In this episode, hosts Diana and JR explore the evolution of the cannabis industry. They begin with a nostalgic look back at dial-up internet and AOL, leading into their "Fave Pot/Fave, Not Pot" segment. JR endorses Curio's GI Soothe Tincture for anxiety-induced digestive issues, while Diana praises Mota Magick's pain-relieving balm. The discussion then shifts to the transformation of the cannabis industry from compassionate roots to a profit-driven landscape, highlighting challenges in accessibility due to federal legality. They emphasize the need for inclusivity and support for marginalized communities, critiquing the misuse of "woke" and its role in fostering anti-Black environments.
In this episode, hosts Diana and JR explore the evolution of the cannabis industry. They begin with a nostalgic look back at dial-up internet and AOL, leading into their "Fave Pot/Fave, Not Pot" segment. JR endorses Curio's GI Soothe Tincture for anxiety-induced digestive issues, while Diana praises Mota Magic's pain-relieving balm.
The discussion then shifts to the transformation of the cannabis industry from compassionate roots to a profit-driven landscape, highlighting challenges in accessibility due to federal legality. They emphasize the need for inclusivity and support for marginalized communities, critiquing the misuse of "woke" and its role in fostering anti-Black environments.
Diana and JR advocate for prioritizing small businesses and inclusivity, blending humor with heartfelt insights into the cannabis industry. Their storytelling encourages reflection on compassion and inclusivity across all sectors.
(00:16) Podcast Favorites and Recommendations
(14:52) Accessibility Issues in the Cannabis Industry
(29:36) Challenges in the Cannabis Industry
00:16 - Diana (Host)
Welcome to your Highness Podcast. I'm your host, diana, and I'm your co-host, jr. How are you doing today, jr? Doing pretty good, I'm pretty good. How are you doing today, jr, doing pretty good, I'm pretty good. How are you doing, you know? You know, it's been a day okay, it has been a day.
00:32
Apologies if it sounds like we're a little bit hairy today, but none of the technical gods or goddesses are in my favor today. I don't know what I did to make the AOL goddess. I'm just joking. I'm just joking. I don't use AOL. I don't think anyone does anymore.
00:51
People do Really. I just interviewed someone who did. Anyway, the point is, nothing is working for me today. I am physically doing okay right now. I'm here. That is good, that's good, that's a plus. Nothing else is working for me today. So that, all being said, we're going to start with our recurring segment, fave Pot Fave, not Pot where each one of us talk about our favorite cannabis-related things at the moment and our favorite non-cannabis-related things. That's right.
01:25 - JR (Co-host)
Were you able to think of one in the past five minutes?
01:31 - Diana (Host)
Wow, way to blow up my spot but you know what Today we're? Going to do it a little differently, because usually I go first.
01:37 - JR (Co-host)
Oh, I'm going to go first. I'm going to let JR go first, since he just threw me under the bus.
01:41 - Diana (Host)
Okay then.
01:43 - JR (Co-host)
All right, mine is. It's actually. It's a tincture. It's uh from the, the company curio uh actually sells it here in the state of maryland. Uh, it's a gi soothe tincture it is actually. It has five milligrams of cbd, 10 milligrams of cbg and then five milligrams of thc. I personally like it.
02:07
I have anxiety and as I've talked about, ad nauseum on this, uh, on this podcast, uh, but with that, sometimes it it messes up the, the stomach area a little bit, um, and not just that, but just natural indigestion issues and stuff like that. From being a human being with not the greatest diet, uh, sometimes my stomach is really ramped up, like I said, primarily during those really anxious periods, which is a lot. So this is something that actually kind of calms that down. Uh, it kind of soothes the, the stomach, the, the intestinal linings and the tract and it keeps. Generally, what happens to me when I get overly anxious is I get like these little mini seizures in my digestive system. So it like soothes that down and use this for your favorite pot. If I didn't just use it, maybe you can do it on another week and give your own insight on it. But definitely check it out. It's definitely worth it. If you do have digestive issues, is it definitely worth it out? It's definitely worth it. Uh, if you do have digestive issues, is it definitely worth it?
03:28
it's definitely worth it it's worth it too, like the absolute max what is it again?
