Speaker 1: It's always about intention, right. If I'm just trying to
Speaker 1: get stone, well you'll just get stoned. But if I'm
Speaker 1: trying to heal, or if I'm trying to create or
Speaker 1: use this in a different way, intention is everything.
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.
Speaker 3: War on Drugs.
Speaker 2: It's impact, it's failures, and the people offering a better
Speaker 2: path forward. Today on the show, fame Philadelphia Flyers and
Speaker 2: forcer from two thousand and six to twenty ten, with
Speaker 2: over two hundred NHL fights to his name, host of
Speaker 2: the Nasty Knuckles podcast, and plant based health advocate mister
Speaker 2: Riley Koto. All Right, welcome to another episode of the
Speaker 2: War on Drugs. Yes, yes, maam, I'm Greg Blott, I'm
Speaker 2: Clay and we're we're going to the hockey rink.
Speaker 4: Were going to the hockey rink.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't skate.
Speaker 5: I mean no, I mean I've done it, but I
Speaker 5: wouldn't say I can do it.
Speaker 3: No, I don't think I need to do it anymore.
Speaker 2: I'm thirty evan now and I don't need to like
Speaker 2: my limbs to start moving in ways that they're not comfortable.
Speaker 5: I'm used to skating with wheels, yeah, not with blades.
Speaker 5: So yeah, that just that just feels dangerous and it
Speaker 5: feels like is a lot more cutting could happen. Not
Speaker 5: only could you fall, you could slice something. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 5: not a fan of it. That's why I respect the
Speaker 5: hockey players.
Speaker 2: I didn't tell you that they play eighty some odd
Speaker 2: games and then you know, we're going to talk to
Speaker 2: Riley Kota today. Name may sound familiar for a lot
Speaker 2: of the NHL fans during like the mid two thousands.
Speaker 2: He was the he was the guy not only was
Speaker 2: on ice skates, he was the dude that when the
Speaker 2: fight need to happen.
Speaker 4: He was on the punch.
Speaker 5: He was jersey.
Speaker 4: He was the game. He was the bruising and whacking
Speaker 4: you a couple of times.
Speaker 5: That was That is my favorite hockey move. The jersey
Speaker 5: over the good Yeah is a very dirty tech.
Speaker 2: We all learned that in a D two Mighty Ducks.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, that is a great move.
Speaker 2: I think they even had Kenny grabbed the jersey start socking.
Speaker 4: Yeah that was great. Yeah, we watched that today.
Speaker 3: Shout out.
Speaker 2: But yeah, you know and when you're a like we
Speaker 2: just see the fights everything like that, like we're good,
Speaker 2: but like you don't think about all the other stuff
Speaker 2: that goes along with that. So we talk about his
Speaker 2: career when he started being like this enforcer character and
Speaker 2: how that impacted him, like during his career and now after.
Speaker 2: And for those who don't like watch hockey or don't
Speaker 2: know hockey and these kind of think everyone's fighting all
Speaker 2: the time, is like, oh no, there is people. This
Speaker 2: was his job, like he was a defender and fighting.
Speaker 5: In hockey that that person is to go out there
Speaker 5: and their job is to bust some heads.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like I look at it.
Speaker 2: It set the tone. It's thing if they do something wrong.
Speaker 2: This is how you're getting a picture hitting a batter.
Speaker 3: It's that type of thing.
Speaker 5: And in hockey is not just hard fouls, it's actual
Speaker 5: fist fights.
Speaker 2: Oh, they have stats and everything. There's stats, there's who
Speaker 2: you find like, there's you can look at all like yeah, it's.
Speaker 4: Crazy, are you fight? And then you take a break.
Speaker 2: And it's he was talking about hundreds of fights, I mean,
Speaker 2: particularly back then and you're in Philly, Yeah, and I
Speaker 2: knows about Philly ud.
Speaker 6: Outside Yeah, so you know we talk about all that,
Speaker 6: like what that actually does to you and how you know,
Speaker 6: really you know it gets into a physical pain, mental pain,
Speaker 6: all these things and how you know, in particular CBD, cannabis,
Speaker 6: these things that really helped him and kind of like
Speaker 6: where he's at right now, and just a really amazing
Speaker 6: conversation for someone that.
Speaker 2: Like man just really worked the ringer an awesome dude,
Speaker 2: awesome time. He invited us into his house. Really cool
Speaker 2: place h outside of like Philadelphia. I dated a girl
Speaker 2: that lived around that area and so he lived around there.
Speaker 2: So with that, let's uh, let's talk to Riley cot
Speaker 2: Let's get.
Speaker 7: It me and rig our guests and sponsors may sound smart,
Speaker 7: we may even make some good points, but at the
Speaker 7: end of the day, we're not medical professional. Okay, Please
Speaker 7: don't get your medical advice from a podcast. Anything we
Speaker 7: say on here does not constitute official medical advice. Relax,
Speaker 7: consult your doctor before you start any new treatment plans.
Speaker 4: Got it all right?
Speaker 2: We are here with Riley Kote. We are in the
Speaker 2: lovely Pennsylvania countryside over here. Riley, thanks for coming on
Speaker 2: the War on Drugs. Yeah, thanks for having me, yeah,
Speaker 2: and thanks for letting us into your house here you
Speaker 2: live outside of Philadelphia. After your amazing care at the
Speaker 2: Philadelphia Flyers managing their minor league team, coming back, you're
Speaker 2: still doing podcasts with Flyers, still connected the team. And
Speaker 2: I know I went to Penn State from two thousand
Speaker 2: and six twenty ten, right when you were playing in Philly.
