
08:00 - JR (Host)
don't go to this movie and be like JR said this is amazing, it's going to be amazing.
08:04 - Diana (Host)
I love really bad weird movies yeah he does, and it's not on the same level of Clueless. Let's just be real about that. Like, yes, it has at least the Silverstone in it, but and it has some other characters from that movie you'll recognize. But that's about it. That's about as far as the connection goes, but it's made.
08:24 - JR (Host)
it seems like just a bunch of friends were hanging out one day and they're like let's make a movie about vampires.
08:29 - Diana (Host)
Well, I think it's going to be a commentary on, like, how Hollywood treats aging actresses.
08:34 - JR (Host)
honestly, Well, yeah, there's that too. But when you have such a low budget you can't help but just kind of have fun, like to have. The fact that everyone seemed like they were having so much fun making this movie really made it. If you had other actors in it, just like playing parts, then this movie would have been atrocious. But like everyone literally seems like they're just having an absolute blast. Just a bunch of friends hanging out making this really cheesy vampire movie. It's top notch.
09:02 - Diana (Host)
Okay.
09:03 - JR (Host)
Nice, awkward silence there.
09:07 - Diana (Host)
I mean you're saying top notch, you just keep taking it to the extremes. So I'm just like I mean I'll agree with you that it was entertaining.
09:14 - JR (Host)
Oscar nominated vamps.
09:16 - Diana (Host)
You want them to retroactively give everyone Oscars. Yeah, all right. So anyway, switching gears a bit, since we've been talking about this movie long enough to warrant some type of sponsorship. Amy Ackerman, you want to sponsor this podcast?
09:33 - JR (Host)
Hopefully more than you spent on the vamps movie.
09:39 - Diana (Host)
So we are going to talk about something that continues to be a hot topic in the cannabis industry since we started, and actually I feel like the conversation about this topic has changed a lot over the years. But we'll get to that in a minute. Let's just start with a question JR, since you hire people regularly in this space, what do you think of people who come and apply for a job who have absolutely no experience with cannabis, and I mean they've never smoked it?
10:17
They have no interest, but they still want to be in the industry.
10:21 - JR (Host)
This one I go back and forth on, really I know, looking at absolute champ.
10:27
Because really, my first thought is the why behind it. Why are you trying to get into this industry if you have zero care for it? Now, if someone just doesn't consume cannabis but they have a strong passion for maybe more natural alternatives to health or green health, then yes, that's very much like okay, you're fully on board, because cannabis really isn't necessarily for everyone. Even if you're a big proponent of green medicine, cannabis itself, in a lot of areas are lacking and some people actually prefer alternatives to cannabis. So I'm completely fine with that, because some of those alternatives don't have necessarily shops available. But when it comes to an absolute disinterest, you return back to that. Why, factor of why would you want to be in an industry that you have zero interest in? Knowing that a job takes about 60, 70% of your life it's literally you working. Why would you want to?
11:34 - Diana (Host)
Add more to that if you're a self-starter, entrepreneur, working for yourself.
11:39 - JR (Host)
Exactly. So why would you want to get into this if you're going to be spending that portion of your life doing something that you don't really care about at all? Generally speaking, when I've hired people to have zero interest in cannabis, they only last like five months, because a lot of times it's just that they think it's going to be kind of easy to get into and kind of like an easy job to have, or they're just kind of in between things that they are actually passionate about and we just so happen to be hiring. But it kind of goes along the lines of like coffee. If you don't really like coffee, why would you go be a barista knowing that you're just going to be smelling coffee all day? The one perks of having the job or it's getting a discount on something that you're not even going to drink. It's not like you're getting paid all that well. So it's like why are you doing this? And this is actually something that goes beyond just a store level.
12:37
Moving outside of the stores into accountings, the ancillary aspects of this industry, you yet again fall back into that Y aspect of it, even on a larger scale of things.