03:34 - Diana (Host)
say that one more time gi soothe tincture from curio.
03:41 - JR (Co-host)
That's good.
03:43 - Diana (Host)
Yes, so my fave pot is a balm. It's a pain-relieving balm by a company called Mota Magic. Sorry, I did not mean to say that wrong incorrectly. We actually interviewed the founder of this company, whose name is also Diana, on our sister pod getting personal with plant medicine. But what I really love is that she makes these small batch products on her own, you know, and they work for a variety of things. But this particular balm and I'm trying to look up the exact name of said balm, but let's just say Mota Magic I liked everything that I tried.
04:31
It's M-O-T-A and magic spelled with a K and I'll link that in the show notes. But I also really enjoyed the floral bath balm that she sent me to try. But the pain relieving balm I really like because you can use it for a variety of things. I used it for you when you had a. Like how it softens in your hands very easily. It's not very thick, I mean it's thick to the touch when you know like a, like a salve, right, but it warms up in your hands very quickly without being messy, because that can happen very easily with salves. So, yeah, that's my fave pot right now. Nice, I love it, awesome. So it's such a joy doing this. So what's your fave not pot right now?
05:15 - JR (Co-host)
Oh, we're jumping back to me on fave, not pot as well, awesome, mine is actually. I'm going to be nerdy here for a second. It is a documentary called the Image Revolution. Wait a minute, nerdy just for a second.
05:31
Wait a minute. Are you saying you're just going to be nerdy right this moment and not forever? But no, I am nerdy forever, but I'm going to be ultra nerdy right this moment. So Image is a comic book imprint and it is where you'll see spawn, um and a bunch of others, but generally people know for spawn. Also, the walking dead, uh is actually uh, a title that's in uh, image.
06:00
Basically, the, this documentary kind of shows how this company was created, where you have a bunch of creatives from Marvel and basically just the injustice that they had as employees working under this publication and really how they were able to create something absolutely amazing. To create something absolutely amazing and while there were some trips and some falls along the way, they were really able to stand by the premise of their imprint and it's just something that's really inspiring, especially as someone that delves into the creativities of life of people really taking their destiny by their own hands and just really creating something amazing and something that is equally distributed throughout the company and its partners. So if you're a creative that might feel kind of beaten down by the system at the current time, I definitely recommend watching the Image Revolution. You can see it on Amazon on Freebie. It's on a bunch of different Roku channels. It's almost impossible not to see this and I definitely recommend it. Image Revolution.
07:25 - Diana (Host)
That sounds like fun. It is fun, it is fun. So my fave not pot is a podcast. Surprisingly, it's called Surviving Reality. Okay, so the original show is Surviving Sister Wives, which, for the record, I've stopped watching the Sister Wives show.
07:52 - JR (Co-host)
Which one?
07:53 - Diana (Host)
Oh, the Sister Wives, the actual Sister Wives. Tm the one with Cody.
07:57 - JR (Co-host)
Cody yeah.
07:58 - Diana (Host)
But I still can't stop listening to the drama and all of these other things that unfold about the show. I go on TikTok, I watch certain people do deep dives and then I listen to recaps of it. On Surviving Sister Wives, which is hosted by a husband and wife team, and they use stage names. You know they don't use their real names, but they also just started another podcast called Surviving Reality, in which they recap another show that I stopped watching, the Welcome to Plathville show on TLC. I pretty much stopped watching all of TLC, but I still want to know what's going on for some of these shows, because there is some solid drama.
08:43 - JR (Co-host)
But TLC has this thing where they'll put five minutes of drama and 45 minutes of just watching people not really do much of anything.
08:53 - Diana (Host)
Plus they're on a major delay. They're still showing us stuff that happened two years ago. It's not like Bravo, where they're picking up those cameras as things are happening and putting it up right away, yeah, so, anyways, I'm going to take a sip of water.
09:11 - JR (Co-host)
Oh, okay, thanks for narrating it, I'll take a sip of water as well.
09:18 - Diana (Host)
So, anyway, the two of them are hilarious and they recap the shows in a way that makes it way more interesting. Hilarious and they recap the shows in a way that makes it way more interesting. Um, they even had another podcaster on to like help them recap a recent episode and she was like I don't, I don't watch this possible show anymore either, I just listen to your podcast. So, uh, I highly recommend it. It's called surviving reality. If you just want to listen to them talk about like a bunch of different reality shows, because now they're delving into Salt Lake City, bravo.