Speaker 2: When I told like my Philly scumbag and I said
Speaker 2: that was all dear respect and endearment, my scumbag friends
Speaker 2: were just like, oh.
Speaker 3: Fuck yeah, coach, Yeah, we love coach. Yeah, just coach bash.
Speaker 4: Yeah, right, exact spot.
Speaker 2: How many fights did you get at it during your
Speaker 2: NHL career NHL over.
Speaker 4: Two hundred hockey fights.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean it was like averaging thirty thirty
Speaker 1: five a year and excluding preseason where you're going into
Speaker 1: the jungle and fighting all these young guys coming up
Speaker 1: and trying to make a.
Speaker 4: Name for themselves. So yeah, it was it was it was.
Speaker 3: Fighting like you from like, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: Fighting myself exactly. Yeah, it's pretty crazy. Yeah, but yes,
Speaker 1: it's interesting to look back on it because it's I
Speaker 1: almost forget, like what kind of life I lived, you know,
Speaker 1: how you know how hard it was like is but
Speaker 1: early on, it was like, you know, I just loved
Speaker 1: it early, even though there was parts of it I
Speaker 1: didn't love, Like there's again the emotional roller coaster of
Speaker 1: jacking yourself up and then trying to sleep after.
Speaker 4: I didn't love that. But once you're in the fight,
Speaker 4: there's something like extremely powerful about the amount of adrenaline
Speaker 4: and energy.
Speaker 1: It's like you and another guy in front of well,
Speaker 1: eventually playing the NHL like twenty twenty two thousand people
Speaker 1: watching the game, right but in the Central Hockey League,
Speaker 1: smaller crowds, but nonetheless like.
Speaker 4: You're you're you're you're in a you know, hand to hand.
Speaker 1: Combat, you know, hockey fight, and someone's gonna win, someone's
Speaker 1: gonna lose, and it's just like it's just so it's
Speaker 1: a intimate.
Speaker 2: So early on, I mean a lot of times grabbing
Speaker 2: jerseys like it's right in the face, turning around and
Speaker 2: I mean it's yeah, it's.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's real, right, yeah, yeah, I mean it's it's
Speaker 1: as real it's going to get. And you got, you know,
Speaker 1: two big dudes, you know that that are willing to
Speaker 1: punch each other in the face and stand there and
Speaker 1: take it. So early on, it was like just taking
Speaker 1: on this challenge of like, well, a new role, like
Speaker 1: a new skill I had to learn, right, not even
Speaker 1: just the fighting part, but like how to play the role.
Speaker 2: It was there like a coach on the team, like
Speaker 2: did you get fighting, Like like yeah, it's it's kind
Speaker 2: of like one of you to.
Speaker 4: Figure it out on your own, honestly.
Speaker 1: So you know, I've been around the fighting since I
Speaker 1: was in junior hockey, so I've observed some of the
Speaker 1: tough guys that we had on the team and how
Speaker 1: they carried themselves and how they flexed and how you know, how.
Speaker 4: They did their job.
Speaker 1: So it was just really kind of taking pages out
Speaker 1: of other people's books observing, and I started udying the
Speaker 1: tough guys right, start studying how they.
Speaker 4: Carry themselves when they fought, how they did it, you know. Different.
Speaker 1: I was lefty, so you know, there wasn't many lefties.
Speaker 1: The biggest, biggest, baddest dudes landed up being lefties. That
Speaker 1: it was a different strategy now and fighting these guys.
Speaker 1: But it was just like it was just like owning
Speaker 1: the role and owning the role, and to a point
Speaker 1: where it almost say, it consumed me maybe to a fault,
Speaker 1: you know, because it becomes you, you know, like this
Speaker 1: is just my gig, that's it.
Speaker 4: And then you say that you I say, like playing
Speaker 4: a role. You are playing a role.
Speaker 1: It's like you know a character that you have to play.
Speaker 1: But you also, as I mentioned earlier, you have to
Speaker 1: back it up. You can't just act tough and then
Speaker 1: when the other when the other guy's tough guy starts flexing,
Speaker 1: then then you cowards like I don't want to fight anymore,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 4: What I mean. If you're gonna if you're gonna puff.
Speaker 1: Your chest out and bark at the other guy, you
Speaker 1: better be ready. So there has to be the element
Speaker 1: of actually owning it too, right and backing it up.
Speaker 1: So I was actually taking different fight lessons.
Speaker 4: I was. I hired a fight code. Whatever it takes,
Speaker 4: there's anything it takes. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I did some boxing, did some dirty boxing, got
Speaker 1: into some karate, you got into some taekwondo, and then
Speaker 1: eventually got into like this really this jiu jitsu type
Speaker 1: you just stand up greco Roman wrestling type of thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And so you know, you can't can't win every fight,
Speaker 2: and so even when you are you know, knuckles getting
Speaker 2: busted up, you're already playing hockey, which is incredibly physical sport.
