Speaker 1: You know all the hoops you have to jump through
Speaker 1: with the city and state that you have to deal with,
Speaker 1: the regulations, the penalties, de fees and all that stuff
Speaker 1: on top of taxation. It makes the margins hard for
Speaker 1: an operator.
Speaker 2: Lava for Good and Stand Together Music present The War
Speaker 2: on Drugs Podcast, Season two. This season, we're diving deeper
Speaker 2: into the real stories behind the War on Drugs, its impact,
Speaker 2: its failures, and the people offering a better path forward
Speaker 2: today on the show. Founder and lead MC of multi
Speaker 2: platinum seminal West Coast hip hop group Cyprus Hill, with
Speaker 2: over twenty million albums sold worldwide for hits like Insane
Speaker 2: in the Brain, I Ain't Going Out like That and
Speaker 2: throw your Set in the Air, and first hip hop
Speaker 2: group to have their own star.
Speaker 3: On the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Speaker 2: Cannabis advocate and entrepreneur The One and Only Be Real.
Speaker 4: Welcome back to Season two War on Drugs Podcast. I'm
Speaker 4: Clayton English.
Speaker 3: I'm Greg Laud. Yes, we're back, Yes, and then we're
Speaker 3: going back yeah, going.
Speaker 4: Back back back to Charlie. Yeah, it's gonna be, it's
Speaker 4: gonna be. It's gonna be one of those ones.
Speaker 5: This was super cool, for those that don't know, we
Speaker 5: went out to California. Yeah, sat down with uh Cypress
Speaker 5: Hill's own be Real. Yeah yeah, he had us at
Speaker 5: a studio, which was amazing. I think you said that
Speaker 5: you were like, yeah, this is everything thirteen fourteen year
Speaker 5: old me you would expect out of a Cypress Hill. Think.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like close your eyes and you're like, Cypress Hill
Speaker 2: is in the cannabis and podcasting game. Now where do
Speaker 2: you think this is going on? And then up here
Speaker 2: and you're like, yeah, I'm in Southsage, Los Angeles.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're in a car studio, smoke.
Speaker 5: He's got a lowrider that he shoots the hot Box
Speaker 5: show out of.
Speaker 4: You get to see that.
Speaker 2: Laven three D be Real just is a absolute source
Speaker 2: on everything we talked about during the interview. You know,
Speaker 2: just reading back on history and things like that. Like
Speaker 2: he was always like this like arbiter in the in
Speaker 2: like the hip hop community, where because he was seeing
Speaker 2: someone that hey, I've struggled, I've come from here, but
Speaker 2: I'm also kind of above a little bit of the
Speaker 2: inner fighting that we saw during that time period.
Speaker 3: He was always a source and you can just see it.
Speaker 4: He and he was a weed advocate without trying to
Speaker 4: be that.
Speaker 3: It was just who he was.
Speaker 5: Where they were coming from Cyprus Hill. They used to
Speaker 5: I remember the shows used to have the big weed leaf,
Speaker 5: the skeleton, smoke and a joint.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that was back when it was dangerous.
Speaker 4: It is that they were going down to town right
Speaker 4: exactly city?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's not like that cool anymore wherever. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Right, you're right, you got this stigma on you.
Speaker 3: So it's true.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And so I mean, yeah, he's been an amazing
Speaker 2: you know, artists advocate business, I'm true, And a lot
Speaker 2: of what we actually talked about was kind of his
Speaker 2: entrepreneurship and him working in the cannabis industry and what
Speaker 2: that looks like. We think of California as this you
Speaker 2: know area. They they got medical and you know, the
Speaker 2: first state they legalized in twenty sixteen for recreational. You
Speaker 2: think of them as having like, you know, this robust,
Speaker 2: you know system, but a lot of it isn't all
Speaker 2: what it's cracked up to be. And not only is
Speaker 2: it the local stuff that he talks about, but again
Speaker 2: we get back to federal regulation and prohibition. He's trying
Speaker 2: to own stores in different states, trying to move either
Speaker 2: money or the actual products state to state. You can't
Speaker 2: move it state to state or else. And now becomes
Speaker 2: like a big federal defense. And we even found, you know,
Speaker 2: there was a story out of you know, southern California
Speaker 2: where you know, Brench trucks full of cash because they
Speaker 2: can't work within you know, normal banks of money that
Speaker 2: was from a medical store under legal guys under you know,
Speaker 2: state law was pulled over by local sheriffs and the
Speaker 2: money was diverted over to the Feds. They finally got
Speaker 2: it back after there was a big hull of the
Speaker 2: Like again, it's this second class business that we've continued
Speaker 2: to create and that really allows for all the other
Speaker 2: stuff that we want to remove from this, from legalization,
Speaker 2: the black market, bad products, you know, allowing business to thrive,
Speaker 2: let people who are actually impacted by the drug war
Speaker 2: to be able to come back in we're still harming it.
Speaker 2: And it was just really cool to talk to him
Speaker 2: about some of those things from just he sounded like
Speaker 2: a business owner, just any other business of concerned about
Speaker 2: his stuff.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I think a lot of people look at
Speaker 5: you know, California and like it's legal there. Yeah, but
Speaker 5: there's so much they still haven't figured out, and there's
Speaker 5: so much that still needs to be done. Like once
Speaker 5: you get legal weed, you still have to figure out
Speaker 5: what are you going to do? From a business aspect,
Speaker 5: how are these people gonna put their money in the bank,
Speaker 5: how are these people what are the taxes look like?