12:51
If you are, say, an accountant, and let's say you are a successful accountant and you're working at a very nice accounting firm and making good money, why would you leave that to go into an industry that's still federally illegal to run? We all have to basically work under umbrella corporations just to get paid, so why would you give up that stability to work in an industry that is illegal, that at any moment you could just depending on who is in the federal government no longer have a job or being able to get paid? There's so many things that if you're not in love with the industry or have a very strong respect for the industry, you have to question why they're doing it, and that's why we end up having an industry filled with people that love it, but then also people that are coming in and, instead of highlighting what they love about the product, like a lot of people do, they want to change the industry into something that's more stereotypical, that they're more comfortable with. Traditional retail, traditional what have you?
14:02 - Diana (Host)
Right, yeah, because in the beginning, like when we started this show seven years ago, I remember a lot of our guests were like either I've never tried it or I've only tried it once and it wasn't for me. But they always had another. Like well, my family member, my mother, had cancer. This is what saved her life. And like at first I was like, okay, all right, yeah, that's. I guess if you have like tangential, you know you have some kind of connection, whether it be your family member or a pet or something like that. But that only goes so far, I feel, because, like you said, there are so many hurdles in this industry. It is so difficult and I'm not even technically in the industry. Quote unquote according to some people, it's like if you only write about it and talk about it, you're not really in it, according to some. But I've been seeing people talk about it on social media a lot recently and I think that's because people aren't people who don't have any experience with the plant, who have never tried it. They have a hard time understanding the patient perspective. Right, Like to them, to someone who's never used cannabis before, it's like well, why aren't you so excited that you have it available to you right now. Why are you complaining about every little thing? You know, that's like the gist, the general pushback that I see, and it's like, well, we're not complaining about every little thing, we're. We have to be critical, we have to critique. We have to critique any type of progress to see if it's actually really progress or it's just being masqueraded as such and we're supposed to be excited about it.
15:49
You know, yeah, for example, the cost aspect of it, right? So If you've never used cannabis before, you don't know what a good price for a pack of pre-rolls is. What is a decent price? You might think, well, $55, I don't know seems reasonable. But for someone who's been using cannabis for a decade, who may have been purchasing it from the legacy market and getting it for like what, half the price this whole time, and they're budgeting their medicine so they only have so much to spend on their medicine every week, that might really mess that person up, right? And if you've never used cannabis, then you don't know why somebody needs to use it every week medicinally and you might not even really care that they can't afford it because you think it's available Like, I don't know, maybe do a better job budgeting or something.
16:50 - JR (Host)
And just going off of just hard facts of this industry. For one, if you have someone coming in, getting their foot into the door in a retail space being a bud tender, and they have zero interest in consuming cannabis, nor ever have they're not understanding the patient's aspects of it. Sometimes patients are coming in because they are purchasing their medicine, so they're not going to be super happy all the time. So that's something that we hear a lot. Why is this person coming in grumpy? They're buying weed, it's like. Well, they're buying weed, most likely because they're probably in a lot of pain right now.
17:24
Or they're desperate for relief, so they're trying to come in to get their medicine. So they're not feeling that way, so they're not going to be coming in doing back flips and high-fiving people for legal cannabis. They're just trying to come in and get their medicine. You don't see people.
17:37 - Diana (Host)
Going to the pharmacy. Skateboarding in the CVS laughing, high fibers all around.
17:42 - JR (Host)
That's not what's happening and it's not going to happen in dispensaries. People are coming in to get their medicine and then you have to look at what the people working actually go through. Taxes for cannabis companies are astronomically high the taxes that they have to pay on each and every employee. So that means in order to be able to stay afloat, they have to hire less people to do more work than in traditional retail. So if I'm working at retail zooplaza or wherever I don't want to name any specific store or whatnot and I have five people to do one zone in a cannabis space, I got about two people to do that same amount of work that traditional retail will have five.
18:29 - Diana (Host)
Can you explain that for us a little bit?