Speaker 2: Long seasons. You're getting hit in the face, you're getting
Speaker 2: dragged down bloody. What was that treatment process looking like
Speaker 2: at that point in your career. What were they doing
Speaker 2: for you? And how much pain were you actually kind
Speaker 2: of playing through? And yeah, what did that whole culture
Speaker 2: look like for you?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I don't think I ever fully healed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you talk about being always banged up. You're
Speaker 1: always dealing with, like, you know, the aches and the pain,
Speaker 1: especially the hands from fighting. They said that you mentioned
Speaker 1: the gripping. You know, you're grabbing on and you get
Speaker 1: the fingers. You know, I got the crooked finger from
Speaker 1: dislocating my finger. All these weird little things you don't
Speaker 1: think of, Like the back of the neck is always
Speaker 1: sort of you know, the face inflammation and obviously dealing
Speaker 1: with the inflammation of the brain, which sure you're kind
Speaker 1: of just ignored, you.
Speaker 4: Know, just like Sha.
Speaker 1: But you know, when I moved away from home when
Speaker 1: I was sixteen years old, you know, you you move
Speaker 1: away and you're you're introduced to this culture of hockey
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of alcohol, there's a lot of partying, right,
Speaker 1: And so I was introduced to that world and you know,
Speaker 1: not really knowing it at the time, you know, the
Speaker 1: world of self medicating, right, So like when I started
Speaker 1: fighting for a living, there's obviously added stress to the job.
Speaker 4: It's like a different dimension of stress. You know. The
Speaker 4: party keeps increasing.
Speaker 1: As you get older, you get you know, a new league,
Speaker 1: a little more money, you know what I mean, the part,
Speaker 1: but the party is there though always there was always
Speaker 1: the party. And what comes with the party is you know,
Speaker 1: more drugs and you know, more more means to to
Speaker 1: disassociate or you know, to to numb and to self medicate.
Speaker 4: So booze was a huge you know, it's a huge.
Speaker 1: Part of my life for a lot of times in
Speaker 1: a really destructive way. And then not understanding the energy,
Speaker 1: not understanding the substance itself, misusing it obviously like most people, right,
Speaker 1: and you know, going down some dark you know holes
Speaker 1: with that. But I will say I also had a
Speaker 1: relationship with cannabis since I was fifteen years old, but
Speaker 1: I think helped balance out some of the booze issues
Speaker 1: to the point where it didn't go as dark as
Speaker 1: it could have. Like I've seen some guys go because
Speaker 1: they didn't have a relationship with cannabis. I will say
Speaker 1: my relationship with cannabis wasn't great either, I think without
Speaker 1: understanding the science, like when I turned pro at twenty
Speaker 1: years old, you know, because there wasn't a whole lot
Speaker 1: of different type of products available. Still, you know, flower
Speaker 1: would be pretty much anything you're going to find. I
Speaker 1: would move from Canada to Memphis, Tennessee, like slim pickens
Speaker 1: on what you're going to find. But I think it
Speaker 1: was there that I really started. Now looking back, you know,
Speaker 1: on my life and career, did I identify the therapeutics
Speaker 1: in that cannabis offered me? Because I could remember like
Speaker 1: like I'm fighting this big ass dude tomorrow. And then
Speaker 1: you know, I could like actually chill, I could actually
Speaker 1: fall asleep when I'm hearing horror stories. Some of the
Speaker 1: other guys that you know that are doing the job,
Speaker 1: like they like literally don't sleep right, like literally like
Speaker 1: sweats and like not sleeping. So I could tell that
Speaker 1: it helped with anxiety and sleep for sure, and then
Speaker 1: definitely pain. I couldn't communicate it at the time, like
Speaker 1: I didn't have the language because I was you know,
Speaker 1: it was still like that was, you know, back in
Speaker 1: two thousand and one, like there was, there was certainly
Speaker 1: not podcast And I'm a naive, you know, Canadian hockey
Speaker 1: player down in you know, Memphis, Tennessee and Mississippi, playing
Speaker 1: on that side of it, like.
Speaker 4: Not understanding it, but feeling it. You know.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, it's like, oh, the devil's let us.
Speaker 1: It's like, well, surely sort of don't feel like the
Speaker 1: devil's let us. I felt better and it's actually helped
Speaker 1: me manage some of these things. So I always had
Speaker 1: a relationship with cannabis, like my whole junior hockey career
Speaker 1: and pro hockey careers. Really when I started to make
Speaker 1: sense of like what it was doing, but I was
Speaker 1: also still you know, engaging with a lot of gnarly
Speaker 1: behaviors like drinking night quill on the bus after games.
Speaker 1: We're trying to you know what I mean, because we
Speaker 1: weren't travel with the cannabis the time, so you'd we
Speaker 1: start to use other things to do the same thing
Speaker 1: the cannabis was doing. Right, Oh, I need to relax, Yeah,
Speaker 1: oh you got to sleep. You have some night quill,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. But they but they do
Speaker 1: something completely different, right, I mean there's the night quill
Speaker 1: hangover and these weird muscle relaxers, and then you get
Speaker 1: into like the percosets, right, they start a Percoset fives.
Speaker 4: And then you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So you'd be on the on the bus at the
Speaker 1: time and it would just be like, yeah, after the game,
Speaker 1: it's like everyone's trying to get in relaxed sleep mode.
Speaker 4: Booze pills, right, and night quill and whatever else.
