Speaker 1: What's Up, Family, I'm Tamika D. Mallory and we are
Speaker 1: your hosts of Street Politicians, the place where the streets
Speaker 1: and politics meet. What's good? Everybody was the family Street
Speaker 1: Politicians is hot number one. We've had a lot of
Speaker 1: things going on for the last few weeks, and you
Speaker 1: all know that we spent six weeks covering so many
Speaker 1: different aspects of the gun violence awareness and reduction and
Speaker 1: prevention movement UM. We have had advocates on, We've had
Speaker 1: law enforcement on, We've had elected officials on, We've had victims,
Speaker 1: We've dealt with women and how they are impacted by
Speaker 1: gun violence, and we had we well, we absolutely have.
Speaker 1: I mean our brother Samson Styles, who was on, uh,
Speaker 1: the young man from Wilchairs Against Gun Violence. I mean,
Speaker 1: we we've really tried to cover Kareem it's his name.
Speaker 1: We tried to cover all the aspects, but there's so
Speaker 1: many more. And beyond the fact that there's so many
Speaker 1: more aspects, there's so many other people that are doing
Speaker 1: work UM that have different ideas about the ways in
Speaker 1: which you can reduce gun violence and the ways in
Speaker 1: which we can just increase peace and and and and
Speaker 1: increase positivity in our communities, and so that can't be
Speaker 1: the end. We did want to focus for six weeks
Speaker 1: so that we could give people examples and information about
Speaker 1: where to get started or how to keep working in
Speaker 1: their own communities. We've been doing this work for some time.
Speaker 1: It does not always get the attention that it deserves.
Speaker 1: If we post the video or post the show, we
Speaker 1: may get several thousand people, which thankfully at least, you know,
Speaker 1: thousands of you pay attention to our show and watch
Speaker 1: the videos. But when we post something about the hot
Speaker 1: a trending topic, we have thousands of upon thousands upon
Speaker 1: thousands you know of folks who tune in. That's just
Speaker 1: the reality, unfortunately, of people being attracted to um, you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes mess other times just things that um you know,
Speaker 1: make you feel light, make you you know, things that's
Speaker 1: trending and so. But but I think it is important
Speaker 1: that regardless of how many likes and shares we get,
Speaker 1: that we still do what we know it's necessary. And
Speaker 1: there's somebody out there who's able to go back and
Speaker 1: follow the six week series and the six episodes and
Speaker 1: and really sort of write down different ideas that they
Speaker 1: may have found and heard that will help them to
Speaker 1: enhance the work that they're doing in their community. Definitely,
Speaker 1: you know, we want to highlight that. We want to
Speaker 1: make sure that people understand because we always get like
Speaker 1: I always say, we get backlash about what we talk
Speaker 1: about when we talk about police, you know, brutality for
Speaker 1: these violence against us, and you don't talk about it,
Speaker 1: and we do. So, you know, and we took six
Speaker 1: whole weeks to focus on the gun violence that going on,
Speaker 1: that's going on our communities, those people impacted, those people
Speaker 1: doing the work to change, you know, and trying to
Speaker 1: heal the community. So you know, it's necessary, you know,
Speaker 1: and we we actually need more. I mean, we could
Speaker 1: have gone on so many different people. It wasn't enough
Speaker 1: of law enforcement for me. Like I think that because
Speaker 1: we had a former chief, UM, which is important, but
Speaker 1: he obviously can't speak officially for the NYPD or any
Speaker 1: other police department. UM. And I think we need to
Speaker 1: have more dialogue with law enforcement. And as you've been saying,
Speaker 1: people who agree and people who don't agree. I have
Speaker 1: no problem having conversations with people that I disagree with,
Speaker 1: because you know, I can get the point of view.
Speaker 1: You know, you want to make sure that you get
Speaker 1: someone else's point of view. A lot of things about police,
Speaker 1: and I'm not keen on or I don't really agree
Speaker 1: with a lot of the practices that they have, you know,
Speaker 1: and so I want to see the perspective so I
Speaker 1: can understand why do you think it makes sense? Why
Speaker 1: why do you think this actually makes sense? And either agree,
Speaker 1: agree to disagree, and we still gotta do the work.
Speaker 1: We gotta do it. It's something that you know, goes
Speaker 1: against the culture, goes against our people, that violate our
Speaker 1: civil rights. We're gonna make sure that we stand up
Speaker 1: and protest against those things. But if they're all practices
Speaker 1: that the police want to do that makes sense within
Speaker 1: our community, then we will embrace those were just not
Speaker 1: anti police all the way. You know, we will ultimately
Speaker 1: goes to abolished police because we want communities that don't
Speaker 1: need police. We want to be able to walk outside
Speaker 1: and not have to think about crime. And that only
Speaker 1: means that we have to eliminate poverty. Until we eliminate poverty,
Speaker 1: crime is going to exist. We understand that. But so
Speaker 1: until we do that, we're gonna there that even when
Speaker 1: you eliminate poverty, they're still gonna do somethings. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's the part that I'm now because I think we
Speaker 1: have through the research and work that we've done and
Speaker 1: the study that we've been engaged in alongside so many
Speaker 1: of the advocates, we pretty much know what the community
Speaker 1: needs and how to eliminate policing and strengthen community public safety.
Speaker 1: We we we we have that. We can talk about that
Speaker 1: all day and night, but no one I still haven't
Speaker 1: figured out. And that's the part that I'm working on.
Speaker 1: What a what am I doing with the serial murderer um,
Speaker 1: the serial rapists? I'm trying to figure those are mental?
Speaker 1: Those are mental things, you know. So you think if
Speaker 1: we it's the same methods applied, the same method I
Speaker 1: think when you identify that somebody is mentally unstable, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, You don't the you know, the
Speaker 1: mental Fielking diagnose that. So yeah, it's definitely mental, you know.
Speaker 1: And if we identify that prior to it, then the
Speaker 1: police is you know, don't have to get involved. You
Speaker 1: put people inside institutions, you make sure they've monitored because
Speaker 1: usually you conteend when somebody's a serial murderer, I think
Speaker 1: they when they showed, you know, a lot of these
Speaker 1: different shows to talk about serial murderers, and they talk
Speaker 1: about how they identified that they had mental issues way
Speaker 1: when they were younger, and some people just looked it
Speaker 1: off or just didn't pay attention to it, and it
Speaker 1: just fostered into something that was more so I think.
Speaker 1: So you think there's a service that we can provide
Speaker 1: a person that is a pedophile, um from when they're young,
Speaker 1: of course, but how do you know when a person
Speaker 1: is nine or eight that they're gonna like younger. I
Speaker 1: don't think all of those things are able to talk
Speaker 1: identify all the time. I think I think when we
Speaker 1: have school, I think school, and you know, in the
Speaker 1: mental health and um just like psychological just having someone
Speaker 1: to talk to. I think those should be very prevalent
Speaker 1: in all public schools, like you, because you have to
Speaker 1: be able to understand the mind state of a child
Speaker 1: and and see and forster and see what they think.
Speaker 1: You know, to be able to identify, because you can
Speaker 1: tell a lot because when you most parents and things
Speaker 1: like that, they identify things and their children they can say,
Speaker 1: you know, I remember young he was just very angry
Speaker 1: all the time. And I used to try to figure
Speaker 1: it out and try to wonder why he was just
Speaker 1: this angry person and I didn't know. And then they
Speaker 1: see those and then they're not in the mental health issue.
Speaker 1: I mean, so they don't really know. They just identified
Speaker 1: that there's something wrong, you know. I'm saying. So when
Speaker 1: you have mental health people inside schools and then you
Speaker 1: know the experts, I guess specifically, Yeah, they specializing specifically
Speaker 1: deal with each child. You know. I think that should
Speaker 1: be a mandate that mental health dealing with children. Each
Speaker 1: child has to have evaluations and talking to and being
Speaker 1: able to talk. Those are things that need to And
Speaker 1: I think as you do that, I think we can
Speaker 1: circumvent and get in front of a lot of especially
Speaker 1: mental health criminology such as you know, serial murderers and pedophiles.
Speaker 1: So you say, okay, the same methods applied even to
Speaker 1: the worst criminals and bad actors in our community. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think there's no way that we're going to be
Speaker 1: able to circumvent every chrome. I mean what I'm talking
Speaker 1: about the majority of them, The majority of crimes are
Speaker 1: preventable or able to or foreseeable. You know, either you
Speaker 1: can prevent them or you can foresee them and circumvent
Speaker 1: and get in front of them. I believe that. I agree,
Speaker 1: I agree. I guess that's that's that's right. So speaking
Speaker 1: of prevention, it brings me to my thought of the
Speaker 1: day because you know, so, you know, the last few weeks,
Speaker 1: the big debate, there's even protests happening because Mayor Deblasio,
Speaker 1: the mayor of New York City, our city that we
Speaker 1: live in, has said that beginning August thirteen, the rules
Speaker 1: have now changed to Um, if you go to a
Speaker 1: restaurant and you, uh, First of all, they don't care
Speaker 1: about masks. They're saying, you have to prove somehow that
Speaker 1: you're vaccinated. I haven't even really looked into how you're
Speaker 1: supposed to prove it, but you have to prove that
Speaker 1: you're vaccinated in order to be able to do in
Speaker 1: restaurant dining, in room dining, and some other things in
Speaker 1: this city. Um. And you know, September a month or
Speaker 1: so later, it's going to be mandatory to the point
Speaker 1: that the health Department will be out checking the restaurants
Speaker 1: and I guess walking up to your table saying let
Speaker 1: me see your paperwork or let me see I don't
Speaker 1: know what, but they're trying to prevent COVID, but I
Speaker 1: don't think I'm spread. You can't prevent they've already, Like
Speaker 1: I just this one. These things just don't make sense. Well,
Speaker 1: you can't. You can reduce it, reduce it, you can
Speaker 1: reduce it, but I don't think just what. Well, First
Speaker 1: of all, masks definitely have reduced the spread of absolutely,
Speaker 1: because we know it from our own homes. We know
Speaker 1: if I'm from our own homes. Absolutely, I know from
Speaker 1: my own life and from others around me that people,
Speaker 1: even people who are caring for a person who has COVID, right,
Speaker 1: even folks in the medical field, they wear their masks.