18:32 - JR (Host)
So the companies have to pay taxes on each and every employee. So, generally speaking, in cannabis it's almost double what they have to spend because of legislation and the federal government and the fact that it's scheduled one. We don't have any good, safe banking measures in place right now. Exactly so they have to spend a lot of money per individual employee than traditional retail. They work off of a labor percentage, which means that for every hour that someone's worked, x amount is sold and it delivers a labor percentage. Generally speaking, in traditional retail you're looking at 15%, which means that 15% of your net sales of that day is allocated to payroll and paying the people that were working that day. In traditional retail, like I said, it's 15%. In cannabis, you're looking at around 5% 6%. So that means that out of everything that you sell that day, they can only afford to allocate, instead of 15%, around 5% or 6% to payroll in order to even keep the business afloat. So they have to hire less people. So the people that are working, they have to be passionate about their job because it is hard work.
19:45
I can't express enough how hard it can be working in a dispensary. A lot of people, because they watch Netflix shows or whatnot. They think we're all just having fun freaking, listening to Pink Floyd getting high, talking about philosophy, periodically having people come in and having long conversations about origins of cannabis and strains and stuff like that. That's not true. It's very fast paced. It's very chaotic. It can be very stressful. You're dealing with a lot of people, a lot of people that aren't in their best self because they're coming to get their medicine. It can be very taxing. So you really have to have a love for either the plant or the industry or just the broadness of green medicine and natural healing just to kind of get through. And it's not. You're not going to find that for someone who has a passion in pastries and not cannabis, they're going to get burnt out so quick.
20:42 - Diana (Host)
Look, former hairstylist here. Yeah, exactly. I've worked a lot of jobs where people have said, oh, you love to do this, you should do this. And let me tell you that does not translate. It does not translate. I do not care what you have to say about. If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. That is BS, because every job is hard, even if you love it. So so, so, so much. But, like when I was working in a salon, I got to the point where I was just it was just done. I was over it, I could not do it anymore, I was just done. But cannabis, I keep going, even though I don't work in nearly as stressful situation as you do.
21:20
But I mean, really, this has changed my life and I've seen it change so many other people's lives and I do think that we should all have access, unfettered access, to it, and that's what keeps me going. But there are a lot of days where I'm just like what are we doing? What are we even doing? I mean especially you, because you deal with like a lot more than I do.
21:43 - JR (Host)
It gets exhausting. You can kind of feel trapped because another thing that a lot of people don't mention about if you spend three years in the cannabis industry and you want to get out of it, it can be very difficult Because there's a lot of industries that don't take those three previous years of the cannabis industry as serious as it actually is. So there's a lot of daunting aspects to getting into the cannabis industry. So you really do have to love it and if you're not going, to love it.
22:06 - Ixchel (Guest)
Try it once.
22:07 - JR (Host)
Yeah, exactly. And see if it's something that you want to spend 60 to 70% of your year talking about and working with, because it's going to show. It's going to show not just on a level at the stores, but if you are in one of the ancillary aspects or in the C-suite and you have zero experience in this, then it's going to show from the top down and it's not going to be successful for anybody.
22:37 - Diana (Host)
Right, because, look, I've been a cannabis user for a long time, like more than I haven't been throughout my life, and, honestly, it wasn't until I read Jack Harer's book that all the light bulbs went off in my head about the potentials of this plant, like how it can literally save the planet if we allow the things to happen that need to happen for that to be the case. But the potential, I mean we can replace so many things with hemp and cannabis, and once I had that moment, that's when I was like, oh, I cannot stop talking about this, I cannot stop wanting to talk about this.
23:26 - JR (Host)
And I think that's the thing too. It's not necessarily even the consumption level, it's the appreciation for it, Because I've had people that heavily consume coming where and it doesn't work out because they just care about consuming. It's the appreciation of the plant. I personally don't heavily consume. I don't even touch THC until the sun is down. I'm in my comfy pants, I'm relaxed.
23:50 - Diana (Host)
Yeah, we're not a stoner couple by all traditional means.