Speaker 1: As you can imagine, it's it's just as a really
Speaker 1: destructive cocktail. And so you see so many guys deal
Speaker 1: with substance abuse issues and it's.
Speaker 4: Staring you right in the eye.
Speaker 1: It is right in the face, right, It's like it's
Speaker 1: it's it's a major problem.
Speaker 4: But it's just the way it is. I think the
Speaker 4: culture of it exactly, it's the culture.
Speaker 3: It feels normal.
Speaker 4: Normal.
Speaker 3: Of course, I'll take some night. I just saw my
Speaker 3: other like we're passing around like it. I'll just yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: Now the world is so focused on recovery and rest.
Speaker 1: Back in the day, like we wouldn't take days off,
Speaker 1: like our days off would be getting absolutely crushed drunk
Speaker 1: and then still showing up you's got to get a
Speaker 1: workout and executive workout, steaming out and lift and all
Speaker 1: these crazy things. And now it's like mandatory days off
Speaker 1: by the NHL. Like the focus of recovery. It's a
Speaker 1: big part of the work, right because you can only
Speaker 1: work so much and then the body breaks down. And
Speaker 1: you know, for in the business of preventing injuries and
Speaker 1: keeping your players on the ice or on the field,
Speaker 1: if you have a five million, six million dollars on
Speaker 1: the guy on the shelf, it doesn't help the success
Speaker 1: of the team.
Speaker 4: So now.
Speaker 1: You see guys using cannabis in these extremely mindful ways
Speaker 1: and you know, just completely different than what we did
Speaker 1: back in the day. So like a laugh, I'm like
Speaker 1: geez man, Like you know here, I am like thinking
Speaker 1: to myself, I'm like an idiot for you know, for
Speaker 1: if you have trial and error for so many years
Speaker 1: of trying to figure this out, but there was no manual.
Speaker 1: Right now we're living an age of information. You guys
Speaker 1: got these podcasts and there's awareness, but there's like science
Speaker 1: to support it. There's all these different delivery systems as
Speaker 1: I mentioned, but like very predictable outcomes based on the
Speaker 1: varieties that we choose and what we're trying to accomplish.
Speaker 2: Right, right, That ignorance and that lack of like a
Speaker 2: culture around it. Like with alcohol. I remember we were
Speaker 2: in school. It's like five ounces of wine. It adds
Speaker 2: up to a light beard ads it.
Speaker 3: You knew, you knew the quantity.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, you may have had some trial and air
Speaker 2: and some bad moments with some stuff and there was
Speaker 2: like some stuff anymore.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you knew, and we just don't have that culture
Speaker 3: around campus still even though this.
Speaker 4: Is to this day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the argument of like, well, there's no you know,
Speaker 1: cannabis product products for me because I associate cannabis with
Speaker 1: being this stone I don't want to be stoned?
Speaker 4: Is that to me? That's a myth.
Speaker 1: Like there's certainly products that can help service anybody, whether
Speaker 1: you want to get higher or not, just just to
Speaker 1: kind of pick your variety and understand what you're putting
Speaker 1: in your body and you know, you can make some.
Speaker 4: Sense of it.
Speaker 1: But it's it's it's hard to believe it's only been
Speaker 1: what like twenty years a little bit longer, you know
Speaker 1: that it's evolved that much.
Speaker 2: So Riley, you talk about kind of you were using cannabis,
Speaker 2: you know, since you were fifteen on you know, on
Speaker 2: So when do you feel that turn kind of happened
Speaker 2: where you were just kind of taking it recreationally to oh,
Speaker 2: I'm I'm curious about this or I want to do more.
Speaker 3: Was there like an ahaman? Was it speaking to someone?
Speaker 3: Was it all post career? Was it during your career?
Speaker 2: Did that kind of lead to kind of like moving
Speaker 2: on from the NHL after that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just love to hear your thoughts about where
Speaker 3: that transition came.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the aha moment came my last year of playing
Speaker 1: in twenty ten, the aha moment of like making sense
Speaker 1: of my experience and connecting it to something that I
Speaker 1: read supported by science, actually a book called Hemp for Health,
Speaker 1: and it broke down the entire cannabis plant. You know,
Speaker 1: the dig digestible protein source, like the food is a
Speaker 1: viable protein source, hemp seeds, the hemp protein, you know,
Speaker 1: the fibers always support cannabis, all my clothes, all I have,
Speaker 1: you know, and I just like just understanding the viability
Speaker 1: of the plant, the industrial applications of the plant, and
Speaker 1: then getting into the true medicinal side of the cannabis
Speaker 1: plant and making sense of some of these compounds. Right,
Speaker 1: THHD was like the only compound I had heard of
Speaker 1: at that time, and then you know, understanding CBD and
Speaker 1: some of these other minor cannabinoids and their effect on
Speaker 1: the body and the brain. And I think it was
Speaker 1: just in that moment that I had this aha moment
Speaker 1: of around holy shit, Like I felt like I was
Speaker 1: duped almost right, yeah, but I also felt like energized
Speaker 1: to be like wow, like, you know, I've been believing
Speaker 1: in this thing for so long because I obviously it's
Speaker 1: been by my side. I've been using it, not understanding it.
Speaker 1: But now it makes way more sense to me. This
Speaker 1: is like, there's a reason why this is illegal, has
Speaker 1: nothing to do with you know, the propaganda machine. This
Speaker 1: is an incredible resource, and you start you know studying it,
Speaker 1: and you know, you get started connecting all the dots
Speaker 1: to you know, synthetic fibers versus natural fibers and everything.