Speaker 1: And these and by the way, mask are not a
Speaker 1: new phenomenon. The way that we are wearing masks now
Speaker 1: is probably not healthy. I agree it's not healthy for you.
Speaker 1: But masks, they're not new. Medical professionals have been using
Speaker 1: masks to prevent the spread of viruses and other things forever.
Speaker 1: And so we know that when people first, when doctors
Speaker 1: and nurses were coming into contact with COVID patients, but
Speaker 1: before they figured it out, they were getting sick like
Speaker 1: crazy because they didn't know. And then when they realize,
Speaker 1: oh shoot, I have to wear my mask, and I
Speaker 1: might need the what's the you know, the blue one,
Speaker 1: and then something else to cover it, and not just
Speaker 1: the fancy ones. Then you started to see a reduction
Speaker 1: in the amount of healthcare professionals who again your doctors
Speaker 1: doing your I don't know, maybe I'm just making up something.
Speaker 1: The doctor may have come in on a g Y
Speaker 1: N appointment and usually they don't wear their mask until
Speaker 1: they actually start to examine you. But they don't come
Speaker 1: in the room and they talk to you. They want
Speaker 1: to sit down, have a good conversation, how you doing this,
Speaker 1: and that it's good to see you out of that,
Speaker 1: and maybe shake your hand, because that was the thing
Speaker 1: doctors used to shake your hand, and then the next thing,
Speaker 1: you know, you touch your face, you rub your eye,
Speaker 1: and that's how you're spreading things. But once we knew
Speaker 1: about social distancing, wash your hands, wear your mask, it
Speaker 1: began to reduce the amount of people in the health
Speaker 1: care profession and in other places that we're getting COVID. Now,
Speaker 1: does that mean that it's gonna totally stop it Absolutely not.
Speaker 1: But I know that your chances of transmitting COVID to
Speaker 1: another person or any virus when you have washed your
Speaker 1: hands and you have something that's protecting you and that person.
Speaker 1: It's just common sense that the dot the virus is
Speaker 1: not going to jump through the mask. That's just not realistic.
Speaker 1: Well I'm not saying they jumped through the mask. That's
Speaker 1: most of these masks don't prevent everything from going through anyway.
Speaker 1: So if you're talking to the mask and and it's
Speaker 1: coming off the side anyway, yeah, but that's even if
Speaker 1: you if you look at the average person with the
Speaker 1: mask when you talk, there's places that the air can
Speaker 1: go through. That that's why you can steal within a mask.
Speaker 1: You don't go out a hundred, but do you still
Speaker 1: have air pockets within the mask? It doesn't realize that
Speaker 1: you can catch I didn't say it completely. I never
Speaker 1: I never used the word completely. I said reduces. So
Speaker 1: that's like you can catch something when you have on
Speaker 1: a condom, but the chances of it being transmitted is less.
Speaker 1: So if it was a hundred percent or without the condom,
Speaker 1: you put the condom on, you might be down to
Speaker 1: or even less than that. So I'm saying that it
Speaker 1: is there is a reduction based upon mask. But I'm
Speaker 1: saying in this situation. They're not even asking people to
Speaker 1: wear masks, right, They're saying you have to be vaccinated.
Speaker 1: But the problem is that we know you can still
Speaker 1: catch COVID if you're vaccinated. So I am so very
Speaker 1: confused as to what we're doing, and actually constitutional or
Speaker 1: civil rights or some ship is being violated by telling
Speaker 1: folks they can't go sit in a restaurant. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to understand why we've gotten so comfortable asking people about
Speaker 1: their little hipper stuff, right, because there was supposed to
Speaker 1: be hipper laws that prevent you from being able to
Speaker 1: ask another person. It's like asking me, are you on
Speaker 1: birth control? Like, I don't know. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I have to answer that question, especially if you and
Speaker 1: I are not engaged in something that like you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, like, And I think that's why it's
Speaker 1: not the mandates. I think these are threats, right, and
Speaker 1: they keep saying them, and I don't think they constitutionally
Speaker 1: can stand up. It's like, you know, concerts haven't said,
Speaker 1: oh you have you have to have this, and you
Speaker 1: have to have that, And a lot of people I
Speaker 1: know ain't going in showing no nothing, they have any
Speaker 1: ticket they're asking you a question or they're telling they're
Speaker 1: putting out broadly that you need to have these things
Speaker 1: so that you think, well, I gotta let me go
Speaker 1: get it. And and and that's a it's a it's
Speaker 1: a trick. It's really like a trick because they're not
Speaker 1: really I can't see you walking to the restaurant they're
Speaker 1: asking you for a vaccine, but they're going to because
Speaker 1: they haven't seen. I haven't seen yet that's happening, well
Speaker 1: not yet, because I mean New York is gonna be
Speaker 1: the first city that it's ever happened then. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, my thing is, I am so torn
Speaker 1: because us on one side, I completely understand that you
Speaker 1: have workers, you've got healthcare providers, you essential workers, as
Speaker 1: they say, You've got people out here who can't afford
Speaker 1: to get sick or like me, I went to Houston, Texas.
Speaker 1: That's why those people, if they feel this is what
Speaker 1: I'm trying, it's impossible, though, I'm sorry. If you feel
Speaker 1: that you can't afford to get sick, then you need
Speaker 1: to take the vaccine. You can't you can't tell somebody
Speaker 1: else who don't feel like they can't afford if I
Speaker 1: feel like my immune system is way stronger than everybody else.
Speaker 1: I probably get sick once every five years with a
Speaker 1: cold for two days, and you're gonna tell me that
Speaker 1: I'm just saying. I'm just saying, Okay, you probably see.
Speaker 1: But for the most part, I don't really get sick
Speaker 1: like and if I do get sick, immediately, my immune
Speaker 1: system fights it all. So you're telling me that because
Speaker 1: you feel like you're set of people that I need
Speaker 1: to take ac No. You well, but but but and
Speaker 1: and and every time we have this conversation, we always
Speaker 1: go back to and I'm charging our entire team with
Speaker 1: us finding professionals that can talk with us about this topic,
Speaker 1: because again now we no, but we still need professionals
Speaker 1: because even what we may think is common sense. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know, you go to the doctor's office and you say, well,
Speaker 1: common sense to me. My mom said to me the
Speaker 1: other day, I told us that something said, something's going
Speaker 1: on with my eye. I really don't know what to do.
Speaker 1: Is going through changes. And she said, when my eye
Speaker 1: was going through the same thing, and she started saying,
Speaker 1: I just put a warm compress on it. But when
Speaker 1: I read what the medical professionals said, they are saying, basically,
Speaker 1: the warm compress is the worst thing that you can do.
Speaker 1: But from her perspective, her common sense tells her put
Speaker 1: the warm compress on it, because this is what she's
Speaker 1: used to use it. If somebody you get a medical
Speaker 1: profession that says, don't do this is the worst thing
Speaker 1: that and you do it and it works for you,
Speaker 1: it didn't work. It didn't work. I'm just trying to
Speaker 1: tell you that that's the issue. But I'm trying to
Speaker 1: tell you if she said, listen, what it didn't work
Speaker 1: for you? No, no, no, it did not work for her. Okay,
Speaker 1: so then she was giving you advice that didn't work.
Speaker 1: Didn't even make sense to give you that. But that's
Speaker 1: not the point it because this is this is the issue.
Speaker 1: The issue is. It's like she's been putting a band
Speaker 1: aid on it and it's getting her from day to day,
Speaker 1: but it's not solving the problem. And so when we
Speaker 1: when I went and read up on it, the it's
Speaker 1: not that the that the warm compress doesn't make her
Speaker 1: feel better in the moment, but in terms of healing
Speaker 1: the problem, the cold compress is actually better. And there
Speaker 1: was information about why because the warm creates another swelling,
Speaker 1: and this and this and then a third. So it's
Speaker 1: making it feel better. But she still has this eye
Speaker 1: problem for the last several months, and now she's using
Speaker 1: the cold compress, it's actually helping to speed up the
Speaker 1: healing process. So what I'm suggesting is that when people
Speaker 1: who have actually studied, and this is the conversation you
Speaker 1: and I get into often, I have a concept from
Speaker 1: me visiting prisons. Right, I've been inside, I've listened to
Speaker 1: what a bunch of people have to say about it,
Speaker 1: and I kind of think I know stuff. But when
Speaker 1: I'm speaking to you, someone who spent seven years inside
Speaker 1: the system about it, I know that there's no way
Speaker 1: if I haven't slept there, lived there eight the food,
Speaker 1: done the things, experience, the culture, I can't possibly know
Speaker 1: more than you about this about being in prison, and
Speaker 1: everything you're seeing is right, right, So what the only
Speaker 1: thing I'm trying to tell you is based on what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, you are right. They have people that study prison. Right,
Speaker 1: There's people that go to school every day and they
Speaker 1: study about prison. Right, They've never actually been to prison. Right,
Speaker 1: They've talked to people been to prison, They can give you.