Speaker 5: What are all these things looking like, and what does
Speaker 5: it look like to even be a business owner? Because
Speaker 5: some of the stuff he was saying, it doesn't make
Speaker 5: it look appealing to try to go legal. No, it's
Speaker 5: far easier to probably stay in the black market. It's
Speaker 5: probably a lot more work to try to go legal,
Speaker 5: and it's continuous work.
Speaker 4: That's kind of what we learn from him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I know living in DC right now, there's
Speaker 2: been a huge issue because it is a cash market.
Speaker 2: It's actually a very attractive business to launder money through
Speaker 2: now that to try to make money, like you've seen
Speaker 2: that because of licensed caps. You see cronyism where people
Speaker 2: putting out bids and bribes for these things.
Speaker 3: You see money laundering being able.
Speaker 2: To go through because not going through regular banks like
Speaker 2: prohibition actually creates more crime, right and creates more unsafe
Speaker 2: products like be real to talk about that like he is.
Speaker 3: He has stores and things like that.
Speaker 2: He's very you know, passionate about kind of the medical
Speaker 2: aspects of it, like how this works.
Speaker 3: He talked to us about that where yea.
Speaker 2: Working about it with like how he works out with
Speaker 2: you know, it's it's what he's doing. And so when
Speaker 2: you you know, he talked about, you go into stores,
Speaker 2: there's people there, a nodgeable, but you get so much
Speaker 2: other bad stuff on the market, and people are a
Speaker 2: knowledge because of prohibition, because things are still in the gray,
Speaker 2: and that's disappointing.
Speaker 3: But it was just good to talk about all that
Speaker 3: stuff though.
Speaker 5: It as cool as Yeah, you know, I think a
Speaker 5: lot of times people look at it from the smoker's approach, yeah, exactly, like, oh,
Speaker 5: you're able to smoke weed is legal, what are you
Speaker 5: complaining about? And I'm like, I think you got to
Speaker 5: look at it from a business own on his approach,
Speaker 5: and that's kind of what be Real gave us in
Speaker 5: this interview.
Speaker 3: No, I totally agree. We get into all that with them.
Speaker 2: Don't want to give too much away right now, but
Speaker 2: it was an amazing conversation just talk about you know,
Speaker 2: what he was in the hip hop culture, what he's
Speaker 2: still doing right now, still putting out stuff, and like
Speaker 2: how he's come become this amazing entrepreneur.
Speaker 6: And it's a really cool conversation.
Speaker 3: So excited for you all to hear it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I can't wait.
Speaker 5: Hey that, Me and Greg, our guests and sponsors may
Speaker 5: sound smart, we may even make some good points, but
Speaker 5: at the end of the day, we're not medical professional.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 5: Please don't get your medical advice from a podcast. Anything
Speaker 5: we say on here does not constitute official medical advice. Relax,
Speaker 5: consult your doctor before you start any new treatment plans.
Speaker 5: Got it well? On drugs podcast. Man, it's Clayton English,
Speaker 5: It's Greg Lade.
Speaker 7: Man.
Speaker 5: We somewhere special today Los Angeles, California. Man, we get
Speaker 5: be Real studio right here, man with be Real with
Speaker 5: doctor Green.
Speaker 7: Throw man on that.
Speaker 5: Hey, man, thank you for doing this with us. Yes,
Speaker 5: thanks for having me. Yes, man for the listeners. Just
Speaker 5: maybe give us the be Real the jump off story
Speaker 5: because Los Angeles right yeah.
Speaker 7: Yeah. I was born and raised here and still here, yeah,
Speaker 7: still here.
Speaker 1: You know, I've seen all sorts of craziness from you know,
Speaker 1: the time of being a young young buck, growing up
Speaker 1: to a team to an adult, you know, and the
Speaker 1: evolution of living here in southern California, and it's wow
Speaker 1: when you're born and raised here and you and you
Speaker 1: live on some of those blocks where it's active or
Speaker 1: you're a part of some of those blocks where.
Speaker 7: The activities the fast life ship, if you will.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, you you grow up quick in that
Speaker 1: and you have a different perspective on things, and it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, you got to have your head on a swivel,
Speaker 1: especially in the eighties, in the eighties before they started
Speaker 1: cleaning all of it up and gentrifying the neighborhoods down
Speaker 1: there a lot of gangs, right, you know.
Speaker 5: Yeah, man, So when did your journey start with rap?
Speaker 1: You know, we were always fans of music in a
Speaker 1: way that is different than that you just appreciate music.
Speaker 1: It was in a way that we wanted to do
Speaker 1: it as well, you know, so especially with hip hop,
Speaker 1: you know that it's something we felt we could do.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was writing poetry and stuff when I
Speaker 1: got into it, so it was sort of just the
Speaker 1: figure out how to flip poetry into writing these rap
Speaker 1: songs because it was very similar in certain ways. And
Speaker 1: you know, as anything, you know, you're doing it and
Speaker 1: you're having fun doing it, and you think you're good
Speaker 1: and you're really not. But it was a hobby. Then,
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't it was going to be a
Speaker 1: career for me. And in the middle of that, I start,
Speaker 1: you know, rolling with the gangs and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: And you had my experiences and my soldiering in that.