Speaker 1: You know, I mean, it makes sense to the natural
Speaker 1: world versus the chemical world or the synthetic world. So
Speaker 1: I really just started getting excited about it and started
Speaker 1: you know, speaking for the trees, if you will. Right
Speaker 1: right out of the gate, when I retired, did I
Speaker 1: start advocating for cannabis.
Speaker 4: But but what happened when I had that.
Speaker 1: Aha moment my last two surgeries in twenty ten, I
Speaker 1: just used cannabis post surgery, proving to myself, because at
Speaker 1: that point, I was dealing with some major substance abuse,
Speaker 1: like parting way too much and still using you know,
Speaker 1: pain pills way too way too often, sleeping pills. So
Speaker 1: I chose to just attempt to use cannabis as like,
Speaker 1: you know, I said, some bit of a social experiment
Speaker 1: on myself, and I proved to myself for those two
Speaker 1: surgeries nose surgery and this surgery on my finger that
Speaker 1: I talked about earlier, just used cannabis throughout the pills
Speaker 1: and haven't used a pharmaceutical drug since then. It's been
Speaker 1: nothing but earth based medicine since then. And that just
Speaker 1: led me down the rabbit hole of psilocybin, which I
Speaker 1: had a similar kind of relationship with that cannabis, misunderstood, misused.
Speaker 1: But then the cannabis and the psilocybin, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of using them, you know together, pairing them, as you
Speaker 1: could say, to treat some of their collateral damage from
Speaker 1: fighting right now. So I always start to understand CBD
Speaker 1: on the level of neuro the neuroprotecting value and you know,
Speaker 1: the promoting neurogenesis, which as I mentioned, led me down
Speaker 1: the researching of psilocybin, which seemed to mimic some version
Speaker 1: of what CBD was doing. Oh, the neurogenesis, the neuroprotection property.
Speaker 1: So I was like, shit, I'm like, if this is
Speaker 1: helping me on this level with with the pain management anxiety,
Speaker 1: and I actually stopped drinking for a year. The cannabis
Speaker 1: was this amazing tool to transition out of the grind
Speaker 1: and you know, give me something.
Speaker 4: To lean on and heal. And then it was the psilocybin.
Speaker 1: Similarly, it was like I gotta I gotta manage the
Speaker 1: damage that I've caused.
Speaker 4: So I landed up using.
Speaker 1: Psilocybin differently, but much like I'd been using cannabis to heal.
Speaker 1: And it really really was that was around the brain
Speaker 1: more than than the physical And that's so what's neurogenesis
Speaker 1: for those that don't know at hell?
Speaker 3: And like, what are you actually talking with that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the simplest way to describe it, I
Speaker 1: guess at some level of neuroplasticity, it's just it's it's
Speaker 1: the brain cells reconnecting, maybe create, connecting new neuropathways, potentially
Speaker 1: old ones. But it's just it's the brain reconnecting in
Speaker 1: some way, shape or form, at least on some level.
Speaker 4: Right. It could take time to full full level.
Speaker 1: Of neurogenesis, but there's like connection happening, and there's like
Speaker 1: some life happening in the brain, right, much like the
Speaker 1: my ceial network underneath the soil.
Speaker 4: Right, there's like a level of like there's a world.
Speaker 4: There's a world. Yeah, it's like things are happening, things
Speaker 4: are connecting something. That's the simplest way I could describe it.
Speaker 1: It's just like the you know, the ability for maybe
Speaker 1: new brain cell growth, but you condict connection of neurons
Speaker 1: and brain cells.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know.
Speaker 2: We talked to like Liz Carmus and she's a part
Speaker 2: of the Cleveland Medical Study brain study that a lot
Speaker 2: of the NFL players are participating that too, And she
Speaker 2: has said since using CBD she had like her brain
Speaker 2: the levels that they're measuring for you know what cd
Speaker 2: CT could be damaged neurons, brain cells actually increased in
Speaker 2: protection and it's helped her brain like, oh, recover physic
Speaker 2: and it's just an amazing thing to hear. And I
Speaker 2: think that's just so critical for people like that. Who
Speaker 2: are you know, she's getting punched in the faces? I'm
Speaker 2: too and like, yeah, that's an interesting thing. Have you
Speaker 2: been able to like measure anything from like an FC
Speaker 2: standpoint talking to doctors about what you know your brain
Speaker 2: was looking like from an MRI casting, I'd be curious,
Speaker 2: like what that looks like from that we're just like
Speaker 2: physically feeling.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it's physically feeling. Honestly.
Speaker 1: Part of my strategy when I first retired was not
Speaker 1: to get a diagnosis, because what I had seen was
Speaker 1: that once you get labeled with a diagnosis, now you
Speaker 1: get all these opinions. Yeah, you get all these different treatments,
Speaker 1: and you get all these different people that wanted to
Speaker 1: heal you and help you. Right, And I know it
Speaker 1: sounds great and all, except for it's confusing, right, and
Speaker 1: it's uh, and it was not the path that I
Speaker 1: wanted to go. I was like kind of done with
Speaker 1: that that that world, and so I was just the
Speaker 1: way I'm wired is just like Okay, Riley, You're going
Speaker 1: to do this yourself, right, you got yourself in this
Speaker 1: whole You're gonna figure this one out.