09:53 - JR (Co-host)
They're getting into Bravo. They're getting into Bravo, now Okay.
09:57 - Diana (Host)
It's happening a lot. People are starting to get a little bit tired of what Bravo has to offer.
10:02 - JR (Co-host)
So they're dipping their toes. You mean tired of what TLC has to offer.
10:05 - Diana (Host)
Well, no, because Watcha Crappins, which is another podcast that I highly recommend. They recap Bravo shows but they've taken to doing some other shows, like the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, you know, because you have to kind of Got to branch out to keep it going, widen that net, especially when so many of these shows are overly produced by the people that are on them, you know. So I like listening to it because it's like talking to someone who watches the shows with you. You know who cares, because you only care about half of it.
10:48
So I'm not just like rambling to you and you you're going oh yeah, that sounds, that sounds interesting. Oh yeah, I'm kidding, you're not like that, but you know what I mean.
10:59 - JR (Co-host)
So, yeah, that's my fave, not pot awesome, you don't have to send it back to me because I did it first, so we can just get to jump right into our main segment.
11:09 - Diana (Host)
I know, I was like what is? How do we even segue into this?
11:14 - JR (Co-host)
You know, what Bravo's not tired of? Woke BS, woke BS.
11:21 - Diana (Host)
And that's why we love Bravo. Am I right? Because even if it is overly produced, yeah, you don't hear that coming out of their?
11:29 - JR (Co-host)
mouths and he's not going around the people for being too woke.
11:34 - Diana (Host)
Yeah. So again, this is something you may not have become aware of if you're not terminally online, but a week ago, I don't know, time is an illusion I feel like it was a week ago. A lot has come out since, I think. That's why I'm just like I don't know. I don't know when it originated, but some man I'm not going to say his name on LinkedIn posted a job posting. It was a job listing for a position. Now, first of all, the job title was off, because the subsequent requirements were for three or four different roles, not one first of all, which is becoming increasingly popular on LinkedIn.
12:29 - JR (Co-host)
That's pretty standard in the cannabis industry as well.
12:31 - Diana (Host)
Yeah, they want you to do three or four jobs and they don't even put director on the title or you know, manager they might have. They might put manager, but it's usually a director gig and in this case it definitely was. But what really stood out for everybody was the fact that he this person, said in the listing, no remote, no remote access, like no one can do this job remotely. But he also wrote no woke BS and a lot of people were very quick to jump to this person's defense. Who, by the way of people were very quick to jump to this person's defense who, by the way, has tripled down at this point, even just did a recent post saying that he tripled down on what he meant.
13:22
Now people were trying to go in his defense or were in the comments defending what he meant by saying like, oh well, I think he's conflating wokeness with you know, working hard and grinding and all this other stuff. Because in the post he wrote, when he talked about no remote possibility, he said come into the office willing to grind and work hard. You know, basically, leave everything at the door, okay. So naturally, this post generated a lot of comments, a lot of reactions, a lot of response posts. But the thing that was very telling was how quickly this man and other white men were telling people who were not white men in the comments that they're taking it wrong, that they're not understanding what he meant. But what he clearly meant was that anyone who is not an able-bodied white cisgender man White cisgender man, but don't say that, you know, because that's too woke isn't welcome in this job role. Okay, it's not a safe place for anyone that doesn't fall in those perimeters. Okay, do you want to say something?
14:51 - JR (Co-host)
Oh no, no, I mean this is just. You know, there's a normalization behind a lot of this that's happening and there's a bit of a change in the industry itself and it's a direction that we've watched it go for a while now and we've spoken out against it a while. Just recently, a couple weeks ago, you know, maybe a couple months we did an episode on accessibility in the cannabis space.
15:14 - Diana (Host)
Yeah, we're in the time machine right now. It could have been like a couple of months ago.