Speaker 6: And how old are you when that first kind of started?
Speaker 7: Very yeah, I was like fifteen at this point.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 1: Fortunately Mellow and his brother Sen were still rocking with Mugs,
Speaker 1: so the three of them and myself had that in common,
Speaker 1: and when they got an opportunity, they decided, hey, we
Speaker 1: should go back and call b see if we can
Speaker 1: get him off the street and get him participating in
Speaker 1: the music. At first, I was, you know, not willing.
Speaker 1: I was totally washed, and you know, I had to
Speaker 1: be on the street. And then for some reason I
Speaker 1: know what made me do it. I said, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll go to the studio and see what's up. So
Speaker 1: I'm seeing these big names rolling through and I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh shit, this is kind of cool. And then I'm
Speaker 1: hearing some of the music and I'm like, fuck, I
Speaker 1: think I could still kind.
Speaker 7: Of do that.
Speaker 1: So it gave me like the appetite for being in
Speaker 1: the studio as opposed to being on the street.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So obviously cannabis is a big part of your music
Speaker 2: from the get go, and a lot of it is
Speaker 2: talking about what you've seen in you know, where you
Speaker 2: grew up, you know, kind of how the criminalization of it,
Speaker 2: what's it done in your community? Can you kind of
Speaker 2: discuss that, like obviously from an early age, like any
Speaker 2: shared experiences about like living in the community, like and
Speaker 2: then seeing how it the criminalization of cannabis in La
Speaker 2: particularly how it's kind of destroyed the community and everything else.
Speaker 1: Oh well, yeah, I mean there was such a huge
Speaker 1: taboo on it when we came out and started talking
Speaker 1: about it on records the way we did, because a
Speaker 1: lot of people were going to jail for.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, for like now like you like, hey, does
Speaker 2: anyone want to vape? And everyone's like, no, I got
Speaker 2: my own, Yeah, yeah, a lot of joys.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and some folks were doing years.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know there were stories that you got
Speaker 1: caught with the seed or a roach in Texas, you're
Speaker 1: doing ten to eleven years off top out here in
Speaker 1: La It wasn't necessarily as harsh as that, maybe, but
Speaker 1: it was still you know, it had people very paranoid
Speaker 1: because they treated it like any other drug, and we
Speaker 1: know now that it's not like any other drug, and
Speaker 1: people don't consider it a drug, they consider it a medicine.
Speaker 1: They spent so much money on propaganda and misinformation about
Speaker 1: cannabis to demonize it, so, you know, people had the
Speaker 1: wrong perception about it. It isn't until you know, the
Speaker 1: Internet is now out there for the information Highway to
Speaker 1: just be open to everyone to like do their own research.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't until people started doing their own research
Speaker 1: till they realized, you know what, it's not as bad
Speaker 1: as they made it out to be, and a lot
Speaker 1: of this shit is wrong. The steps that we went
Speaker 1: through to get to hear we're pretty tough, because you know,
Speaker 1: talking about this shit early, a lot of opportunities wouldn't
Speaker 1: come our way as they would for others because we
Speaker 1: were championing this that a lot of people didn't understand yet.
Speaker 1: To think about where it's at now, it's like fucking
Speaker 1: huge steps in the right direction finally, you know, and
Speaker 1: the possibilities are endless. I mean, there's still a lot
Speaker 1: of work to be done though, because the taxation is
Speaker 1: unfair and the regulations are unfair. I mean, we cannot
Speaker 1: operate like let's just say a Coca Cola if we're
Speaker 1: trying to do our brands across the whole of the
Speaker 1: United States. Like if we wanted to have a nationwide brand,
Speaker 1: our packaging has to be different in this state. Then
Speaker 1: in this state. We can use this font in this state,
Speaker 1: but not in this state. There's no continuity or semblance,
Speaker 1: I guess in the rules and regulations of legal cannabis
Speaker 1: at this point, in.
Speaker 6: The banking, going into the banking, even staying in the state.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the banking and the taxation, it makes it tough,
Speaker 1: but it's slowly but surely going to get there. I
Speaker 1: think when you think about where we're at now to
Speaker 1: where we were thirty years ago. Big lead the history
Speaker 1: of myself getting into the cannabis industry in the legal
Speaker 1: forum was basically, we've seen all these retail stores pop
Speaker 1: up before they had licenses, even you know, when they
Speaker 1: were still kind of rogue or they were all rogue
Speaker 1: or whatever, and you know, I thought, you know, maybe
Speaker 1: we could do that when it becomes legal or something
Speaker 1: like this. So it was always a thought in the head,
Speaker 1: but it was like whether the other guys were going
Speaker 1: to want to do it or not. And you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of the guys were skeptical about it, you know,
Speaker 1: because it was still up in the air in terms
Speaker 1: of legality and all that stuff. So they, you know,
Speaker 1: the Cyprus remained hands off on it. But I thought, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I could take a chance if I did
Speaker 1: it on my own. And so, you know, it started
Speaker 1: with just putting a few products out there. I think
Speaker 1: it was an edible, and you know, to my surprise,
Speaker 1: you know, people found out about the edible. It was
Speaker 1: made by a guy named Chris Bliss. To our surprise,
Speaker 1: a lot of people reacted and it took a few
Speaker 1: years before before anything really happened. But that was like
Speaker 1: the first you know, dive into It was like an
Speaker 1: infused edible. It was like an oatmeal cookie or some
Speaker 1: shit like this. And eventually, you know, because my squad
Speaker 1: and myself came from the cultivation background, we thought, well,
Speaker 1: eventually maybe we could use this green thumb thing to
Speaker 1: put out flower and whatnot.