Speaker 4: And then it was really just a it was a
Speaker 4: combination of.
Speaker 1: Self study, right, myself and and the plants themselves, but
Speaker 1: knowing that that I was just going to trust the
Speaker 1: way I was feeling right, So I had no benchmark,
Speaker 1: kind of like you could go back on the look
Speaker 1: because I know some people that have and it'd be
Speaker 1: nice to look. But like, I think that I would
Speaker 1: have gotten dragged through the mud had I gone that route,
Speaker 1: and I don't think I would be where I am today.
Speaker 1: I don't think it would have accelerated the way it
Speaker 1: accelerated the way it did. So no real benchmark, you know,
Speaker 1: on a physical level, but it was just based on
Speaker 1: the way the way I felt right. I mean, it
Speaker 1: was just the emotions, the I guess, the darkness, the fog,
Speaker 1: the sense of like purpose, right, because it's way beyond just.
Speaker 4: The brain, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, we have to be honest with like the physical,
Speaker 1: the mental, the emotional, spiritual, right, It's like it's and
Speaker 1: I think that's why these these earth based medicines are
Speaker 1: so powerful, is because they address the whole being right,
Speaker 1: and it's not.
Speaker 2: The foundation, it's the root causes. It's not the lipstick
Speaker 2: on it. You know, you're not putting a band aid
Speaker 2: over it.
Speaker 1: That's it, right, And you get to the nitty gritty, right,
Speaker 1: they're all anti inflammatory. So it's getting to the or
Speaker 1: of maybe where some of the pains coming from, or
Speaker 1: the you know, the you know, the issues are coming
Speaker 1: from soda dresses the inflammation. And there's obviously a more
Speaker 1: of an esoteric mystical side.
Speaker 4: There is a level of you.
Speaker 1: Know, emotional release, spiritual release, and we talk about trauma,
Speaker 1: you know, dealing with the physical trauma that was association
Speaker 1: with right, So it's kind of attacking the whole being right.
Speaker 1: We always look at it as a physical thing, but
Speaker 1: it's way beyond that. And I think both of them,
Speaker 1: you know both I say, psilocybin and cannabis in their
Speaker 1: own lanes, have been extremely instrumental.
Speaker 4: For me to just you know, say get back on
Speaker 4: my feet.
Speaker 1: Some people would argue all their crutches, and they say, well,
Speaker 1: crutches help people walk, and you know it's like they
Speaker 1: serve their purpose if respected and used properly, extremely powerful.
Speaker 1: And so since then, you know, it's been me just say,
Speaker 1: like banging the drama, like speaking to my experience as
Speaker 1: much as I possibly can. Now, I have coaches and
Speaker 1: players and you know, strength to conditioning guys in professional
Speaker 1: sports organizations asking me for advice.
Speaker 4: Almost every player is using some version of a cannabis.
Speaker 1: Product, including the coaching staff, and the coaching staff would
Speaker 1: rather have their players using cannabis than drinking alcohol exactly.
Speaker 1: That's how what she's evolved. Hockey Traditionally most sports heavy
Speaker 1: on the booze. So it's like it's amazing to see
Speaker 1: the shift the levels of consciousness. And rightfully so, people
Speaker 1: are just like now, maybe for some time now, I've
Speaker 1: been waking up to the idea that we may have
Speaker 1: been duped and these are actually legitimate tools to help
Speaker 1: us through a daily grind and sports recovery.
Speaker 2: I'm curious, like, do you feel you've had more resistance
Speaker 2: from folks that are athletes who are very you know,
Speaker 2: controlling about a lot of what they put in their body,
Speaker 2: or like Layman's people when you've talked about this and
Speaker 2: more steps, I would almost think like athletes just because
Speaker 2: they are very skeptical of anything that they're about to
Speaker 2: put in, maybe they would believers immediately after because they
Speaker 2: know what feels right. I'm just curious, like you feel
Speaker 2: that that's been part of a trans for for folks
Speaker 2: or the other way.
Speaker 4: It's the older generational alumni.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were like they were born in the thick
Speaker 1: of you know, the war on drugs. They're born in
Speaker 1: the thick of the propaganda machine and and heavy drinkers,
Speaker 1: and so a lot of these guys driving those emotions down,
Speaker 1: driving the emotions down, and and you know, and and
Speaker 1: buying into the belief system that all drugs are the same, right,
Speaker 1: traditional substance abuse program AA programs. A lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of guys gone through the AA programs, which is
Speaker 1: like all substances bad. We're going to have to be
Speaker 1: a Buddhist monk to get through this type of deal.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: Funny thing about the guy that started A Yeah, he
Speaker 3: thought he saw God. Yeah, that's why he started h A.
Speaker 1: I know, right, it's crazy, the irony of it, right,
Speaker 1: So we have Actually part of my work is to
Speaker 1: try and introduce cannabis and psilocybin too the recovery settings
Speaker 1: and actually reform the addiction model because from my own experience,
Speaker 1: and I know several others that I've used cannabis and
Speaker 1: psilocybin to get off drugs.
Speaker 4: They use it as an exit drug, right. I mean,
Speaker 4: it's like you're giving.