23:52 - JR (Host)
Exactly, I don't want to give like the wrong impression. I very much consume on a very light basis, but it's the appreciation, it's seeing what it can do, how it can help people and wanting to be a part of that and also understanding the benefit of it and also some of the side effects of it too, because these are things. You have to know, the good and the bad, in order to be able to really embrace it. And if you're not willing to do that, I don't care how much you consume. If you're not willing to really put your whole self into what this plant can do and what all plants can do, then I'm not saying go somewhere else.
24:29
I'm just saying that you're going to end up burning yourself out and you don't want to, and that's not going to benefit anybody. You know, just know what you're getting into.
24:40 - Diana (Host)
Take those rose colored glasses off.
24:42 - JR (Host)
Exactly.
24:43 - Diana (Host)
Because it's so easy to have them on when you get into this industry. It is, I mean, I don't know about right now.
24:49 - Ixchel (Guest)
I don't know about right now.
24:51 - Diana (Host)
Maybe if you're getting into the industry right now, at this very moment, you might not have those you know rosy expectations. But you know, I don't know, maybe you do. It depends on where you live, because that's the other part of it. It's so different.
25:05 - JR (Host)
Yeah.
25:06 - Diana (Host)
So I mean and it changes depending on where you live, because not everyone can consume safely, so we want to add that but you know, if you can't consume THC, at least understand CBD, try to whatever you can get your hands on safely or other alternatives in plant medicine. Cava.
25:25 - JR (Host)
Kratom functional mushrooms all things that are legally obtainable that you can try to have amazing benefit. Like I said, you don't have to just have a love solely for cannabis, but a love and appreciation for plant medicine as a whole.
25:42 - Diana (Host)
Yeah, safer, healthier alternatives.
25:45
That's right, and so that's pretty much all we have to say about it today, but stay tuned for our local look with Ishelle, who is the CEO of New Harry's Valley Camp Guard and Fairgrounds, and she's going to talk about New Mexico and how things are. Speaking of you know, we're talking about how it's different locationally, and is that even a word locationally? Anyway, it's a very interesting discussion about New Mexico and what she's doing there. So stay tuned for that and until next time, stay high and beautiful. Ever feel like life stress gets to be too much. Welcome to Meet your Gaia, your natural wellness partner. We are the number one rated provider of Kratom, a 100% natural plant based solution used in Asia for centuries to help increase focus, energy and relaxation. Want to know more? Use the code YHPOD to get 10% off. Your first order today that's meetyourgaiacom and code YHPOD for 10% off. And now we're talking to Ishelle Muni of Muheres Valley Campgrounds. How are you doing today, ishelle? I'm doing good.
27:31 - Ixchel (Guest)
Thank you, Diana. I appreciate you for giving me on the segment.
27:35 - Diana (Host)
I appreciate you for joining me, especially with everything you have going on right now. So let's start by taking a snapshot of the New Mexico cannabis scene, because we don't really hear anything about that. I mean, I say we, I'm saying like I'm being broad here, but I mean I don't really hear much about the New Mexico scene. So can you give us a little bit of background about, like, the current attitude among consumers and I know that, being a business owner, it can be a little bit of a two-part question because there's there probably two different viewpoints. But you know, start wherever you'd like to, okay cool.
28:14 - Ixchel (Guest)
So the New Mexico cannabis scene it is fairly new. As far as recreational goes. I've been here for about seven years so I know when I got here in 2017, there was a medical program as a medical patient. I was a medical patient in California, colorado and now New Mexico. So I know like the medical side of it, which is very similar across states that I've been in, but the recreational side, I think, is a little bit more complex.