15:19 - JR (Co-host)
Yeah, but we did an episode on accessibility in the cannabis space and some tips on what you can do to make it more accessible, and then something like this pops up the complete antithesis of what we were preaching on. But this is actually a strong direction in where we're going. Unfortunately, you know, when you're looking at this industry, you're finding a lot of people got into it because they're heavily empathetic. Generally speaking, this industry isn't an industry that you want to easily get into, just because of legalities and stuff like that and difficulties and things like getting a loan and basically building a career, because it is still scheduled on a federal level, so you're basically asking people to work at a federally illegal job.
16:11 - Diana (Host)
So what you're saying? Basically, I just want to make sure, because I think you're hitting a really good point, like not only are you asking people, like all of these ridiculous things that were in that post, this is a job, no matter how you slice it, you're putting yourself in danger.
16:28 - JR (Co-host)
So you're going to ask people to put themselves in danger, possibly have their assets seized, dependent on who is in office. So the people that you're going to get flocking to this industry are generally going to be people that are woke. You know people that are heavily empathetic that are getting into this industry for the sole reason of wanting to help people, help others, for the sole reason of wanting to help people help others. And a lot of people that are overly empathetic are so because of their own hardships and the things that they've had to go through and the things that they witnessed, and they want to help keep other people from witnessing those same things.
17:06
So you really minimize your net on who you're going to bring in if you're going to say not only is this a very difficult job, a very grueling job, a job that you can be putting your own self at risk you know monetarily um, and just fail your family life, but also any kind of accessibility that you thought you could have is going to be completely diminished and taken away. It's a hard thing to tell people and it's something that's being told a lot now. Recently there's been a big growth, especially as more states start to go adult use, the views kind of changes gears from helping people and it goes more towards that standard retail, practicing Capitalism. Exactly, but under the general capitalistic safeguards you do have that safety net of, generally speaking, if you're working at a retail establishment it's fully legal. But you don't even have that in cannabis. So it starts reaching a point of why, at this point, would you even get into this industry?
18:17 - Diana (Host)
Right, because not to cut you off, but five years ago I wrote a few articles for a publication some of you might know called High Times, and I wrote about the lack of access for deaf people in dispensaries. I remember that, yeah, and when I wrote it crickets pretty much, you know, when I tried to get people to share it, when I tried to talk about it, I really did not gain any momentum, and the person that I profiled in this article I don't even know if they're in the industry anymore. There hasn't been any progress in that department as far as I know. I mean, granted, I haven't taken a road trip across the country to every single dispensary, so I don't know, but I'm pretty sure we would hear about it if someone implemented some type of language accessibility, because not only that, but we've had c simone popone on our show who created a guide for basically translation um for um, aapi languages, and they're they're.
19:28
What I'm trying to say is not so eloquently is that there are many roadblocks for people when they just go even into the dispensary. Okay, that's not even speaking on an employment level, right, like we're not even talking about the employee side right now, just on the customer side. There are so many things that make it inaccessible to someone who is disabled, someone who has limited funds or is below the poverty level. The very people that made this industry possible to begin with are being shut out, and in our first season, six or seven years ago, you know we had some people that we spoke. You know there were groups. There were groups that were forming, and I'm not saying there aren't some right now, because there are a few out there.
20:18
This is broad stroking, my point being, if those people had had the support, the financial support, the community support, just people normalizing this accessibility in the first place, those people from the first season, those people in the articles that I profiled five plus years ago, would have a major success right now. We would. It would be so mainstream that we wouldn't even have this discussion right. Just the very fact that when someone says, oh, I work in the cannabis industry, the immediate response isn't like wow, I heard that's great for women. Or I have heard that's great for people who are in the LGBTQIA plus crowd. It sounds like it's a really, you know, great place for anyone who's not a white man.
21:10 - JR (Co-host)
Yeah, and really I mean people can say oh, oh, it's not, you're taking it the wrong way.
21:16 - Diana (Host)
I just want cisgender heteronormative, you know yeah, they could.
21:20 - JR (Co-host)
You know what people can say. You know, oh, you're taking it the wrong way. All they want to and these comments and stuff like that. But once you start using that vernacular, that that you know no book BS, you know you're you're kind of putting a stain on the industry itself. You know you really are you're, you're kind of putting a stain on the industry itself.