Speaker 1: They can give you a whole thesis on prison mentality
Speaker 1: and never actually been in prison, right, So who is
Speaker 1: more of a professional scene. What I'm talking about is
Speaker 1: this life experience. If I live my life every day
Speaker 1: and I get sick, right, and I do certain things
Speaker 1: for my sickness that heals me, and you tell me
Speaker 1: that based on your studies, the thing that healed me,
Speaker 1: it's not right. That's what I'm trying to explain to you.
Speaker 1: So your professional but then I'm trying to professionalism just
Speaker 1: means that somebody study the book my real life experience.
Speaker 1: I don't put somebody's studies over my room. But the
Speaker 1: but here's the issue. But here's the issue. Here's the issue.
Speaker 1: You haven't experienced the mutation of viruses. You also have
Speaker 1: not experience having diabetes and also having a virus. So
Speaker 1: you want to assume that someone who has studied it
Speaker 1: to the perspective, to the extent that they got diabetes.
Speaker 1: Person at the table, they have a my son person
Speaker 1: who's pretty healthy at the table. They have another person
Speaker 1: who you know it might not be you know, may
Speaker 1: not be diabetes and all of that, but they obese
Speaker 1: or they have different issues, and those people are coming
Speaker 1: together and working with this professional who has studied viruses.
Speaker 1: I want to assume that that person has a little
Speaker 1: bit of a step above in terms of knowledge. Then
Speaker 1: we then we then we do so all I suggest
Speaker 1: the medic you have so many different people that have
Speaker 1: different I understand that, but that my studies tell me
Speaker 1: this and other person. But that's my point. My point is.
Speaker 1: My point is that when we as people who haven't
Speaker 1: studied it, we don't have certain health concerns. We don't
Speaker 1: have everybody sitting at the table. I think that what
Speaker 1: is responsible is to have somebody there who may be
Speaker 1: able to provide perspectives that can help deal with a
Speaker 1: wide array of individuals. Because if me and you, my
Speaker 1: son and Tamika just kicking it about COVID, we have
Speaker 1: our opinions, we have a lot of the same We're
Speaker 1: pretty healthy, you know, we have a lot of the
Speaker 1: same things. We try to eat as best as possible.
Speaker 1: I'm worse than you, but you know these things, right.
Speaker 1: We're both um slim and shape, you know, we're not obese.
Speaker 1: We have all this, so we could kick it and
Speaker 1: talk about it and have a certain idea. The problem
Speaker 1: comes in when we are on platform speaking to a
Speaker 1: broad audience of individuals, then we have a responsibility. Just
Speaker 1: like we're bringing practitioners in that are dealing with gun
Speaker 1: violence from different perspectives that you and I may not know,
Speaker 1: or we learn things and we're like, oh, okay, that's
Speaker 1: what's up now, I understand this or I always knew that,
Speaker 1: but it sounds better when it's coming from somebody who's
Speaker 1: doing it every day. We have a responsibility to apply
Speaker 1: the same thing to talking about a disease that has
Speaker 1: killed or at least the effects of the impact of
Speaker 1: the disease has killed over six hundred thousand people. That's
Speaker 1: all I'm suggesting. I'm saying. Just like we candle everything
Speaker 1: else where, we bring professionals to the conversation, so we're
Speaker 1: responsible with the information that's going out into the world.
Speaker 1: We have a responsibility with COVID because it's too many
Speaker 1: people that are impressionable that's listening that could go and
Speaker 1: try to apply what we're talking about and they mess
Speaker 1: around and apply something that we don't even know because
Speaker 1: we don't have some of these forms, you know, these
Speaker 1: are what do you call them? Pre existing conditions and
Speaker 1: other things that put people's lives. So that's my do
Speaker 1: because yeah, but no, but but even but they have
Speaker 1: been healthy people who have dropped dead to COVID and
Speaker 1: everybody's like exactly, so that's well, No, I wouldn't say
Speaker 1: nobody knows. I would say your information is valuable, and
Speaker 1: so is theirs. I would say, at when I'm walking
Speaker 1: down the street, a homeless person, a houseless person tells
Speaker 1: me some drop some gems on me. That's so powerful.
Speaker 1: I'm like, wow, you know what you're talking about. But
Speaker 1: I also am not gonna go ask that person. If
Speaker 1: I say to them, what have you ever bought a house?
Speaker 1: Have you ever will know actually I never did have
Speaker 1: a house. I've been homeless most of my life. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna go ask them about the f h A
Speaker 1: loan application because there are other people that actually have
Speaker 1: either filled them out and or they actually have helped
Speaker 1: run a program related to that. So the homeless man
Speaker 1: might tell me, save your money. Don't try to be
Speaker 1: so cute and fly that you don't put your money,
Speaker 1: because look at my situation, look at what I've been through.
Speaker 1: There's a better way, and that that's knowledge. But now
Speaker 1: I want to go and apply to for a house.
Speaker 1: So I gotta go talk to the f h A
Speaker 1: loan people who understand the application process, and you put
Speaker 1: the two things together, and then you gotta be what
Speaker 1: did what do we learn on our last show of
Speaker 1: gun violence? Right? Chief Banks said we as police, we
Speaker 1: do a great job. Because of course he's gonna say
Speaker 1: that because he's a former chieat. But what did he say?
Speaker 1: But police and community together. Man, So there we go.
Speaker 1: That's my thought to day. So now we have our
Speaker 1: guests to come on. You know, we talk so much
Speaker 1: sometimes that we get all the way off track. But
Speaker 1: we're talking about cannabis, cannabis, talking about the cannabis industry.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to figure out where to park the little
Speaker 1: bit of dollars that I had so that I can
Speaker 1: buy me a big old house so they could put
Speaker 1: it in a newspaper and say to Mika, Mallory lives
Speaker 1: in an expensive house. I'm I'm trying to get me
Speaker 1: a two three, four million dollar property somewhere. So I
Speaker 1: want to take my little resources in parking and maybe
Speaker 1: cannabis wherever they got that is up and up and up,
Speaker 1: that I can give me some a little little change,
Speaker 1: a little bit change changed, and they're a little change.
Speaker 1: This is something I'm looking into. Man. Yeah, you're really
Speaker 1: hard on it for real, because you know a lot
Speaker 1: of our people have been disproportionately affected by the rest
Speaker 1: and put in prison. You know, so why not now
Speaker 1: should we be able to benefit when they started to
Speaker 1: become legal? You know, I think they should the people
Speaker 1: who was locked up for cannabis. The flower as they
Speaker 1: call it now, the flower? What is that? What is
Speaker 1: the flower? That's what the weed is? Weed is a flower.
Speaker 1: So what's the connotation if they want because now it's
Speaker 1: medical and it's it's no, they want to take the
Speaker 1: stigma of the illegalism of it. The flower. I've been
Speaker 1: I've been studying the flower. Get that out of here. Man.
Speaker 1: It's been weed, the weeds, and that's the criminal connotation.
Speaker 1: They have changed the language people something. Yeah, because I'm
Speaker 1: talking to a guy like I'm really white in man, Yes,
Speaker 1: but no it's not. He's actually Latino and we've been
Speaker 1: working on something right now that's gonna be big. He
Speaker 1: work with white people, of course he does, because because
Speaker 1: the white people got money. You know, Unfortunately us black
Speaker 1: and brown people, we don't have all of the financially,
Speaker 1: we do have it, we just don't use it the right. Listen,
Speaker 1: if we don't even represent to present, we have one
Speaker 1: point five trillion dollars that we spend a year. Think
Speaker 1: like me, I'm gonna go straight to the store today
Speaker 1: since I'm already downtown and go around Yonder, pick me
Speaker 1: up a pair of shoes. Think about how many trillions
Speaker 1: of dollars everybody else that we got that Black people
Speaker 1: have always taken this much. Yeah, but all the time.
Speaker 1: So my thing is this, if we could take this
Speaker 1: much and do that, why not take this much. I'm
Speaker 1: tired to always start like we ain't always got to
Speaker 1: start at the bottom. Back. We're on the back of
Speaker 1: the bus. So we have our first guests. UM, that's
Speaker 1: coming up in this episode. I mean, so many things
Speaker 1: running together. We finished this six episode series on gun violence,
Speaker 1: and one of the things that continue to come up
Speaker 1: in every single conversation is this conversation around eradicating poverty
Speaker 1: UM and UH and the harm that's been caused on
Speaker 1: our communities based upon UH past laws put in place
Speaker 1: to oppress and to really sort of demonize our people
Speaker 1: for things that now are being treated responsively. So the
Speaker 1: harrowing crisis and you know, other drugs they were looked
Speaker 1: at as um criminal issues that are people needed to
Speaker 1: be thrown in jail. That's the war on drugs UM.