28:46
For a couple of reasons, new Mexico is not a very how can I say it Like we're not a state that has a lot of money and a lot of people move out here because it's cheap to live, we have low taxes and things like that. But when it comes to cannabis and like recreational, medical and the natural market, it's such a huge clash of people and information and belief systems that it's kind of hard to get us all on the same page. And unfortunately, the New Mexico cannabis scene is real clicky because New Mexico is clicking in general. So if you're like not from New Mexico, you don't get like a lot of people that are like yeah, we want to support you in what you're doing and you've kind of got to fit in where you can get in. You know, regardless of how much you want to help the industry or anything like that, it's they're not very open because there's not a lot of money to go around. So it's been interesting to see, like just like any other state that recreationalizes, a lot of people open up, a lot of dispensaries open.
29:52
The big cities are saturated with all these dispensaries, and then we come in from out of town we live two hours away we come in from out of town to be super saturated markets and all the empty lot and all the parking lots are empty. You know what I mean. Like there's nobody, there's no customers there, and it's just. It's really cutthroat right now because of that, because we don't have a ton of people that have a lot of extra money to spend on cannabis. The recreational prices are so expensive, so a lot of people stay medical and go to the medical dispensaries because they can't afford the taxes or you know things like that. And then where we live at, which is Western New Mexico, there's really nothing here. So there's maybe like two areas that are kind of like big cities and other than that there's a lot of people that need it medically and would like to access it recreationally, but they have to drive two hours to get it, so it's just really expensive and different everywhere you go.
30:53 - Diana (Host)
Wow, I don't know that I would be consuming if. I had to go two hours.
30:59 - Ixchel (Guest)
Oh, it's crazy Like that, which is bad because they promise like I was part of the working medical cannabis working group that kind of opened the door for recreational and that was a huge thing that a lot of medical patients were concerned about and that was something that the state promised to keep was that medical patients could grow their own cannabis. And we all know how that goes a couple months into legalization and that went right out the window. So it's kind of hard, you know, because you know that there's people that absolutely cannot afford the drive. They can barely afford to buy their medicine and here you are taking away their growth rights. So and that's really important it's been really unfortunate in the legalization process.
31:45 - Diana (Host)
I guess that's why we're not hearing about it. So what did? What would you? I mean you already kind of got into it, but like how has I know you're newer to the area, but like what has been the scene over the last several years? Like how has it developed?
32:03 - Ixchel (Guest)
So what I've noticed is that a lot of sorry, it's my son in the background a lot of people that are able to come into the recreational cannabis industry are people that are from out of state. Cookies, big brands like that, people that are already set up in other states or have locations in other states. Those are the ones that are coming into New Mexico and able to make the money because they have the money to spend to get set up. And then I see you know local people that have always been a part of the community trying to get into the cannabis scene and they can afford it and they're going out to people outside of the state looking for funding. So it's it's really hard.
32:44
I can say that my husband have been. You know, our goal was to, as soon as it opened, we were going to put in our license and we're going to open a dispensary out here and that wasn't able to happen because of it's cheap. Like I'll say that it's cheap. They made, you know, like I think it's like 500 bucks for, you know, one of the licenses. Well, that's very inexpensive compared to other states, but at the same time, it's like right, but then we have to drive four hours to go get a live scan and we have a ranch. We don't have anybody to watch it, so it's like a lot of moving parts that costs money and it's not really geared toward servicing New Mexico.
33:24
Like, yes, they want the taxes from it, but they could care less about who comes in, because that was one of the other things that they promised as well was that they were going to keep the industry closed off to people from out of state until the in-state applicants were able to get set up and a couple months in that flew right out the window because New Mexico just wants the money, because they need the money. So it's kind of like a lose-lose, like New Mexico needs the money, the people don't have it. You know what I mean. It's just like it's a hard place to be in. Honestly, that's rough.
33:58 - Diana (Host)
That is really rough. So what do you wish the people outside of New Mexico could understand? Besides the affordability aspect, like what about the scene? What are some of the good things? Maybe?
34:12 - Ixchel (Guest)
It's not that there's no good things. I mean, we definitely have some really great cultivators out here my husband is one of them but I would really love to see people support more indigenous and Black-owned businesses, because we're the ones who take the hit. You know what I mean. New Mexico is not all up to date with the marketing tactics, so that's also where we kind of struggle at. We're like trying to teach people like hey, you got to put yourself out there, you got to market. Here's different ways to get the word out. You know like we're trying to bring in people like writers from other states to get exposure and everything, but just be patient with New Mexicans. That's what I would tell people about.