21:36 - Diana (Host)
Kind of no, you really are. You're saying that you're not interested in making it a safe space For anybody. You're not for anybody, yeah.
21:42 - JR (Co-host)
And that that also trickles down to the customers. When I was working in the COVID industry, that was something that actually pushed me away from. The COVID industry is in the area that I was um, that kind of mentality started really kind of bubbling up and you know, the people that worked at the at these establishments felt it, and then the customers in turn felt it, you know. So it trickles down and it creates a, an unease, um, an unnecessary unease, you know. So when you are projecting that, your establishment is going to eradicate this wokeness, even if it's on an internal basis. You know, if you create a place of, you know that your own employees don't feel safe, that's going to trickle down to your customer base as well. They're not going to feel that safety that they really need because they're trusting people.
22:36
When it comes to cannabis and stuff like that, because it's a natural form of taking medication and it can interact with your body in different ways, you need to really build a lot of trust between your dispensary staff and the customer base that's coming in, and if you don't have that trust, then your customers are going to find a place where they can find that trust. So in order to build that trust. You need to have comfort with your team to be able to be themselves and be able to work in an accessible way that's accessible for them, and if you eliminate that, then you eliminate basically the entire reason. We wanted this plant to flourish in the first place. And it's all done just for, for bottom dollar, for dude broadness.
23:26 - Diana (Host)
You know, just being like no woke bs bro, you know even if your intention I'm not willing to give this person this kind of grace. But let's just say, if your intention I'm not willing to give this person this kind of grace. But let's just say, if your intention, when you're saying no woke BS, is to say like, oh, I don't want to cater to your specific schedule or your specific needs, like what's your point, then what are you trying to actually do? You're not for people, you're for profit. There's just no way to slice it. If you're saying, well, I didn't mean I don't want people who are marginalized to work for me, well, what did you mean then? Because if you're saying no remote, you're saying no disabled people. That's flat out Okay.
24:11
And this was for social media too, wasn't it? It was some kind of marketing gig, but yeah so, and it really doesn't even matter what the job is, because if you're right off the bat saying no woke BS, and then people in the comments, some people were saying like, oh yeah, I know it's gotten out of control. What has gotten out of control? What has gotten out of control what? Because when I did research on um another article that had nothing to do with cannabis it was it was, you know, researching job trends, looking at companies that are on the fortune 500, people that are not in cannabis. These companies that created more accessibility for their employees not only skyrocket in profit, which I mean. If that's your focus, why wouldn't that be a motivator?
25:06 - JR (Co-host)
right.
25:06 - Diana (Host)
Right, but they had an outstanding employee loyalty. Yeah, just by giving them the option to work from home a few days a week or to have a flexible schedule or, you know, splitting one full-time job for two people. Because here's the other part of it Parents, parents. Why have working parents been pushed out of the industry? Because there is no accessibility for remote work, for child care reimbursement, child care on the job? There's none of that.
25:46 - JR (Co-host)
There was one dispensary that was offering that, but aside from that, we're falling back into this 1980s mentality of retail establishments. You know, where your work-to-home life balance is completely shredded to bits. So anyone that really kind of views family over work is only going to hit a certain level in the cannabis industry. Going to hit a certain level in the cannabis industry and in most cases it's going to be maybe a supervisor level. You know nothing into any form of management just because you are expected much like how I said earlier, how it's normalized. You know, where you're basically performing multiple job duties, job descriptions, under one title. With doing so, you really have to have a skewed schedule where you're not really going to have the standardized Monday through Friday or even the same schedule week to week, which makes it very difficult to really plan anything out. And that's become increasingly normalized and the fact that we still have people coming into this industry trying to get in it and trying to build it. It just shows how dedicated they are, you know, and then we're going to have more people throwing more wrenches into it. But just going back to what you're talking about, as far as uh job, you know happiness and and loyalty.
27:07
You know the cannabis industry very much thrived during covid, not just because it was the only industry that was open. It was because they were forced to stay open and be accessible. You know, they made it so that everyone had shortened hours so no one was working these incredibly late nights, these incredibly early mornings, they were working in the middle of the day. They were allowed to take breaks away from people, they were allowed to work in an atmosphere that wasn't chaotic and hectic and it really did strengthen the industry.