Speaker 7: Eventually, you know, I.
Speaker 1: Partnered up with a couple of people to do a
Speaker 1: licensing deal with the first couple of shops that we
Speaker 1: opened up, and you know, we got an amazing first
Speaker 1: day show of support of what we were doing by
Speaker 1: a lot of Cypress Hill fans and a lot of
Speaker 1: fans that have like kind of followed this trajectory when
Speaker 1: I made the character in a Cypress Hill song and
Speaker 1: I started doing parties and events at it, and now
Speaker 1: I'm launching you know, a couple of stores and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. So the support was overwhelming, and that that
Speaker 1: was basically the start. It went from like that cookie
Speaker 1: product to possibly doing flour into you know, maybe it's
Speaker 1: actually the platform, and then you know, we'll create another
Speaker 1: product that goes into the platform. And that's where the
Speaker 1: Insane oge which was you know, are at the time
Speaker 1: our flower brand that we were putting into the stores, know,
Speaker 1: and it was called Insane to tribute Cypress Hill as
Speaker 1: for Insane, So that you know, that was basically the
Speaker 1: entry and and you know, based off of the support
Speaker 1: we got here and the excitement that it caused because
Speaker 1: now you had social media everywhere and people you know, are.
Speaker 7: Getting shots in front of it.
Speaker 1: It's like when you're going to open up here when
Speaker 1: you're going to open up there and you know, hey,
Speaker 1: in a perfect world, yeah, you could just easily open
Speaker 1: all these places.
Speaker 7: But it was tough to open up in the first place.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of nimby stuff in California, particularly, like
Speaker 2: local control was realy heavy.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was fortunate in that I had operators who
Speaker 1: had already been in operation, you know, different names, so
Speaker 1: they sort of knew all the you know, all the
Speaker 1: nuances that it took to run a shop, right, and
Speaker 1: they had done a lot of the groundwork in terms
Speaker 1: of having to deal with the city, with the licenses
Speaker 1: and like, they had taken care of all that because
Speaker 1: they had already been operating and they knew what the
Speaker 1: system was, so they had all that in place, which
Speaker 1: made it easier. So when we, you know, put the
Speaker 1: sign up, people people came to it. And you know,
Speaker 1: when was that first year you had your first retail, Yeah,
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen around that time.
Speaker 2: What has been that experience as like a small you know,
Speaker 2: cannabiz owner.
Speaker 6: Is that the term or is that lame?
Speaker 1: Well, it's you know, it's cool again, Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: it's it's it's great, but it has its challenges. You know,
Speaker 1: all the hoops you have to jump through with the
Speaker 1: city and state that you have to deal with, the regulations,
Speaker 1: the penalties, the fees and all that stuff on top
Speaker 1: of taxation. It makes the margins hard for an operator,
Speaker 1: you know, in this industry. So it's been tough on
Speaker 1: big brands and independent brands. The bigger brands that have
Speaker 1: you know, funding, you know that they've survived to a degree.
Speaker 1: Well some of the independence mom and pop right type
Speaker 1: of brands and shops have have went away. Some of
Speaker 1: them are still there. But yeah, you know, it's it's uh,
Speaker 1: it's been challenging. I mean, it's rewarding in one way
Speaker 1: because i mean, you know, hey, listen, we got legalization
Speaker 1: and you know for medicinal and recreational and people are
Speaker 1: not going to jail for it, and they're starting to
Speaker 1: let some of those folks go that had cannabis convictions
Speaker 1: and stuff like that.
Speaker 7: So that's great.
Speaker 1: But in terms of the operator and consumer, we're we're
Speaker 1: still sort of paying for you know, we're paying to
Speaker 1: play right exactly. Because you know a lot of people
Speaker 1: thought when when they got into Canabi, the cannabis industry,
Speaker 1: they were just going to be making money hand over fist,
Speaker 1: and you know, in the beginning maybe it was like that,
Speaker 1: but right about now it's it's not that not that easy,
Speaker 1: whether you got micro licenses or you're just working with
Speaker 1: one license, and.
Speaker 6: That breeds the illegality too, because then they start.
Speaker 1: Doing well, which is why the black market flourishes, you know,
Speaker 1: because it's like if the consumer thinks, well, I used
Speaker 1: to get this for this, and now it's way too
Speaker 1: fucking expensive. I'm just gonna call dude around the corner,
Speaker 1: who's got some ship.
Speaker 3: Jimmy's always been there.
Speaker 7: Jimmy's Jimmy and Timmy and Leimmy. They have always been there.
Speaker 1: You know, can't guarantee that the cannabis is clean, but
Speaker 1: it might be.
Speaker 7: Gas too, you know.
Speaker 1: That's yeah, you know, the gas is a term for
Speaker 1: really good, you know what I'm saying, And so you're
Speaker 1: dealing with that. Then un till the city and state
Speaker 1: sort of like come with the fair plan for us.