34:54
The New Mexico kind of a scene. Like well, they're a little rough around the edges is because they live a rough life out here, and we don't have a lot of advocacy for cannabis because even within the reservations and as many different tribes and Pueblos that we have out here, it's very different between all of them on where they fall when it comes to cannabis in their belief system. So you just got to flow with it. Whoever you meet is not going to be the same belief system, as you know, whoever else you meet. Or you know, one tribe may be advocating for them to grow cannabis, another one's like heck, no, we don't want that on our land, like it. Just be open to learning about all the different things that the New Mexico scene has to offer.
35:40 - Diana (Host)
Well, to that point, what do you hope for the future of New Mexico?
35:45 - Ixchel (Guest)
I really hope that we could get it to a point where it's I'm going to say it and I know it's going to sound funny to most people where it's actually treated like alcohol, because that is the one thing that's missing across all of the states that have recreationalized is that all of these states say, hey, we want it to be treated like alcohol, but we don't get treated like that. You know what I mean. Like events have all these extra requirements that they don't have for alcohol, and so that's what I would like to see. I would like to see the government side of it come to terms in a good way, like mesh, in a good way, with the actual community side of it and see that they need to work with us a little bit more. But it's not very different from many other states.
36:32
You know it's the same way in Colorado when we left, it was like that too, and same thing with California when we left. It's like it's constantly changing. New people come in and out of government positions and stuff gets revisited, stuff gets changed again. So I would just hope that we continue to build on to what we're doing and we don't move backwards away from it, because there's still places that you go in New Mexico and they're like, oh, that's the devil's weed or whatever you know, like it's still very much like Wild West and some places out here and they're just like not accepting to it at all. So I know that with that comes education, and that's what I hope to see people focus more on in the cannabis industry is educating each other, not just about their own strains or where they came from, but like the history of cannabis, you know, like cannabis goes back.
37:27 - Diana (Host)
More of a global picture, like a bigger picture looking at the whole thing, all of it.
37:32 - Ixchel (Guest)
Yes, exactly, and I think once we get to a place where we're open to talking about that and being able to put aside like our differences in belief systems and just listen to each other across the board in the cannabis industry, I think we would be a lot better off.
37:48 - Diana (Host)
Yes, I agree, and you're doing a lot of work in that regard. So tell us about the campgrounds and some of the programs you have offering and things you have coming up, because I know there's a lot, but give us a highlight reel, if you will.
38:05 - Ixchel (Guest)
Yeah, so the campground is pretty much a portion of our land. So when we came out from Colorado, we didn't know we were going. We asked Spirit to guide us to where we needed to be to do the work that needed to be done, and this is where we ended up. We have a total of 63 acres in the same area, so we have four lots. We decided that.
38:27 - Diana (Host)
I can't even envision 63 acres, like my head just can only like, maybe think of six, like I was, just like 63. Whoa.
38:36 - Ixchel (Guest)
My plan is. I've tried to compare it to theme parks so, like I came from California, it's bigger than Six Flags.
38:42 - Diana (Host)
Whoa, oh my gosh Wow.
38:47 - Ixchel (Guest)
Right, I thought this thing too, because we had never seen more than a couple of acres at a time, so we haven't even walked all of it yet.
38:55 - Diana (Host)
Wow, I can't imagine. I mean you might get lost, but anyway, sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. It's just like that's such an enormous amount of land it's hard for me to like my brain's like wait a minute, wait a minute. You have questions about that?
39:09 - Ixchel (Guest)
No worries at all. So we came. We noticed that there were no people of color in the area, even though this is indigenous land originally. So our thing was like we were scared to come out. I know I was scared. I was like I don't know how much gas we're gonna have, how far are we gonna drive, where's the gas station? Because none of that has advertised for this area.