Speaker 1: You something to I don't say, wean off or it
Speaker 1: help you deal with the the the withdrawal, and it
Speaker 1: help you make sense of the core issues you're dealing
Speaker 1: with the trauma itself. So that's a whole other world,
Speaker 1: you know that. That's that I'm kind of trying to
Speaker 1: penetrate with this, But it's generally the older generation guys
Speaker 1: that have had subscribed to traditional substance abuse programs because
Speaker 1: they're anti everything.
Speaker 4: But we've made a ton of leeway there. You know.
Speaker 1: I'm working with the Flyers right now, the Flyers alumni,
Speaker 1: to build out a you know, precision dose, customized cannabis
Speaker 1: program for the alumni for a lot of these guys
Speaker 1: that have just been anti cannabis for good reason because
Speaker 1: they're you know, on the programs, they don't know any better,
Speaker 1: but they're suffering so much now and they're seeing all
Speaker 1: the headlines and you know, they're knowing people that are
Speaker 1: using CBD no THC products and using high CB varieties
Speaker 1: for inflammation or sleep. But they're still thinking in their
Speaker 1: minds that CBS a violation of the sobriety, which is
Speaker 1: crazy to think about. So that's their own issues like
Speaker 1: that they have to you know, they'll they help to
Speaker 1: figure out themselves. But that But that's the conversations that
Speaker 1: we're having, and that's where it's going.
Speaker 4: And I'd like to think here, if it's.
Speaker 1: Not already happening officially through strength and conditioning, you know,
Speaker 1: the sports science department actually integrating cannabinoids into their therapy,
Speaker 1: not just like having the players use it on their own,
Speaker 1: but actually making a part of their strength and conditioning
Speaker 1: recovery program. So that's where it's going. If it's not
Speaker 1: already fully there yet. It's it's amazing how quickly this
Speaker 1: thing's morph But that the older generation, young guys are
Speaker 1: easy because they're always looking for an edge. They want
Speaker 1: to feel better, they want to optimize, they want to
Speaker 1: they want to play longer, you know, they want to
Speaker 1: make the money as long as they can, so they'll
Speaker 1: do anything. Then then you get in the world of
Speaker 1: microdosing psilocybe, and it's like a whole other world of
Speaker 1: sports performance.
Speaker 4: Like talk about the mind and like focus.
Speaker 2: And PC do it and others I think that is
Speaker 2: such like a foreign const like someone taking a drug
Speaker 2: and doing work. I think, like people, that'll be a
Speaker 2: burrage for a lot of people for a very long.
Speaker 1: Time, it is, But that one seems to be like
Speaker 1: warp speed too, because people are realizing that we've again
Speaker 1: been duped.
Speaker 4: It's like, oh, there's riddling. There's all these drugs.
Speaker 1: That are trying to do this, like the coffee and
Speaker 1: all the stimulants that people are just chasing the dream with.
Speaker 1: But then you got something that's super gentle, you know,
Speaker 1: very predictable, focused, concentrated energy that does actually improve performance
Speaker 1: and you know individual performance, team performance, right, So it's yeah,
Speaker 1: it's wild to think about. And then you talked to
Speaker 1: some of these UFC fighters and they're talking about micro doses.
Speaker 1: They're talking about like mini doses and like one gram
Speaker 1: one and a half grams before combat. Yeah, where you're
Speaker 1: seeing so many high level performers, we're talking about psilocybin,
Speaker 1: you know, microsing Now, but.
Speaker 2: How prevalent do you think that is in like the
Speaker 2: NHL or major sports. How many players do you think
Speaker 2: do that on a semi regular basis?
Speaker 4: Now, It's it's hard to say, but it's quite a bit.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and it's more than you may think, and
Speaker 1: it's people that you might not think. Yeah, it's like
Speaker 1: and it's catching on. Just like the cannabis thing. It's
Speaker 1: like when I was coaching in the American Hockey League,
Speaker 1: towards the last second the second last year of my coaching,
Speaker 1: guys were infusing peanut butter, infusing coconut oil with cannabis
Speaker 1: and sitting in the back of the bus and just
Speaker 1: like so they could sleep, so they got unwined and
Speaker 1: like you didn't see the beers on the bus. So
Speaker 1: it's like, like you want to wake up in the
Speaker 1: morning feeling better, and you want to perform better. And
Speaker 1: there's times to go, you know, the times guys still
Speaker 1: go and rip it up, there's no question. But the
Speaker 1: age of like archaic drinking like it was in the past,
Speaker 1: that's there is a thing of the past. And guys
Speaker 1: are so focused on taking care of their moneymakers, their
Speaker 1: temples right, and and they're gonna do whatever they have to.
Speaker 1: And you're seeing this in all levels of performance, not
Speaker 1: just hockey, not just sports.
Speaker 4: As you mentioned, high levels.
Speaker 1: Executives, the Silicon Valley coders, anybody I work with some
Speaker 1: some dentists, dental surgeons like so focused, so calm that
Speaker 1: you know that you can be in that moment and
Speaker 1: feel like you can.
Speaker 4: Do the best work. Right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's what you're seeing. So and guys talk right,
Speaker 1: they're not gonna wait for the FDA. They're not waiting
Speaker 1: for the gatekeepers, you know, the regulators that come in
Speaker 1: like you know, to me, this is like green light,
Speaker 1: like they've paved the way with cannabis. This is a
Speaker 1: green light to you know, to optimize in a healthy way.