Speaker 7: It's it's it's.
Speaker 1: Still gonna be taking those little bumps and bruises. But
Speaker 1: I always believed that that the cannabis needed to create
Speaker 1: its own lobby group to go and bring those taxes
Speaker 1: down and get like sort of the regulation for most
Speaker 1: of these states and stuff done before the other guys
Speaker 1: that come in.
Speaker 7: Yeah, with that real.
Speaker 1: Money come in and they start funding the lobbyists, and
Speaker 1: then they're going to wash a lot of people out
Speaker 1: after that.
Speaker 2: They're right, a lot of the ballot measures that go
Speaker 2: on there, they indoctrinate the people that have already been
Speaker 2: working in the medical industry, and it's a huge issue.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that I always thought the industry should do that,
Speaker 1: you know, like band together, because then you're you know,
Speaker 1: you're sort of carving your own path as opposed to
Speaker 1: waiting for these guys to come do it and believe
Speaker 1: that they will, like, you know, when the big money
Speaker 1: is able to come in, they're going to lobby that
Speaker 1: those taxes down and it's going to benefit them because
Speaker 1: they will get it down, but it's going to benefit
Speaker 1: them and anyone else isn't necessarily going to be grandfathered
Speaker 1: in in the nice way, you know what I mean. So, Yeah,
Speaker 1: if they brought the taxes down, it would allow growth
Speaker 1: in many areas in terms of job growth. You know,
Speaker 1: people would be able to hire more staff in some
Speaker 1: of the cultivations because you need staff in the cultivations, right,
Speaker 1: and even in the in the storefronts, and in all
Speaker 1: aspects you know, from distribution and manufacturing and development and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. You'd see all that grow and it
Speaker 1: would allow the actual business to make money, and it
Speaker 1: would make more money for the state and for the government,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. But when you're punishing, the
Speaker 1: margins are very much lower, and then you start losing
Speaker 1: businesses and losing those jobs and losing that tax dollar,
Speaker 1: which is you know, some of what we're seeing in
Speaker 1: the cannabis industry here in California. People have lost their
Speaker 1: shops and lost their businesses who took a chance.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm curious like what you saw during like COVID
Speaker 2: during here in the cannabis industry, because it did seem
Speaker 2: like a lot opened up.
Speaker 6: People on cash.
Speaker 1: Maybe and then yeah, I mean there was an influx
Speaker 1: of money spending and in the dispensaries, you know when
Speaker 1: they got deemed as essential businesses, which they were, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and people were getting that little bit of extra money
Speaker 1: to spend, so they'd go off to every dispensary was
Speaker 1: up at that time from the legal dispensaries to the
Speaker 1: rogue shops.
Speaker 7: Like I was, Yeah, I was all.
Speaker 1: They all made a lot of money in that time,
Speaker 1: rogue shop and license shop both, you know, and when
Speaker 1: whenever they came back and those checks went away and
Speaker 1: that extra money was gone, You've seen the dip everywhere. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then you know, the taxes became what they were
Speaker 1: at what thirty eight percent like that, Yeah, and then
Speaker 1: it made it hard for everybody.
Speaker 7: And you know, you had a lot of guys.
Speaker 1: Over producing cannabis too that couldn't get rid of it
Speaker 1: as they were, you know previously, because now no one
Speaker 1: had that extra money.
Speaker 6: Right, particularly in bulk larger orders, and.
Speaker 7: Now everything's taxed a little bit higher.
Speaker 1: So it just kind of put the industry in a
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, slowed the pace down a little bit.
Speaker 1: Cannabis still gets discriminated on on many different levels. I mean,
Speaker 1: you look at some of these platforms like YouTube and
Speaker 1: that we broadcast on ig which we post content on Facebook,
Speaker 1: which we were posting more content on in the past,
Speaker 1: but not so much these days. They all discriminate against
Speaker 1: cannabis accounts. So let's just say you have a business
Speaker 1: and you don't have marketing dollar. All you have is
Speaker 1: the social media networks to try and you know, get
Speaker 1: some people, get some attention onto your brand, onto your
Speaker 1: shop or product whatever. You know, immediately you got these
Speaker 1: guys putting the hammer down on your account where you
Speaker 1: know they'll they'll what do they call it, ghost shadow
Speaker 1: band shadow ban your account, which I've gone through that
Speaker 1: with Instagram and Facebook, right, I still go through it
Speaker 1: because I'm a cannabis activist and advocate and obviously business
Speaker 1: owner and consumer and connoisseur, right, all these different labels
Speaker 1: in the cannabis industry. They don't look at it like
Speaker 1: I'm an artist, like a musician from this smell. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're looking at me this way, and so you know,
Speaker 1: my content, right's a fine line for them. So you know,
Speaker 1: in the past, I've had to like go and take
Speaker 1: off all my cannabis content so that they'd stop limiting
Speaker 1: my content distribution. So like they make it if you
Speaker 1: have a brand in your to like you know, get
Speaker 1: some attention on it, just fucking squash it out. And
Speaker 1: you know they do that with a lot of cannabis accounts.