39:31
So that's one of our things that we've been trying to do is we set aside 20 acres of our 63 acres to be a campground, slash fairground. Our goal is to build it up sustainably. So we don't wanna be some like fancy, ritzy campground where everything's cemented over and we don't wanna do that. We wanna come in and work in harmony with nature and try to make the smallest amount of a footprint that we can make. So there's no electricity, it's totally off grid. We have water, but it comes from our homestead pretty much or we collect it, and so that's kind of like. Our goal with it is to create a safe space for people of color and for allies to come and enjoy nature and be like I know that's one place I can go, where I know I'll be safe when I get there. I know I know people that know me or that know my struggle and what I deal with coming out to a place like this and they can feel comfortable doing that. So that's the main, that was our main goal with the land.
40:35
Then we realized people were like we wanted to open it up so people can come host events here. And then we get like, well, are there bathrooms, do you have running water, are there lights, is there a stage, is there anything? And so we're like dang, so we have to show people how to host events here, that you can use this land to host events. So that's where our festivals came in and what we do is we do two festivals a year. We do one in May and then we do one in August, and that's really just our way to showcase what can be done with the land.
41:07
Like you can have huge weddings out here, retreats, company retreats, private parties, like all kinds of stuff. My husband pretty much built the stage by hand from the materials on the campground. So, again, tying into the sustainability, using the materials that we have instead of importing stuff from Home Depot or something, and then with that we hope to be able to show people, hey, this is how you can host your own event here. And we struggle with that a lot because we get a lot of people like, hey, you guys should do this kind of event or you guys should do this type of a retreat and like, we would love to, but we're only two people doing all of this. So our comeback to people is always like you should come and do it here.
41:51
You know, that is the goal for other people to come host your events here, make your money, connect with your communities and then do it again or whatever. But our goal is pretty much to like build up the land. So we have one of the big things that we have projected is behind the stage that we built is a natural drainage area. All of the water from the mountain drains down through our land in front of the stage to behind the stage. So we're planning on making a lake so we can have lakeside camping, so we can bring back this area used to be full of redwoods. Now there's not a single redwood in sight. So we're just, you know, we wanna help revive the area of plants and trees that used to be here, while also opening up spaces so that people can feel comfortable to come and have a big private party or get married out here. I'm personally, I'm licensed to be able to do weddings. So you know, yeah, I'm able to do weddings on site. We can do cannabis weddings.
42:51 - Diana (Host)
Like what don't you do?
42:53 - Ixchel (Guest)
We try everything. I even do skincare. So I we do a lot. Yeah, I'll say it that way.
42:59 - Diana (Host)
It's like full service. Yes, and I believe a friend of the pod V will be there at the next Freedom Fest, right? Or it's Freedom Festival, did I say that right?
43:11 - Ixchel (Guest)
Yes, yeah, it's the Freedom Fest. So we started it out with the Gantra Freedom Fest. We ran into some issues with the name and being able to market and advertise, so we dropped the Gantra Freedom Fest in May and then we have the Forest Fiesta in August. So the Forest Fiesta is more geared toward obviously we still allow plant medicine and everything like that, but it's more focused toward education. We focus on having more speakers in the cannabis and other industries, because we also have a lot of people that are into, like this, psychedelic healing and stuff like that that are involved in the Freedom Fest. So all kinds of when people come back, they come in May for the party and then they come in August for the education and the community. The heat it gets up to like 100 degrees up here. Sometimes it's really hot up here in summer.
44:04 - Diana (Host)
I was gonna say that would be a good birthday trip, but I don't know if it's that hot. I don't know if I can handle it. My birthday is in August.
44:13 - Ixchel (Guest)
Oh, august, what my husband is. August 4th 11th.
44:17 - Diana (Host)
Oh okay, okay.
44:19 - Ixchel (Guest)
I love that. Yeah, no, if you could make it, that would be cool because, like you said, for the Freedom Fest we're bringing out, we pretty much set up a whole lineup of female judges, and part of the reason for that is because the name Mujeres means women. True name of the area is Cerro de la Mujeres, which means kill of women.