27:42
And I know just the location I worked thrived during that period of time, not because, yet again, we were the only place that was open, because there was other things to do. It was because of the focus that we put on the team, on making sure the team was safe and healthy and had an accessible workplace to go. And with a lot of companies it almost seems like retaliation that, because we had that year where everyone was happy and really enjoying their job, that they want to just kind of take that all away just because they didn't want to give it in the first place. And I'm not saying this is all companies, it's a broad stroke, but you do see that a lot where companies almost spitefully take action against remote work and flexible work schedules because they're angry that they had to give it in the first place.
28:37 - Diana (Host)
Right, and it doesn't make any sense to me, because you mentioned COVID and the reason why I was doing that research and found that out about these Fortune 500 companies is because of the pandemic, because these companies were forced, essentially, to become more accessible during that time and what they had the foresight to realize these people outside of cannabis was that this actually really benefited their company long term. And so I just don't understand where the disconnect is, other than the fact that the last few years have emboldened some people to just say all the quiet parts out loud um, and, and, and. That's just getting worse as we go further into election cycles. But, um, I just want to read a comment that is on the not the original post, mind you the tripling down post. I just want to make sure I'm saying that correctly.
29:36
Okay, so this is Kenya, alexander Davis. She says I think it's really important to understand the history and intended definition of the term woke. The term started off as a part of AAVE African American Vernacular English language, as a term to signify one's alertness to racial prejudice and discrimination. From what you just said, you're not using the term correctly. She's referencing the poster. The term, with social media and politics, has now been watered down to mean something it was never intended to mean.
30:13
This whole misuse of anti-wokeness rhetoric promotes anti-blackness and creates a dangerous environment for black people. So when I see anti-woke in a job description, I assume, as a black woman, that this is not a space that I will feel safe. Unfortunately, black and brown people still have to navigate workspaces with caution as much, as as much of the infrastructure still harms us Lower pay, microaggression, blatant racism. So I get, the focus is the green. I think each of us understands that we need money in order to navigate this world, but unfortunately, black and brown people have other obstacles to navigate. It is important for our safety to stay woke. If you don't speak AAVE fluently, I highly suggest that you phone a friend before you start using terms in your job description. Yeah, I mean, we can't really say it better than that. No, and we shouldn't, we shouldn't, we shouldn't. No, because we don't have, we're not fluent in AAVE. No, but you know, it does signal to me, as someone with a disability, that I'm not allowed to apply for a job like that.
31:26
Yeah, for sure, and I think it does for a lot of people and I'm not allowed to apply for a job like that for sure, and I think it does for a lot of people, and I think that was the point, and you can slice it whatever way you want to, but if you're defending that kind of post, especially publicly, especially when comments like that are on the post, then you're really not trying to hear what other people are saying and you really don't want to learn from other people and you really don't care about being for the people.
32:00 - JR (Co-host)
No, and really it's almost, it's like the signaling of it, like the death knell of basically the industry itself, of basically the industry itself. You know, there's the sheer fact that not just it was said but then fully backed up and a bunch of people came to the defense of the poster and stuff like that. It just yet again signifies the return to that 80s mentality of how we view capitalism and work, except the fact that we're not in the 80s anymore.
32:37 - Diana (Host)
I know it's like the Reagan 80s yeah trickle-down economics didn't work.
32:42 - JR (Co-host)
None of it worked. Nothing. That happened in the 80s.
32:45 - Diana (Host)
Yeah, exactly, working three full-time jobs and acting like that's a personal victory instead of a failing as a society Acting like we're Wolf of Wall Street over here.
32:57 - JR (Co-host)
When you know it's like we're working in cannabis, you know nothing. That we're really doing that intense and garners that much significance that it should take up that kind of of bandwidth, mentally and physically, in your life. No job should ever be that intense that you have to come in seven days a week really grinding it out like what are we doing? Yeah, as a society, we don't have to be in seven days a week really grinding it out Like what are we doing? Yeah, as a society, we don't have to be like this. The cannabis industry, when it started building, we didn't want it to be like this.
33:40 - Diana (Host)
Right.
33:40 - JR (Co-host)
That's why it wasn't like this for a while, yeah.