Speaker 1: But now we see that, uh, you know, if you
Speaker 1: have an opioid addiction is seen as a public health
Speaker 1: crisis and there's so many services you can just kind
Speaker 1: of walk up to the health department in other places
Speaker 1: and get treated, um for dealing with that. And you know,
Speaker 1: I we we always talk about UM. I went through
Speaker 1: a real serious addiction and I can tell you that
Speaker 1: rehab was like, you know, really really I was. I
Speaker 1: was like dealing with my problems. But also because I'm conscious,
Speaker 1: because like Dick Gregory says, when you put the glasses on,
Speaker 1: you see things not as someone will want you to,
Speaker 1: but you see them exactly as they are. So even
Speaker 1: coming out of my addiction and dealing with the pain
Speaker 1: associated with trying to get clean, I still noticed that
Speaker 1: why white people have like real services to get healed,
Speaker 1: you know, And and it doesn't exist or certainly didn't
Speaker 1: exist in our communities, but this is like really a
Speaker 1: nice place to go to get treated, and they actually
Speaker 1: have drugs that they can give you that helps to
Speaker 1: wean you off of the other drugs. Whereas when when
Speaker 1: we were younger and I saw people trying to get
Speaker 1: off heroin and other addictions, they were like, basically we
Speaker 1: just thrown to the side and they had to sweat
Speaker 1: that joint out or you had to go get on
Speaker 1: methodon which made basically just like shake it out and
Speaker 1: that was it. Maybe we're bugging, Maybe that was TV.
Speaker 1: Maybe they did have Look our staff, they I'm not staff,
Speaker 1: excuse me, my love, our our production crew. They're like, no,
Speaker 1: it was going the room. That's it. Yeah. Before we
Speaker 1: go to the next segment and have our special guests joint,
Speaker 1: we're gonna take a quick break for our sponsors so
Speaker 1: our next guest UM can help us talk about this
Speaker 1: and kind of just go through UM you know what
Speaker 1: we're seeing happening. And I'd like to call her a
Speaker 1: change maker. She's sort of like a changemaker and UM
Speaker 1: an expert on this area of cannabis and particularly looking
Speaker 1: at the African American and Latino communities and our benefit
Speaker 1: and or not enough benefit from UM what we see
Speaker 1: happening with the cannabis industry. Her name is Jeanette Horton,
Speaker 1: and she is a co founder of the New Leaf
Speaker 1: Project UM, which is an organization that was established to
Speaker 1: address communities harm by the War on drugs and to
Speaker 1: help build wealth through the cannabis industry. Thank you so much,
Speaker 1: Jeanette for joining us today, Thank you for having me,
Speaker 1: Thank you for having us. So give us a little
Speaker 1: a little synopsis of exactly what it is that you do.
Speaker 1: Exactly great. So what we spend our time on is
Speaker 1: really bringing that mission to life of building generational wealth
Speaker 1: for the black and brown communities most harmed by the
Speaker 1: War on drugs via the legal cannabis industry. And that
Speaker 1: means we have spent a lot of time funding BIPOC owned,
Speaker 1: primarily black owned cannabis businesses because there is a you know,
Speaker 1: big gap, there's a wealth fab That's what we started
Speaker 1: with UM, really that wealth gap and eradicating poverty that
Speaker 1: impacts black and brown communities, but specifically black communities more
Speaker 1: than any other. And the entrepreneurship period is a really
Speaker 1: really effective way to build generational wealth quickly. And we
Speaker 1: don't participate in entrepreneurship enough black communities because we haven't
Speaker 1: had the access and we haven't had the capital. So
Speaker 1: we spent a lot of time solving that. And we
Speaker 1: believe that the cannabis industry and the taxes, the new
Speaker 1: tax money from the cannabis industry really gives UM, gives
Speaker 1: our community, gives the black community an opportunity, and we're
Speaker 1: seeing this state to state to redirect that money to
Speaker 1: things like funding cannabis businesses or any other black business
Speaker 1: and solving some of those generational wealth problems again using cannabis,
Speaker 1: using canvas taxes. So I just have a question. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of people I know, a lot of my friends,
Speaker 1: you know, growing up in the Bronx who were locked
Speaker 1: up for weed and you know some of them have
Speaker 1: spent axtensive amount of time in prison. What are what
Speaker 1: are the programs like two? You know, not only try
Speaker 1: to get the records clean based on the fact and
Speaker 1: now every thing is legal, but how are they giving
Speaker 1: those same people who they locked up opportunities to be
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs and benefit now or the budding cannabis field. So
Speaker 1: that's really important to talk about state by state because
Speaker 1: that's where this is happening. So, UM, the programs that
Speaker 1: are out there are two things. You first talked about
Speaker 1: automatic expungement, and I just wanted to stop on that
Speaker 1: um and point out that not every legal state has
Speaker 1: put in place automatic expungement, and that's um ridiculous, I
Speaker 1: mean full stop. So to have people still walking around
Speaker 1: with cannabis possession on their record, for example, not even
Speaker 1: cannabis possession is automatically expunged when the industry is now legal,
Speaker 1: is something every state needs to do. And then, um,
Speaker 1: the second thing are the kind of programs that New
Speaker 1: Leaf Project is. So the City of Portland and this
Speaker 1: is where we really got our start. The City of
Speaker 1: Portland voters said that when they enacted taxes on cannabis
Speaker 1: at the registers, at retail sales and cannabis taxes, that
Speaker 1: they wanted a portion of that to go to rebuilding
Speaker 1: the community's most harmed by the War on drugs. And
Speaker 1: New York just recently passed cannabis recreational legislation and said
Speaker 1: the same fift of taxes needed to go um to
Speaker 1: reparative justice. And that's important for states to do that
Speaker 1: and for our community as a whole, states accountable to that.
Speaker 1: We're really making the change by telling states that either
Speaker 1: they can't legalize or they can't. I mean, they really
Speaker 1: need to get accountable to their values if they're going
Speaker 1: to stay legal, to have those programs that invest those taxes.
Speaker 1: And then what New Leaf Project does is we work
Speaker 1: directly with people, UM, with folks who have cannabis UM
Speaker 1: charges on their record many of our business owners do,
Speaker 1: and with folks who are still imprisoned. I'm actually talking
Speaker 1: to a mother UM coming up this week whose son
Speaker 1: is still in prison and how we can help him
Speaker 1: get get started now UM. And then de incarceration would
Speaker 1: be the last thing I'd say. Folks should not be
Speaker 1: in prison UM if it's a cannabis possession charge that
Speaker 1: got them there, or if it's even a distribution charge
Speaker 1: that for now we no longer consider UM consider that illegal.
Speaker 1: It's you know, it's really time for us to hold
Speaker 1: these states accountable that make a lot of money off
Speaker 1: office plan. So the investments that you're making in and
Speaker 1: funding that you're giving to people, is it that they've
Speaker 1: already started and you're just trying to help them along
Speaker 1: or are you for or can I go to come
Speaker 1: to you and say this is what I want to
Speaker 1: do and for you to help show show me the
Speaker 1: steps of how to get involved. Yeah. Absolutely. We work
Speaker 1: with both businesses who have already started in businesses who
Speaker 1: are really just people saying I'd like to be in
Speaker 1: this industry. What should I do? Do you need money
Speaker 1: in your hand? Like what I need money in my
Speaker 1: I'm serious about this, so I'm asking very specific questions.
Speaker 1: Do I need money in my hand to come to
Speaker 1: New Leaf Project and say, okay, I have twenty five
Speaker 1: thousand and fifty thou hundred thousand, which I'd love for
Speaker 1: you to tell me what is a good amount of
Speaker 1: money to have and and to say I'm ready, you know,
Speaker 1: to start, and and also what I need, um, you
Speaker 1: know to have like the best credit or no criminal background,
Speaker 1: Like what would be some of the other things that
Speaker 1: I would have to have in a package that you
Speaker 1: would look at and say this is someone I can
Speaker 1: fund because I can see that you will ultimately be
Speaker 1: successful in the field. Great question. You don't have to
Speaker 1: have money, You don't have to have good credit. We
Speaker 1: absolutely love to talk to people who have a cannabis
Speaker 1: charge on their on their record. Um, you don't need
Speaker 1: to come with anything, because that's you know, what starts
Speaker 1: to create those barriers, but need you to come with
Speaker 1: good credit. Then we start to not be able to
Speaker 1: fund black businesses, black own businesses. So yeah, no, we don't.
Speaker 1: We fund based on what we call character um. We
Speaker 1: give character based grants. Are you an entrepreneur who's eager
Speaker 1: and excited and really passionate and doing the word cannabis
Speaker 1: is hard? There's a lot of research you will end
Speaker 1: up doing on your own um And but that's true
Speaker 1: for any industry, but Canvus is a particularly hard place
Speaker 1: to start a business. It does take a lot of
Speaker 1: capital to start one. Yeah, I was. I was just
Speaker 1: telling her that I was in conversation with somebody, you know,
Speaker 1: really focused on it, and they were just talking about
Speaker 1: the numbers and what it takes to start it, and
Speaker 1: then but the numbers of what it actually gross is
Speaker 1: yearly is phenomenal, you know it is. It's just unbelievable.