44:42
Wow I love that the mountain actually looks like a woman laying on her back and it's like just to face it looks like an indigenous woman laying on her back. So we've been trying to get a lot of female performers out here, but we're having a really hard time doing it. So our work around was like let's just make the canna cup while female judges so that's what we did this year V we have Thunder Walker and then Adelia from Event High will be coming out and they'll be the guest judges for the canna cup, and that was kind of our way to kind of like balance it. Because the performers are so male dominated, we really wanted to do what we could to make it more inviting to women, and even to the extent of like asking women that attended before like, hey, what could we do to make it more friendly for you? And we got feedback.
45:34
Like you know, it's kind of dark at night. It makes me nervous to walk to the bathrooms, and so we're like every year we try to improve so that people feel comfortable whether you're a woman, whether you're BIPOC, whether you're not BIPOC. You know what I mean. You've had that as well. Like we get questions like oh, am I welcome because I'm white, it's like, well, yes, of course you're welcome. And then it opens the door for more conversations because, realistically, I'm 48% European, so I'm a BIPOC, but I'm a pretty good mix of BIPOC and Indigenous blood, so we're never closed off to you know people just because they're white or because they're not black and brown or whatever. But we need to create spaces to where we can all be together to be able to have those conversations, right right, absolutely.
46:20 - Diana (Host)
So how can people support you?
46:23 - Ixchel (Guest)
Definitely by coming to one of the festivals, but if not, we're open year round for camping Winter, spring, summer, fall, everything. So if you want to, you know, plan a trip out. That would be a great way. We try to keep our costs low so that way people understand that, we understand that you're driving really far as it comes to support us and we're not trying to like out you. So we've had a couple of people like, hey, you know, you can up your prices to like $40, $50 a night, and I'm like I don't want to do that though, because I know how it is to be a personal color spending $50 a night and another $50 to drive there. So just, you know, trying to be mindful of people's expenses and any way you can get involved with the festivals. We have vendor positions, we have performer positions, we have volunteer positions, which means you can come and we'll actually pay you $50 to help us for the weekend, plus give you kids. And then we also have like donors, like different donor levels. So our donor levels are $50. If you know you absolutely can't afford a thousand dollar donorship, that's totally fine. $50 and that'll list you as a donor and then just getting involved, spreading the word honestly, even if it's just sharing our posts. When you see it, that's such a huge help that people don't all the way realize Sometimes it's really hard for us to get the word out.
47:49
Like I said, we're only a team of two. We have one or two people helping us like virtually, but when it comes to building, my husband does all of that on his own One of the other things too. That is like a great way to help. If somebody's interested in getting involved with our nonprofit, we have the Indigenous Cannabis Council, which is pretty much founded by us, and our goal with that is to just monitor and create spaces for people of color in the cannabis industry. So we have all different types of positions we need, you know marketing people, clerical people, like pretty much anything you can think of. We're pretty much starting from the ground up. So if you're interested in being part of a nonprofit and helping out that way, that's also a huge support that we need as well.
48:35 - Diana (Host)
That's amazing and I'll make sure that we link to that in the show notes. So thank you so much and I can't wait to have you back on to talk more about the campgrounds and everything else.
48:46 - Ixchel (Guest)
Thank you, Dianna. I appreciate you for having me on today.
48:48 - Diana (Host)
Thank you. This episode of your Highness podcast is brought to you by metrigayacom. Metrigayacom is giving listeners a 10% off discount when they use the code YHPOD. That's YHPOD at metrigayacom, a top rated creative company. Also, you can keep up on the recent events and all the news surrounding our show by subscribing to our sub-stack, your Highness newsletter. This episode was edited and produced by James Crash and myself, Dianna Crash, and is a production of your Highness media. Intro music is brought to you by. Your Mom Likes my Music. Thank you for listening.