Speaker 1: It's not just mine, it's like the whole of us,
Speaker 1: you know, what I mean, And it makes it hard,
Speaker 1: especially when you're dealing with the margins you're dealing with
Speaker 1: and you can't you don't have a budget to like
Speaker 1: market like a corporation might. You don't have the marketing
Speaker 1: and promotion, and you don't have the staff. All you
Speaker 1: got is this. They won't even let you live there,
Speaker 1: and so it's it's tough, but you know, it can
Speaker 1: be done in spite of all these trials and tribulations
Speaker 1: they're putting us through. If you've got a brand that
Speaker 1: people trust and they trust you and you put out
Speaker 1: quality shit, they will sustain you through the hard times
Speaker 1: and support you, you know what I mean. So it
Speaker 1: can be done. You just got to be able to
Speaker 1: survive the wave of bullshit. It's happening right now, and
Speaker 1: it might change in the next couple of years, you
Speaker 1: never know, but like you've got to be able to
Speaker 1: survive that wave. And fortunately we're one of the ones,
Speaker 1: you know, surviving right now.
Speaker 2: Right So you're not only in California, you're in multiple states,
Speaker 2: Like how many people are you employing in what are
Speaker 2: the difficulties of like managing operations in a multi state
Speaker 2: you know area with cannabis like that's yeah.
Speaker 1: Well we're here, We're here in California and we're in
Speaker 1: Michigan right now, and we're currently you know, trying to
Speaker 1: expand to other states. And again, you know, one of
Speaker 1: the stores stores, yes, and product and product, you know,
Speaker 1: so we're expanding our product line and and Aura and
Speaker 1: Aura dispensaries trying to because it's not easy being that again,
Speaker 1: you know what we spoke about earlier. Every state has
Speaker 1: a different set of regulations as to what you can
Speaker 1: use for the logo of your dispensary. And then you know,
Speaker 1: do you have a farm that you're going to get
Speaker 1: your product from for the dispensary. You know, there's all
Speaker 1: these different sorts of things to navigate. So it's something
Speaker 1: that we definitely are planning on doing more of. But
Speaker 1: it's just trying to figure out how we navigate that
Speaker 1: with without.
Speaker 7: Losing our fucking minds.
Speaker 1: They make it They make it tough for all of us,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, especially when you're trying to
Speaker 1: do multi state operations, you.
Speaker 7: Know what i mean.
Speaker 1: So if they had, you know, one set of regulations
Speaker 1: and rules that we go by as opposed to you know,
Speaker 1: having to do it this way in Arizona, doing it
Speaker 1: this way in Florida, doing it this way in Colorado,
Speaker 1: and this way in California. I mean, it makes it
Speaker 1: tough because if you have any if you're trying to
Speaker 1: have any continuity in meaning that like whenever you go
Speaker 1: to McDonald's, you see the same colors and the same
Speaker 1: golden arches, you see jack in the boxes that reddish white. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so like what you're trying to put up a shop
Speaker 1: that's very brand driven and not necessarily just product driven,
Speaker 1: and you cannot use elements of that brand that people know, right,
Speaker 1: it makes it tough. So you know, we're still we're
Speaker 1: still growing here in California and we're you know, trying
Speaker 1: to grow outside of that.
Speaker 7: But it's it's tough.
Speaker 1: And you know, we got we got some things in
Speaker 1: the works where we're you know, trying to get some
Speaker 1: new shops open in twenty five in different states. And
Speaker 1: I do know that when we open up in different places,
Speaker 1: you know, people get excited about it, and you know,
Speaker 1: it does end up opening opportunities for others who want
Speaker 1: to work for the brand. And whether it's in Michigan
Speaker 1: or Arizona or Nevada or places like this.
Speaker 5: Job creation is important. They're always talking about that.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and we know that our brand does that.
Speaker 1: So it's it's just about you know, landing in the
Speaker 1: right places and dealing with all with all the red
Speaker 1: tape within those fucking places.
Speaker 7: And with cannabis, it's a lot.
Speaker 5: You were talking about the lobbying. The cannabis industry needs
Speaker 5: to lobby together. Everything you just said sound like you
Speaker 5: need to head up the lobb You can go down
Speaker 5: there because everything you said made since job creation, all
Speaker 5: that type of stuff. What can you say about, you know,
Speaker 5: people getting together and actually doing that or making that happen.
Speaker 4: I would that.
Speaker 1: Look well, you know, it takes everybody to be willing
Speaker 1: to put the egos aside, in the competitive nature of
Speaker 1: the cannabis business aside, because it became competitive and cut
Speaker 1: throat out of nowhere, to put all that aside and
Speaker 1: put their money together and do this before the big
Speaker 1: money comes and does it for them, because if they
Speaker 1: come and do it for us, a lot of us
Speaker 1: are going to get shut out and it's going to
Speaker 1: still be hard to operate for us while they reap
Speaker 1: all the benefits. So you know, I've said this in
Speaker 1: different interviews and with different people, but it just takes
Speaker 1: the action, you know, people that actually have that kind
Speaker 1: of finance, you know, that kind of funding to say,
Speaker 1: all right, let's start this fucking lobby. Let's let's find
Speaker 1: one of these politicians that we can get to get
Speaker 1: down with us, because I mean, it's all about money
Speaker 1: and in that network.
Speaker 7: Unfortunately.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hey, Biro, this has been absolutely awesome, appreciated. Any
Speaker 2: place that you want to plug anything you want to
Speaker 2: shout out before we go, uh.