Speaker 1: So I think, I think we really need this. We
Speaker 1: need education because a lot of our people in our
Speaker 1: community don't even know it exists. A lot of these
Speaker 1: people like they're small, like you have really little small time,
Speaker 1: just people in the hood selling weed and they don't
Speaker 1: have any felonies, they don't have anything, and they don't
Speaker 1: know the process of actually doing illegal you know, and
Speaker 1: they want to do it legal. They say, hey, what
Speaker 1: and they don't know about the process of doing They know,
Speaker 1: they've studied the strands of weed, they've created strands, they've
Speaker 1: done everything that they could do, but they just don't
Speaker 1: know how to legally transfer over to the process. So
Speaker 1: I think that's something that we definitely need to talk about.
Speaker 1: They've got the consumer research, you know what, they got
Speaker 1: the consumer research. Yeah, they do, and that's authentic, and
Speaker 1: that's one of the reasons we love UM. We love
Speaker 1: founders with experience with the consumer and with the plan
Speaker 1: because that's going to make you a better entrepreneur and
Speaker 1: it's gonna make you faster to market with innovation. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's real. Um, you're bringing bringing the consumer research. That's real,
Speaker 1: and it's something that the executives who are whitening suits,
Speaker 1: who don't consume the plan UM don't know anything about,
Speaker 1: don't have it worked with thousands of folks coming in
Speaker 1: now the door we're asking for the next train and
Speaker 1: telling you the last one was fired. That's consumer research. Legitimately,
Speaker 1: we'd love to fund those entrepreneurs who have that experience.
Speaker 1: We got a couple for you. Good do you do? You?
Speaker 1: Do you have? Or are you interested in starting a
Speaker 1: dispensary yourself? Is that not the direction that you're traveling?
Speaker 1: And you know no, because I countl all of our
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs not to start dispensaries. So that's the first thing. UM,
Speaker 1: in terms of the money in the industry, making UM
Speaker 1: good money right now is not in the dispensary business.
Speaker 1: And UM, you need volume, need volume and retail to
Speaker 1: to make good money anyway. So retail game is usually tough,
Speaker 1: but especially with this particular plant, the market is crowded.
Speaker 1: Taxes are really difficult. You can't do typical tax write offs.
Speaker 1: So I can get into the weeds and I won't. UM.
Speaker 1: But the first thing is no, I wouldn't counsel people
Speaker 1: to start a dispensary business. And I don't know. I
Speaker 1: don't want to start a business. I say all the time,
Speaker 1: I'm not an entrepreneur. There's a problem that needs to
Speaker 1: be solved getting funding to entrepreneurs, and that's really what
Speaker 1: I care about, so that we can build generational wealth.
Speaker 1: It's a window of time when a small business can
Speaker 1: start in the cannabis industry because it's not federally legal.
Speaker 1: That's actually a benefit for small businesses because state by
Speaker 1: state you can kind of start smaller. When Amazon does
Speaker 1: start in the industry, you know they've got the capital
Speaker 1: to take over the entire market, but they won't yet.
Speaker 1: They won't tell it's federally legal. So these small businesses
Speaker 1: have this opportunity to really build wealth. And I just
Speaker 1: wanna do what I can to be that joint that
Speaker 1: helps helps black businesses take advantage of that. So what
Speaker 1: what does she say? I mean, what does you say?
Speaker 1: What do you suggest? What what would be the path
Speaker 1: the entry point to to actually do it? There's so
Speaker 1: many things, So let's just stay with plant touching. If
Speaker 1: you want to what you call touch the plant, you
Speaker 1: could grow. Um. So, cultivation is a really great place
Speaker 1: to make good margin. So where am I gonna make
Speaker 1: good money? What's more profitable business? And that's cultivation? So
Speaker 1: is processing? Processing is really the most profitable. It's more
Speaker 1: capital to start. But I'm very, very excited about a
Speaker 1: black business who might come to me and want to
Speaker 1: open a processing How do we help you fund that?
Speaker 1: You talked to ask me kind of how much money.
Speaker 1: Processing is gonna take you five hundred thousand or more process,
Speaker 1: thank good. Question. Processing would be taking the plant, matter,
Speaker 1: the flower and turning it into oil, turning it into hash,
Speaker 1: turning it into and there's some less expensive ways to
Speaker 1: process like hash. I just mentioned um. But most people
Speaker 1: are looking for the kind of oil you might dab um.
Speaker 1: And is that can you? I know, I'm we're asking.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm deeply into this conversation. I gotta call
Speaker 1: you afterwards. Shout out to my sister friend uh Amber
Speaker 1: Foster who connected us. Where does this whole th HC
Speaker 1: versus cp D like? Tell me about that? That's a
Speaker 1: great question. So th HC is the compound in the
Speaker 1: plant that gets you quote unquote high. That's before the
Speaker 1: elevated feeling you feel those uforic effects from th HC.
Speaker 1: C b D is another compound in the plant that
Speaker 1: most people find is very useful for sleep or for
Speaker 1: pain um and some people find is better for them.
Speaker 1: If th HC tends to make you paranoid, CBD will
Speaker 1: make you feel well. Usually for those same folks makes
Speaker 1: them feel calm and helps with anxiety. So there are
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of a lot of anecdotal
Speaker 1: evidence about how great CBD is. And I say anecdotal
Speaker 1: because we can't do clinical research on any of this yet,
Speaker 1: but your hundreds of thousands of people love CBD. Cb
Speaker 1: D is now federally legal, and so one council that
Speaker 1: I often give people to start a cb D business
Speaker 1: instead if you want to start a THHD drink business
Speaker 1: or you want to even start. We had a company
Speaker 1: who wanted to sell sell blunts, um, like pre rolled blunts,
Speaker 1: and then they pivoted to cb D because it's less
Speaker 1: expensive to start a CBD business because it's federally legal. Um,
Speaker 1: there's a ton of competition, but again, if you know
Speaker 1: your product and you know your market, those CBD blunts
Speaker 1: are doing wonderfully. Um. And that was a pivot they
Speaker 1: made because it's a better it's a less expensive way
Speaker 1: to get into the market. Wow, this is interesting. What
Speaker 1: are the process somebody? We have to reach out to you?
Speaker 1: Do you have a website? Do you have and what
Speaker 1: kind of stuff do they need? Where you know they
Speaker 1: got this ship together and not just comment see you
Speaker 1: with you know what we need? You know what? So
Speaker 1: we talked to everybody. I'll start with that We get
Speaker 1: so many emails from folks who said I want to
Speaker 1: start a dispensing We say, great, let's talk to you,
Speaker 1: and then we counsel them out of that. But and
Speaker 1: we all you get people who say I have no
Speaker 1: idea what I want to start, and then we say, great,
Speaker 1: we'll talk to you too. We talk to everybody. UM,
Speaker 1: so you don't need to come with anything, which is
Speaker 1: a part of breaking down those barriers, because we always
Speaker 1: get told we have to come with something, right, We've
Speaker 1: got to be literate or in order to vote, and
Speaker 1: so we don't. We don't have any of those barriers
Speaker 1: for folks. And you can look us up new Leaf
Speaker 1: project dot org and it's in you leaf and then
Speaker 1: UM send us an email info at new Leaf project
Speaker 1: dot org and we'll set up a meeting with you.
Speaker 1: I can't believe that you exist like this is like
Speaker 1: I can, yeah, because so if you had if I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: and I know y'all gonna kill us, but hopefully we
Speaker 1: can take up this little bit of time. Do you
Speaker 1: have to go now? Okay, let me ask you, so,
Speaker 1: if you have a hundred thousand, a hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars right now, which means you got a little
Speaker 1: bit of something, a little jump start. And then and
Speaker 1: I called new Leaf and I say, listen, I've got
Speaker 1: I have this hundred and fifty thousand dollars. I have
Speaker 1: a family member UM who has a great credit UM
Speaker 1: and also resources. And then I have two friends that
Speaker 1: were also in the industry at one point. They was
Speaker 1: street hustlers, you know, so they know the consumer marketplace.
Speaker 1: What would what what would I have an advantage not
Speaker 1: I. I I understand you're saying everyone, you try to work
Speaker 1: with everyone, But would you look at that and say, okay,
Speaker 1: they're really ready to jump into this particular space and
Speaker 1: let me try to help counsel them into that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: our level of support would would increase for someone who
Speaker 1: came with all of those resources, only because if you
Speaker 1: come saying I don't know what I want to do,
Speaker 1: we give you some resources, We ask you some questions
Speaker 1: over the phone, We tell you to schedule a follow
Speaker 1: up call with us in a month, and we'll see
Speaker 1: how you progress. We do the same if you have
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty thousand and all of those things.
Speaker 1: But if you have a hundred and fifty and the
Speaker 1: consumer experience, you are ready to start a business. You're
Speaker 1: ready and we're ready to help you launch it UM
Speaker 1: And we've still got a number of questions. Are you
Speaker 1: mobile or do you want to stay in one state?