33:43 - Diana (Host)
I mean whole co-ops, you know, were ran without any outside interference, and I mean I wasn't part of these co-ops, but I've heard about the utopia that used to exist.
33:56 - JR (Co-host)
And it builds the catch-22. So we had an industry that was predominantly medical-based, that a lot of these people didn't want to get involved in because it wasn't a whole lot of money they weren't going to be making money hand over fist but accessibility for people that weren't in the medical program didn't exist. Now we're going into this adult use market on a continental basis. It's spreading very quickly, so there's a lot more money to be made, which is bringing these people in. So it's like we almost traded one thing for another. We have the lack of accessibility for people that couldn't get into the medical program and now we're having an accessibility issue for people that want to get into the industry because of this shift from medical to adult use. And it was something that we saw coming and, no matter how much you want to scream from the rooftops the moment, these people who had nothing to do with the cannabis industry prior to eight months ago, a year ago, are now coming into it and forcing it into their vision and it's a vision that we never wanted.
35:08
It's that same vision that has destroyed so many brick and mortar locations of just big business. These dude bros coming in buying stuff up, just going overly Reagan 80s on the market and destroying something that could be great.
35:26 - Diana (Host)
Yeah, instead of normalizing usage and making it normal that we're smoking joints in the street and smelling it wherever we go, how about we normalize listening to the people who tell us that this isn't working? How about we normalize putting small businesses first and funding marginalized groups and funding all of the projects that we heard about years ago? I mean, the reason why we don't hear about them anymore is because they've been pushed out by lack of financial support, community support, all of that. So why don't we normalize supporting people who need that support?
36:04 - JR (Co-host)
We've normalized the wrong things. I don't want to watch videos of you doing dabs and bong rips. I don't care about that. I do want to see videos of how you're enriching communities and how you're giving back to your workers and creating a safe space for them to work and really normalizing the medicine behind it and just the growth personally behind it, instead of focusing all of our time on oh isn't it cool that I hit this dab and I did this and I did that?
36:31 - Diana (Host)
Oh, this conference, I, I hit this dab and I did this and I did that. Oh, look at this, I'm at this conference, I'm at this conference.
36:36 - JR (Co-host)
Enough of the conferences. We don't need that anymore. I don't need to go and watch some guy walk around with cannabis, leaves all over his suit and jump around and do whatever he wants to do. I really don't care.
36:47 - Diana (Host)
Yeah, because there's still people in prison for using this for for selling cannabis and using it. We, we still have so much work to do, but like it's, it's not. It's not enough just to say that anymore. Right, we can't just say oh well, there's still people in prison. Shrug, shrug, like that's, that's not enough. Yeah, there's, there's still people who can't access their medicine. There are so many people who cannot access their medicine.
37:13 - JR (Co-host)
There's people that are getting pushed out of their jobs in the industry or can't even get into the industry.
37:19 - Diana (Host)
Yes, I am one of them. I was in it. Now I can't get back into it. You can't get back into it Because no one will hire me, Because I guess of the woke BS, Because of the woke BS yeah.
37:32
But anyway. So, yeah, I think that's it for today. Yeah, Do you have anything you wanted to add? No, Okay, I will link the groups that I have found, because there are some that are still around and there are some programs. Yeah, there's some good people out there still. There are a lot of good people out there.
37:50 - JR (Co-host)
We haven't hit like dystopia yet, where we're all just scavenging. There are some very good people out there that are sincere and empathetic and really wanting to do good.
38:04 - Diana (Host)
Yes, and I again want to reinstate that a lot of this is broad strokes, just generalizing here.
38:13 - JR (Co-host)
Yeah, well, we only have so much time. Yeah, so we broad stroke a lot. Yeah, we're not here to give like a whole tutorial on the history of the cannabis industry.
38:22 - Diana (Host)
Yeah, maybe some point, though, right.
38:23 - JR (Co-host)
Yeah, yeah, maybe some point.
38:28 - Diana (Host)
Anyway, all right. Well, until next time. Stay high and beautiful.
38:32 - JR (Co-host)
I still don't have a catchphrase.
38:35 - Diana (Host)
This podcast has been a product of your Highness Media. Each episode is written, produced and edited by your Highness Media. Thank you for listening.