Speaker 1: You know, just for Cypress Hill shows, check out cypresshill
Speaker 1: dot com. And if you want to check out the
Speaker 1: Doctor Green Thumb podcast or show whatever you know, check
Speaker 1: it out, just look it up.
Speaker 6: Awesome, It's been great.
Speaker 4: Thanks all right.
Speaker 2: Amazing, especially thanks to be Real for opening up a
Speaker 2: studio all the way open.
Speaker 7: Now.
Speaker 2: But I think you know, talking to him, you know,
Speaker 2: we these things get voted on and passed through the
Speaker 2: legislature or you get to the ballot box, you see
Speaker 2: it passes. You're all excited, and sometimes it does not
Speaker 2: come to fruition. And we're seeing that with the cannabis
Speaker 2: industry that there's a lot more work to be done
Speaker 2: and this is multi layered and very complicated.
Speaker 5: But legalization, decriminalization, that's just the start of Yeah, because
Speaker 5: it especially for people who you know, look at the
Speaker 5: crime aspect of it. They're trying to they want it
Speaker 5: to not increase crime in their area. Well, when it's
Speaker 5: decriminalized or legalized like this, it's going to increase crime
Speaker 5: because it's a cash business. Like that's one thing I'll say, Yeah,
Speaker 5: marijuana is peaceful, but money never. And so when you
Speaker 5: have a lot of money on hand, it doesn't matter
Speaker 5: what you're selling, you're going to attract people that are
Speaker 5: going to try to get I've known people in the
Speaker 5: industry who've been you know, in violent robberies, you know,
Speaker 5: involved it because they don't have a place to put
Speaker 5: their money like they should, or regulations aren't in place
Speaker 5: to accept the money.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and to try to get into this industry is
Speaker 2: such an overwhelming impediment for so many people. You know,
Speaker 2: I've talked to you know, growers and retailers and a
Speaker 2: lot of different places. Because we've been actively working took
Speaker 2: at the federal level to kind of at least make
Speaker 2: this industry like other industries. Like if your business touches
Speaker 2: cannabis in any way, you could be susceptible to incredibly
Speaker 2: heavy fines and taxes. So I've heard retailers say sometimes
Speaker 2: it's seventy to eighty percent of gross sales can actually
Speaker 2: be threatened by the irs to come in and take that.
Speaker 2: And so it obviously stemies everything you hear industry after
Speaker 2: industry and business person after business per se. If this
Speaker 2: provision was removed, we could do a lot more things.
Speaker 2: And that's just one tiny little aspect. It's also that
Speaker 2: it's a federal you know, it's still first you know,
Speaker 2: Schedule one drug and all the other little things that
Speaker 2: that does to the actual industry. And so, like you
Speaker 2: talked about, people can't put their money in there, so
Speaker 2: that increases crime and it makes people go away. People
Speaker 2: are going to get all their revenue, all their hard
Speaker 2: work is going to get potentially taken by their government
Speaker 2: or tax to death, so they stay away from it.
Speaker 2: You're seeing all these complications just because we've decided to say,
Speaker 2: at the program, this is still in this schedule in
Speaker 2: the same place where heroin is pretty remarkable.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I think another thing politicians always talk about
Speaker 5: is job creation. Those types of things when you're doing
Speaker 5: things like this, you're limiting the jobs that's allowed to
Speaker 5: be created.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I mean be real saying, so how many work
Speaker 2: could he create and others creating.
Speaker 5: Yes, and we're not just talking about at the dispensary.
Speaker 5: Sure he might have a dispensary and they hire a
Speaker 5: few people, but it goes all the way to the
Speaker 5: grow operation, It goes to the it goes to everything.
Speaker 5: Everything is impacted by any way a normal business would function.
Speaker 5: He also brought up the point where he said, if
Speaker 5: it was a normal business that had to do all
Speaker 5: of these things, you would never see that.
Speaker 3: Product, not in a million years.
Speaker 7: If it was a.
Speaker 5: Soda, if it was Coca cola, if it was something
Speaker 5: like that that we are familiar with that we use,
Speaker 5: if they had to go through all of these regulations,
Speaker 5: they would have never made it as a company.
Speaker 2: No, And you can't even ship it across state lines.
Speaker 2: And so you thought you had like this, you know,
Speaker 2: farm or whatever else you're growing. You're doing all these
Speaker 2: things and your only way to like make profits is
Speaker 2: essentially in your little area, right, and then your little
Speaker 2: area might say, like in California, we've seen this, Hey,
Speaker 2: you can't do that here or if you are, we're
Speaker 2: going to cap it and good luck trying to compete.
Speaker 3: For these bids. Who do you think is going to
Speaker 3: get the bits.
Speaker 2: It's the people that have the money, post of the money,
Speaker 2: and the most of the things that are being written
Speaker 2: are by people that already have direct investment into the
Speaker 2: industry and they're going to make these things in ways
Speaker 2: that allow for them to profit.
Speaker 3: And maybe we saw it very.
Speaker 2: Similarly with alcohol when post prohibition, if you go in
Speaker 2: your states, it's very difficult if you're or small craft brewer,
Speaker 2: a lot of places to actually get your products out.
Speaker 2: And why because the big guys when they made the
Speaker 2: laws in nineteen thirty said all this.