Speaker 1: Do you really want to start a business? Maybe you
Speaker 1: want to invest without a hundred and fifty thousand UM
Speaker 1: and help build other businesses, which isn't something we do often.
Speaker 1: But you can actually get those multiple streams of revenue
Speaker 1: if you think about your investing your hundred fifty in
Speaker 1: another way. So we'd be on a different path because
Speaker 1: you're you're ready to go, and the faster we can
Speaker 1: move for ourselves, for our community, the faster we can
Speaker 1: secure a piece of this industry. How many women are
Speaker 1: in the industry right now that you know a black women?
Speaker 1: A lot? Actually, um we there, it's a so a
Speaker 1: lot is didn't really come across, right, I know a
Speaker 1: lot of black women in the industry. This industry is
Speaker 1: not represented well by black women. Low numbers and black
Speaker 1: women in the industry. So there's not a lot of
Speaker 1: diversity in cannabis. It's less diverse than corporate America where
Speaker 1: it came from. So there's a problem in terms of diversity.
Speaker 1: But I know a lot of great Black women in
Speaker 1: the industry with cannabis businesses um doing amazing things. I think.
Speaker 1: I think that feeds, that feeds to the process. What
Speaker 1: I was saying to you. A lot of us just
Speaker 1: don't know, you know, and a lot of us want
Speaker 1: to get into a lot of people because if you
Speaker 1: go to the hood, most of the black people is
Speaker 1: in the selling and not most I mean same Jesus please,
Speaker 1: I mean the weed sellers are mostly black people in
Speaker 1: the hood. I'm not saying most of the black people
Speaker 1: selling hood with the people who are selling you saying
Speaker 1: that the Latino people, folks, don't they do with is
Speaker 1: way more in my hood away a lot of them,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So you know, you can
Speaker 1: get right to get can't wait you come here? What
Speaker 1: I did said listen, man, we can call a new
Speaker 1: Leaf project, right. No, that's that's amazing. So I know
Speaker 1: people who have machines, they're making oils, all types of stuff.
Speaker 1: Oh good, they already they figured it out, you know.
Speaker 1: So that's great. Yeah, I mean, that's that's yeah. What
Speaker 1: can people do to help you? What can people do
Speaker 1: to help new leave it? Can? Can folks? Are you
Speaker 1: like a C three C four Like, can people donate
Speaker 1: to you so that you can help others get started? Yeah,
Speaker 1: people can definitely donate to this work. We are not
Speaker 1: a non federally recognized nonproblem that we're not a C
Speaker 1: for C three because the FENDS won't give nonprofit designation
Speaker 1: to anything that touches cannabis. That was a new rule
Speaker 1: under the Trump administration. Really um considering that administration, but
Speaker 1: that's where we are, where state recognized nonprofit. But so
Speaker 1: people donate to us, and we have a lot of
Speaker 1: businesses that give to us because they believe in what
Speaker 1: we're doing. So other cannabis businesses who who support this cause,
Speaker 1: larger businesses who realize that this is something they need
Speaker 1: to work on. Is creating diversity in the industry. That
Speaker 1: means that for folks listening, what I'm hearing is you
Speaker 1: can give some money because you believe in it and
Speaker 1: walk away from it and not expect to have a
Speaker 1: tax right off or some type of deduction from the
Speaker 1: donation that you've given an investment, as my son often says,
Speaker 1: and I think it's important. I'm definitely going to donate
Speaker 1: um because I'm going to invest, certainly in New Leaf because, Um,
Speaker 1: first of all, I buy stuff every day. I eat
Speaker 1: at least eight times a day because that's just my thing, um,
Speaker 1: which it needs to not be, because my stomach is
Speaker 1: not agreeing with the process for how much I eat.
Speaker 1: But I waste money if you will, on things. And
Speaker 1: but I see this, even if it's twenty dollars a week,
Speaker 1: even if it's a hundred dollars, you know, at a time, UM,
Speaker 1: when I see that I have a little bit of change,
Speaker 1: it's important for somebody to help our people figure out
Speaker 1: what is a way out of the conditions that we've
Speaker 1: been in. And it is not fair and it's it's
Speaker 1: literally criminal that people have spent years and years and
Speaker 1: years in prison away from their families because you know,
Speaker 1: if you get arrested for marijuana or whatever, when you
Speaker 1: come back to your family that may have Section eight
Speaker 1: living in the projects, you can't even return as a
Speaker 1: man and or a woman to your household because of
Speaker 1: the way that the government subsidies are set up. So
Speaker 1: we have so many points that our communities have been
Speaker 1: impacted by, um, the war on drugs, And I think
Speaker 1: that we need people like you, We need more genets
Speaker 1: out there doing this work and and and helping our
Speaker 1: people figure out how to navigate this space. So I'm
Speaker 1: in in we need some weed. I will say this though,
Speaker 1: about investing. We do have one company that's working with
Speaker 1: us that is helping us make our loans, and so
Speaker 1: they're actually going to give us money they get back
Speaker 1: with a little bit of interest. We do low interest
Speaker 1: loans at large sizes for companies with really slow payback
Speaker 1: terms to make them very affordable capital. But um, if
Speaker 1: a company is willing to work with us on a
Speaker 1: larger scale, they can get their money back. So that's
Speaker 1: just where did you what? What in the street did
Speaker 1: you come from? What's your background? Because you sound like
Speaker 1: you you figured out so many things, which tells me
Speaker 1: that you were doing something that gave you a way
Speaker 1: to understand business and what people need. That's true. Um um, yeah,
Speaker 1: So I came from I worked to Coca Cola for
Speaker 1: a long time before I got to cannabis, and before
Speaker 1: that I did a stint to home depot in ups,
Speaker 1: so I did some corporate rounds. I started working in
Speaker 1: corporate early, right out of high school with Inroads. I
Speaker 1: don't know if they'll know the Inroads program, um internship
Speaker 1: got a lot, got me someone who none of my
Speaker 1: family was in business, So this was not something nobody
Speaker 1: went in a suit and tie job. So this was
Speaker 1: not something that I had any of my head wrapped around.
Speaker 1: But um, I spent a lot of time in corporate America,
Speaker 1: a lot of time understanding business, what people want. I
Speaker 1: don't know funding. So this is a new world I'm navigating.
Speaker 1: But if I don't, I feel like if I don't
Speaker 1: navigate it for us really understanding where we come for um,
Speaker 1: then who will you know with the opportunity to to
Speaker 1: do something here? And I landed in this industry and
Speaker 1: it just feels like the time is now for us
Speaker 1: to take this industry and create that reparative justice, that
Speaker 1: economic justice that's it's due. It's time. It's time for
Speaker 1: the reverse course on where you know where income is
Speaker 1: going for black communities to change. Wow, Jeannette Horn from
Speaker 1: the New Leaf Project, been amazing, so enlightening. En. We
Speaker 1: need another hour and too, you know somebody as we
Speaker 1: as we might, we need we need to visit. We
Speaker 1: need a meeting. We'd love to schedule a meeting with
Speaker 1: you to discuss um how we can be helpful and
Speaker 1: and we want to make sure also that all our
Speaker 1: friends are supporting you, because we know we have a
Speaker 1: lot of friends that's in funding. I'm thinking about our
Speaker 1: board chair, Monique. I let do you know Monique? Okay,
Speaker 1: these are people, I mean, this is what she does.
Speaker 1: Us is Monique and her partner through rain Capital. They
Speaker 1: fund companies and startups black owned and women owned businesses
Speaker 1: um and they have a major fund And she's a
Speaker 1: black woman. Who's our board chair. Obviously, you know we
Speaker 1: know Snoop Dog. That's he's our uncle. Snoop is on
Speaker 1: our board. These are individuals who are already either in
Speaker 1: the business or they have great connections. And we want
Speaker 1: to make sure that our people are supporting you and
Speaker 1: make sure that you get into places and platforms on
Speaker 1: the Breakfast Club and other places so people can know
Speaker 1: that New Leaf exists because we need you. Thank you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'd love to chat more. Thank you so much. Thank
Speaker 1: you for being with us today. We're gonna get money, Yes,
Speaker 1: we are alright. Take care. She's good. I mean she
Speaker 1: knows some stuff really good. You're gonna get us this weed, buddy, man,
Speaker 1: do listen. That's what they don't want you to say flower.
Speaker 1: The flower, you know, that's the that's the clinical term.
Speaker 1: You know, that is the term, the legal term. So
Speaker 1: they take away the negative connotation that has been attached
Speaker 1: to weed. So we have the flower. We're gonna get
Speaker 1: us this flower. People something else. They just know how
Speaker 1: to flip it. But with the newly project, definitely no,
Speaker 1: really we should be supporting that. We got to do that.
Speaker 1: So now we're gonna go into our streets talking segment
Speaker 1: in which our resident brand expert, LaToya Bond, will introduce
Speaker 1: somebody doing dope stuff, entrepreneur owning something something dope. We
Speaker 1: don't even know what it is. You're gonna be We're
Speaker 1: gonna be just as surprised as you are. So let's
Speaker 1: go to LaToya Bon. Let's get it. Thank you to
Speaker 1: make it and mice and welcome to the brand market.
Speaker 1: I am LaToya Bond, your resident brand whisperer. As we
Speaker 1: all know, the legal cannabis industry is growing steadily and
Speaker 1: it's now a billion dollar industry. For years, the black
Speaker 1: community has been criminalized, prosecuted in jail for the sale
Speaker 1: and use of the plan and of course, now that
Speaker 1: it is a legal business, we are priced out and
Speaker 1: policied out of having a seat at the table. For
Speaker 1: this reason, I wanted to highlight the brand Candidus. This
Speaker 1: woman of color founder found the way to get her
Speaker 1: foot in the door with a line of the core
Speaker 1: inspired smoking accessories made with a contemporary woman in mind.
Speaker 1: The goal of the brand is to create smoking accessories
Speaker 1: you don't want to hide. Here's more about the brand
Speaker 1: from the founder, Tore Owen's thank you so much Toya
Speaker 1: for having me. I'm Tory Owens, the CEO of candidacs Co.
Speaker 1: Our mission is to not only be stigmatized with the
Speaker 1: cannabis consumer looks like with our aesthetically pleasing, luxurious smoking accessories,
Speaker 1: but we are as so here to help position other
Speaker 1: minorities as owners within an industry that has previously been
Speaker 1: known to criminalize US Canada. Lux Co is a firm
Speaker 1: believer that you do not have to minimize your enjoyment
Speaker 1: of the plant, nor your belief in its health benefits,
Speaker 1: for the sake of your career or social judgment. We
Speaker 1: acknowledge that consumers who indulge in the plants are equally
Speaker 1: among high profile individuals, and we all play in a
Speaker 1: central role throughout the economy, no matter what tax bracket
Speaker 1: you may fall in. The best part about our collection
Speaker 1: is that each piece was curated with a unique intention
Speaker 1: to provide smoking accessories that you never want to hide. Therefore,
Speaker 1: each piece double serves as home to the core. They
Speaker 1: each represent an individual who is confident in who they are,
Speaker 1: confident in the power of the plant, and know exactly
Speaker 1: what they line. If you're interested in purchasing smoking accessories
Speaker 1: that you never wants to hide, please visit us at
Speaker 1: www dot Canada LUTs dot com. Thank you again for
Speaker 1: having me, and now back to Utay. Thank you Tory,
Speaker 1: and thanks so much for creating this brand. Before you
Speaker 1: guys start calling Texan and tweeting Tamika and my son,
Speaker 1: we are not promoting the use of cannabis. However, we
Speaker 1: are promoting that any business should have people of color represented,
Speaker 1: especially a business that has criminalized our people for such
Speaker 1: a long time. So if this is a way to
Speaker 1: get our foot in the door and get in the industry,
Speaker 1: we supported a hundred percent. It's gonna sit back and
Speaker 1: enjoy my wine and my smoking and some oh and
Speaker 1: before I forget. If you're interested and having your brand
Speaker 1: or products featured on the brand market head of it
Speaker 1: for our Instagram at the b Agency and click the
Speaker 1: link in the bio. Yes, yes, I know, yes, don't
Speaker 1: know off for a little bit because our Streets is
Speaker 1: Talking segments came a little We're a little discombobed just
Speaker 1: that talking to talking too much. We had other people
Speaker 1: that were supposed to come. We just improvised. You know,
Speaker 1: we're the number one show. When you're the number one show,
Speaker 1: you figure out how to improvise and on the move,
Speaker 1: you do what you gotta do. So you know what,
Speaker 1: you got a little switch shout out to the trade
Speaker 1: for this week's segment of Streets is Talking. So that
Speaker 1: brings me two. I don't get it, you know, since
Speaker 1: we're talking about candids with toobo these industries, who candidates
Speaker 1: can abyss the flower? We're talking about the flower, the
Speaker 1: flowers as we're talking about the flowers. What I what
Speaker 1: I don't get right? Like the government is really weird, right,
Speaker 1: you don't get that. I just don't get how we
Speaker 1: don't get it right. How we've allowed this to keep
Speaker 1: happening right throughout history everything is illegal right everything before prohibition,
Speaker 1: they was making liquor in the basement as soon as
Speaker 1: the government feels the figures out, how can we taxes
Speaker 1: it make some money off it? Right? Right? So what
Speaker 1: if I don't get how they continue to criminalize us
Speaker 1: for things, and then soon as they figure out a
Speaker 1: way to get rich off of it, it becomes the
Speaker 1: most legal thing. It becomes. Ever, you can't it's still
Speaker 1: criminalized if you are not doing it exactly if you're not.
Speaker 1: So if you if you're trying to sell right now,
Speaker 1: if you was making liquor in your basement, they're gonna
Speaker 1: lock you up. Every corner, every corner, every store jokes
Speaker 1: because they want to figure out how they can make
Speaker 1: some money off everything you do. Like the reality of
Speaker 1: the situation is nothing is illegal if they can make
Speaker 1: money off of it. And I just don't get it.
Speaker 1: I justly every industry. If you try to sell your
Speaker 1: own COUCHI outside and you ain't paying and you ain't
Speaker 1: paying no taxes on it, it's illegal if you're just
Speaker 1: making money. I don't know, Like, let me see where
Speaker 1: how is that really true? I'm trying to see, how
Speaker 1: do they it's escort, it's called escorting. You don't actually
Speaker 1: you can't say that you're selling the vagina, which is flower.
Speaker 1: It's a flower you escort and they paid you paid dates.
Speaker 1: It's a dating service, right, so you pay and they
Speaker 1: tax the dating. Okay, how much did you make? We're
Speaker 1: gonna need our cut, so you can't. They want They
Speaker 1: cut off everything in the world, and if they don't
Speaker 1: get a cut, it's a crime. As soon as they
Speaker 1: figure out how they can monitor it and make sure
Speaker 1: they get a cut if it comes late. I don't
Speaker 1: know why you don't get that. I just don't. I
Speaker 1: don't get how it's legal. How is that right? How
Speaker 1: is that? Why do we go for this? Listen, y'all
Speaker 1: got research over there. It's actually sex work. Sex working
Speaker 1: you can legally, yeah, but sex work is legal in
Speaker 1: some places. That's true. But I don't know exactly how
Speaker 1: it's being it's definitely being tech. You have to speak
Speaker 1: up because the people may not be able to see you,
Speaker 1: but they can hear you. Lace toize prostitution and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. And they have these houses now where honestly, Wow,
Speaker 1: and y'all sitting the pimps to jam. They get you.
Speaker 1: Listen to me, they need to go to jail. No,
Speaker 1: but listen to me. But they hopefully it is some
Speaker 1: kind of if you choose a woman's decide. You know,
Speaker 1: this guy right here, I want you to make sure
Speaker 1: I'm safe, control my money, all these things for me.
Speaker 1: This is what I've decided, right and we gotta we
Speaker 1: gotta's a thing on that. It's called human trafficking. It's slavery.
Speaker 1: It's human slavery. They've given you seventy eight years. Okay,
Speaker 1: but is there a protection that the government has that
Speaker 1: you as the pimp. But I don't like that word.
Speaker 1: You as the business partner, the business partner, the supporter
Speaker 1: or whatever, the protector. You can't whip my ass and
Speaker 1: rape me yourself, because then that violates some kind of law.
Speaker 1: See the problem with the old because a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of the people who have been locked up
Speaker 1: for these laws, they wasn't beaten. Man. Crew is like
Speaker 1: your nick nick nick nick nick. Yes, they work a
Speaker 1: lot of them. Weren't. Man, Come on, man, these women
Speaker 1: were being these women brutally. See over here we have
Speaker 1: brutalized rate um all kinds of killed at the hands
Speaker 1: of somebody who's supposed to position that quote unquote every
Speaker 1: pimp who is class, not every There's no such no
Speaker 1: absolute things. That's what I'm trying to tell you. And
Speaker 1: there are pimps who have never put their hands on
Speaker 1: what I'm saying that. Yeah, police helping a woman who
Speaker 1: agreed to manage. Right, Okay, managers, oh man, now we're
Speaker 1: calling manages. But especially if he's not. It's just they
Speaker 1: don't do a lot of work. Though they do, that's
Speaker 1: the problem for them to protect you. Like if you're
Speaker 1: going out there, right and you want the strip, and
Speaker 1: you out there and you want somebody can take advantage of,
Speaker 1: the pimp is supposed to make sure that nobody takes
Speaker 1: advantage of they don't take your money. Do you realize,
Speaker 1: let me just let me manage, Let me help you
Speaker 1: are giving place. Let me help you understand what you're saying.
Speaker 1: I'm just telling you, but let me help you understand
Speaker 1: what you're saying. I my statement was that the pimp manager,
Speaker 1: he's now the manager. That's the new language. Is a manager.
Speaker 1: He doesn't do a lot of work. And you come
Speaker 1: back and say, yes, he does. He doesn't have to
Speaker 1: screw some fat stink thing, but he doesn't have to
Speaker 1: go out and find his client. Okay, All yes to
Speaker 1: do is get him a little. That's part of his job.
Speaker 1: Manages the clients in there, and he looks over the
Speaker 1: people you go see. He makes sure you're good when
Speaker 1: you go see him. He might have to. He knows
Speaker 1: where people already. He provides residency. That is what Vegas.