Speaker 3: And we're seeing the same thing happen here.
Speaker 6: Yes.
Speaker 5: Well, yeah, the preferential treatment like we talked about would
Speaker 5: be real.
Speaker 4: The mom and.
Speaker 5: Pops get pushed out for these bigger corporations that are
Speaker 5: in other things. And we see politicians moving into the
Speaker 5: space too. We see politicians who were against, you know,
Speaker 5: drugs in every way when they come around and there's
Speaker 5: money to be made, Hey, maybe this could work.
Speaker 3: It's constructive story. Yeah, right now I'm seeing the light.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So Greg Man you in policy what needs to
Speaker 5: be done? Man, Because every time we get to this point,
Speaker 5: I'm like, all right, I'm looking at you.
Speaker 4: What needs to be done? But I always remember.
Speaker 5: You say the classification, the rescheduling.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean everything trickles down from that, and then
Speaker 2: there's a lot more other stuff to do. But you know,
Speaker 2: we were talking to be real after the interview and
Speaker 2: just kind of discussing like what can be done because
Speaker 2: it does seem very insurmountable, and a lot of what
Speaker 2: he was saying is like we have to kind of
Speaker 2: come together and come to a coalition. So I know
Speaker 2: we were chatting about maybe doing some op eds and
Speaker 2: getting together to kind of talk about this and kind
Speaker 2: of getting people together to raise these issues, because I
Speaker 2: do think it's all the little stuff that really hinders this,
Speaker 2: because it's.
Speaker 3: Like, hey, you guys, be quiet.
Speaker 2: Now you got your stuff, and now we're going to
Speaker 2: regulate this thing the way we want. And I think
Speaker 2: people have to stand up to say no. But first
Speaker 2: things first, it really is trying to remove some of
Speaker 2: those provision aspects at the federal level, because everything trickles
Speaker 2: down from You can't have a thriving business when the
Speaker 2: federal government says the product you're selling is the worst thing.
Speaker 4: It's the worst thing, right, is illegal?
Speaker 3: Is we don't it's super leategy.
Speaker 2: Yeah no, So you know we're gonna kind of keep
Speaker 2: monitoring this and as updates come, you know, be sure
Speaker 2: to check out all our pages and things like that.
Speaker 3: Like I'm gonna we're going.
Speaker 2: To keep find of this and what we'll see there
Speaker 2: might be some opportunity used to to really start to
Speaker 2: kind of remove some of these you know, burdens to people,
Speaker 2: because all we're asking let's make it a fair ball game.
Speaker 3: And allow for people.
Speaker 2: If we're gonna have this industry, to stop kicking it
Speaker 2: under the leg You've.
Speaker 5: Got to get be real here in Washington, absolutely real
Speaker 5: to talk to Congress or something.
Speaker 3: He's gonna marschtalls of Congress.
Speaker 2: We'll get him out right, yeah a post.
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: He will be going through general security interests and everything else.
Speaker 3: So now again specially thanks to be real.
Speaker 2: And then we have another great artist coming in now
Speaker 2: leave in LA going into Nashville. Personal favorite of mine,
Speaker 2: John Osborne from the Brothers Osbourne. There he's a Maryland boy.
Speaker 2: So the the my Maryland White Tress accent comes out
Speaker 2: pretty good in this UH interview.
Speaker 4: We did a couple of times it did.
Speaker 3: It does.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the ols and the ow's and and all that,
Speaker 2: we're starting to thread pretty good. He was an amazing,
Speaker 2: amazing conversation about mental health. You know, again, being at
Speaker 2: the peak of your powers all these things is still
Speaker 2: a human inaction.
Speaker 5: It is is the human condition. It's the human way. Yeah,
Speaker 5: if you're not struggling, you're probably not doing that.
Speaker 2: And he has an amazing story and how you know,
Speaker 2: psychedelics and other things have helped him and how it's
Speaker 2: helped some of his friends potentially save their lives. So
Speaker 2: you're not gonna want to miss that, So thank you again.
Speaker 8: And UH with that, take care the Season two The
Speaker 8: War on Drugs is a production of Lava for Good
Speaker 8: and Stand Together Music and association with Signal Company Number one.
Speaker 3: Stand Together Music unites musicians.
Speaker 2: And their teams with proven change makers to co create
Speaker 2: solutions to some of the most pressing issues in our country,
Speaker 2: including criminal justice, for foreign addiction recovery, mental health, education,
Speaker 2: free speech, and ending the War on drugs. Learn more
Speaker 2: at Stand Together Music dot org. Be sure to follow
Speaker 2: Lava for Good on Instagram, Facebook, and threads at Lava
Speaker 2: for Good. You can follow Clayton English on Instagram, NX
Speaker 2: at Clayton English, and you can follow Craig Laude on
Speaker 2: Instagram and on ex at greg Lot. Executive producers Jason Flamm,
Speaker 2: Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wardis, and Collette Wintraub. Senior producers Kelsey Stenecker,
Speaker 2: Zak Huffman, and Nick Stump. Post production by ten ten,
Speaker 2: Audio talent booking by Dan Resnik. Rez Entertainment Head of
Speaker 2: Marketing and Operations, Jeff Cleiburn, Social media director Ismadi Gudarama,
Speaker 2: social media manager Sarah Gibbons, and art director Andrew Nelson