Speaker 1: Vegas was one of the first people. This one over there,
Speaker 1: Look a man, there's a man on our team. That's
Speaker 1: that's he does. He gives residency. Lord. This is something else.
Speaker 1: But but sex work is work. I supported a hundred um.
Speaker 1: So I am not here saying that it's wrong, but
Speaker 1: I do think that. No, it's not that, it's that
Speaker 1: I know I support. That's why we've been saying sex
Speaker 1: work is work, right because there has to be some
Speaker 1: protections and provisions. And so people not just saying sex
Speaker 1: work is work because we support prostitution and we just
Speaker 1: want people to be out here selling there. Behind what
Speaker 1: we're saying is that we know people are out here
Speaker 1: engaging in that type of work. And when you politically
Speaker 1: say with a political consciousness that sex work is work,
Speaker 1: that means that we're expecting that there be some provisions
Speaker 1: and some safeties and protections provided for women who are
Speaker 1: out there It's just like when we start talking about
Speaker 1: people who are using drugs and we say that they
Speaker 1: deserve to be treated as humans. Now that means that
Speaker 1: they can walk into places and get clean needles. It
Speaker 1: means that they can get help, they can go, you know,
Speaker 1: to programs. And so what I'm saying is to your point,
Speaker 1: you like some there's a lot of um uh pimps
Speaker 1: or managers who never put their hands on a woman.
Speaker 1: But there's a lot of police officers who have never
Speaker 1: unlawfully shot or hurt or harmed a person. Right, However,
Speaker 1: we're fighting for but but well listen what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: We're fighting for federal and local regulations that would make
Speaker 1: them accountable if they did, and also stop people from
Speaker 1: even having a mentality of the few. Right. So that's
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. The managers need some rules because they
Speaker 1: don't have no rule. I'm trying of. These managers are
Speaker 1: not locked up for assaulting woman. They're not in there
Speaker 1: for assault harm on the woman. They are for being
Speaker 1: the management for Nobody cares about whether or not they
Speaker 1: was doing the stuff to the woman. That's the part
Speaker 1: that's the problem. Then the issue is that there is nobody.
Speaker 1: That is because by the way, they ain't got no
Speaker 1: victim because the woman is not getting ready to tell people, well,
Speaker 1: I was being managed by John. They're gone. They don't
Speaker 1: want to even be caught up in that. So the abuse,
Speaker 1: the sexual assault and everything else that happened, they may
Speaker 1: never even be closely connected to that woman that they
Speaker 1: did it too, or you know, they may not ever
Speaker 1: receive any charges for that because at this point they're
Speaker 1: being charged for being in the space, for being in
Speaker 1: the industry, but they're not. It's not many women that's
Speaker 1: gonna show up talking about It's like me going somewhere saying, oh,
Speaker 1: when I was out, you know, when I was using right, Oh,
Speaker 1: I got some bad drugs. Who am I going to
Speaker 1: tell that too? But I'm just asking you, like, who
Speaker 1: am I supposed to call and say I bought zanex
Speaker 1: off the street and I'm gonna go to the people
Speaker 1: downtown and walk up and there say they sold me
Speaker 1: a bad batch whom the lords are protecting all because sex. Oh.
Speaker 1: Now you know I'm saying that's what we're saying. Now,
Speaker 1: That's why That's what I'm trying to tell you before
Speaker 1: that if you catch a pimp and a woman who
Speaker 1: is underneath the management manager in the worker, the worker.
Speaker 1: The manager is the only one that's they're not lucking.
Speaker 1: We're hearing, we're hearing. Now. I think the new person
Speaker 1: is the woman is not being arrested. Yeah, yeah, no
Speaker 1: she's not. In some states she's not. But the manager,
Speaker 1: but hopefully the manage well, because the manager could be
Speaker 1: a part of what is called sex trafficking, sir. So
Speaker 1: the traffic curve in the traffic key. Yeah, the dude,
Speaker 1: it's different things. If you're not you don't Okay, that's
Speaker 1: what I'm trying to say. But so what happens in
Speaker 1: the the one that had the opinion you were an artist,
Speaker 1: your manager exactly, So she would have to pay his manager,
Speaker 1: and he would have to do his contract and he
Speaker 1: would have to put his name on the papers. Ah
Speaker 1: oh no, the forcing thing. No, that's yeah. But yeah,
Speaker 1: she's explaining to you how it looks. That's how it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah that in no situations like I've been trying to
Speaker 1: tell you us, man, we got it bad man, go
Speaker 1: on moving on, Yeah, exactly, because it means not me
Speaker 1: per se, a man, a manager, and you know when
Speaker 1: a woman decide you were don't get some money to
Speaker 1: get all right? Cool? Cool? When the police come, women said, look,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I didn't want to do this. You
Speaker 1: know what, YO, trust me. He needs a professional business.
Speaker 1: He needs a professional bit. That's what's gonna for a saxon.
Speaker 1: He needs a professional business, similar to having a club
Speaker 1: or having a brothel or whatever. Sex. Nat, You basically said,
Speaker 1: I don't disagree. I never disagree you. All I'm saying
Speaker 1: is that no, no, no, I didn't say that. I
Speaker 1: never said that. I said you should have a contract yet.
Speaker 1: And still, once you have that contract, if the person
Speaker 1: says no, no me so exactly so your man and
Speaker 1: you say cool, and you go into the room. You
Speaker 1: can't make me go into the room. Went into the room,
Speaker 1: you decided halfway through it that you didn't want to
Speaker 1: do it. And the man just supposed to come and
Speaker 1: get you out on his job, and he supposed to
Speaker 1: lodge it. Now you're supposed to give me out two minutes,
Speaker 1: two seconds. Yes, he of us had life. He's supposed
Speaker 1: to have a book. He's supposed to put it down,
Speaker 1: and then he's supposed to call authority. It's over. Everything
Speaker 1: is over. That's not funny. No, but it's not funny.
Speaker 1: We're laughing about it, but on a serious note, we're
Speaker 1: saying it in a light way. No, we're saying it
Speaker 1: in a light way, and it it sounds whatever. But
Speaker 1: the bottom line is that a woman's body and her
Speaker 1: ability to process and make decisions UM with her full mind,
Speaker 1: heart and soul should always be respected. It should always
Speaker 1: be that, no matter whether you think you're a manager
Speaker 1: or pimp or whatever they are calling it these days.
Speaker 1: As they have gone from weed to flower, they've now
Speaker 1: somehow gone from pimp to manager or whatever. It is.
Speaker 1: Still in all there is a human in the middle
Speaker 1: of um, the sex trafficking I mean, excuse me, the
Speaker 1: sex work field, and not human. They they have they
Speaker 1: should have more rights and they should also have more
Speaker 1: protections because that person's body is actually being used and
Speaker 1: in some cases abuse. So no, I agree, I definitely agree. Um,
Speaker 1: a woman's body is completely her control, you know. And
Speaker 1: I just think we need to pay attention because sex
Speaker 1: trafficking is up, especially in the bronx amongst black and
Speaker 1: Latino women, so we need to be real careful. It's
Speaker 1: a young girl that's missing somewhere now that I see
Speaker 1: on Instagram. They keep posting and she must have been
Speaker 1: like a beauty pageant or something and she's missing in
Speaker 1: some state, um, you know, a young woman. And and
Speaker 1: and people getting snatched off the streets. It's really crazy
Speaker 1: to me every time I think about the fact that
Speaker 1: people being taken and just disappearing and nobody's really talking
Speaker 1: about it. So you know, we gotta we gotta be
Speaker 1: very mindful of that, you know. And the brothers deitely
Speaker 1: need some contract just and whatever. A man and a manager.
Speaker 1: You got an m a and at the beginning and
Speaker 1: get you a contract champ, you know, to make sure
Speaker 1: and they still can break it. So you just gotta
Speaker 1: be gotta be real careful man. Everybody, everybody needs to
Speaker 1: be careful. And so that brings you know, that was
Speaker 1: the thought of the day. Was pretty much about the
Speaker 1: government controlling everything. My idol get. It was really about
Speaker 1: the government controlling all aspects and how they turn illegal
Speaker 1: things into legal because they can make money off and
Speaker 1: you know, we came into that so but we veered
Speaker 1: back to that. So but I still just don't get
Speaker 1: how we allowed it. Like the government is really genious.
Speaker 1: They figure out where to tax everything that we do.
Speaker 1: And until they can tax it, it's a crown, that's
Speaker 1: a business. America is the best at controlling and business
Speaker 1: and every aspect big business and every aspect of our lives.
Speaker 1: That brings us to the end of another episode of
Speaker 1: Street Politicians. We appreciate y'all. You have any topics, ideas,
Speaker 1: any feedback you want to tell us, how don't we are?
Speaker 1: You want to tell us that we're the number one
Speaker 1: we know that about. But if you want to tell us,
Speaker 1: we appreciate this in us some messages DM all of
Speaker 1: that follow Street Politicians Pod on Instagram, go to out
Speaker 1: with a TV if you want to watch the physical show,
Speaker 1: but on our heart Black Effect Networking, listen to it.
Speaker 1: We appreciate you, guys, really do appreciate it. All good.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna always be right for me. It's not
Speaker 1: always do we both always always. That's how we own it.