Speaker 1: The craziest thing about it is just the laws of
Speaker 1: around it. That's the most destructive piece.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: You don't have the name names or do anything, but
Speaker 3: are there people?
Speaker 2: Are there people that you saw within your career or
Speaker 2: anything that you were like, man, I wish I saw
Speaker 2: wish I caught him like who I am now? I
Speaker 2: wish I could just sit him down and been like
Speaker 2: I know what's happening with your head?
Speaker 3: I know it's happening aboudy, Like here's a better Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: There was so many of those guys during my playing
Speaker 1: career and posts and I still and I still run
Speaker 1: into the Yeah. I mean it's like there's there's guys
Speaker 1: taking their own lives.
Speaker 4: Like you see, seems like.
Speaker 1: Almost every other week, you know, hear these dark stories,
Speaker 1: just guys within you know, the Flyers alumni network, and
Speaker 1: you see them and it's just like every time you
Speaker 1: see the way they moved, the way they're carrying themselves,
Speaker 1: you could tell, you know, they could be optimized or
Speaker 1: they could optimize their lives a little bit better, right,
Speaker 1: And I know what I know, But like you know,
Speaker 1: I also know that they only know what they know, right,
Speaker 1: And like a lot of the stuff that I educate
Speaker 1: people on advocate for is still a taboo, right, there's
Speaker 1: still a stigma around, especially the older generational guys. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I look back and even though I was playing,
Speaker 1: it's like I wish guys would have drank less and
Speaker 1: smoked more, you know what I mean. And like you know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of guys that never got into the
Speaker 1: cannabis while they were playing.
Speaker 4: And some guys are so proud they will never get into.
Speaker 1: The cannabis, you know what I mean, Because I'm I'm
Speaker 1: an alcohol guy, you know what I mean. You got
Speaker 1: to stay by the you know, bye bye old faithful there.
Speaker 4: But every day. I feel like there's people I run into.
Speaker 1: I think it's it's some bit complex because there's, you know,
Speaker 1: the physical pain guys deal with, you know, the inflammation,
Speaker 1: the actual physical pain, and then there's an emotional pain,
Speaker 1: right depending on how the guy left the game.
Speaker 4: We're talking about more mainly like retired guys.
Speaker 1: I think it is the toughest part because now you've
Speaker 1: left your team, your teammates, that locker room right, right,
Speaker 1: it's like a it's a family, right, And it was
Speaker 1: very organized.
Speaker 4: It was very structured.
Speaker 1: You know, you give your schedule handed out to you
Speaker 1: the start of the year. You knew what you're doing
Speaker 1: every day, every week, every month for the whole season,
Speaker 1: what to wear, game days, practice days, and then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, you're on the other side of the fence,
Speaker 1: like looking at your career, not knowing who you are.
Speaker 1: There's an identity crisis that follows. Right, It's like holy shit,
Speaker 1: like now what you know? Because I thought I was
Speaker 1: a hockey player, That's how I thought I was, but
Speaker 1: that was the job you did. So I think what
Speaker 1: happens is like they're dealing with physical pain, they generally
Speaker 1: generally mismanage that pain with alcohol and other drugs and
Speaker 1: you know, legal drugs, paint and pain killers, the whole bit.
Speaker 1: Then there's the emotional pain of like, you know, like
Speaker 1: however their career played out, because it's usually ends up
Speaker 1: finishing with an injury or you know, you leave the
Speaker 1: game not in your terms right, and so it's hard
Speaker 1: for guys. And then it's like figuring out who am
Speaker 1: I and where do I go from here? So there's
Speaker 1: all these questions like finding your purpose, redefining yourself.
Speaker 4: Who am I? Now? I got pain? I got to
Speaker 4: manage it.
Speaker 1: So it's like the snowball effect of like, Okay, we're
Speaker 1: just going to keep doing what we did forever because
Speaker 1: it was fine then because I had a purpose and
Speaker 1: I you know, I had a schedule and everything was
Speaker 1: good and it was in the NHL making a lot
Speaker 1: of money. Now I'm not I'm gonna still do it
Speaker 1: the same way. And it gets dark, and it gets
Speaker 1: dark and the snowballs. And if you don't snap yourself
Speaker 1: out of it or find you know, more more sustainable
Speaker 1: means to deal with your stress and pain and suffering,
Speaker 1: you're just going to keep digging yourself into a.
Speaker 4: Whole, darker hole, a darker hole and darker hole.
Speaker 1: And that's really where it goes, is that guys become
Speaker 1: suicidal because they don't know who they are. They've numbed
Speaker 1: their pain for for however long, and they've never addressed it,
Speaker 1: never got to the root cause of it.
Speaker 2: And they're guys, and like, I mean, I know, like
Speaker 2: my dad was a compet, a secret service Asian. His
Speaker 2: dad was an army you know, he was on a battleship,
Speaker 2: and like, you know, they don't know how to communicate
Speaker 2: like that either, And I'm you know, it's that sort
Speaker 2: of thing, so like you don't have that network around
Speaker 2: you be like I'm not okay, Like you're just like
Speaker 2: I got to suck this up or something or not.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 3: That's like you have no moral yeah, no role models.
Speaker 4: And that's the way I was trained.
Speaker 1: I was that really conservative, tough it out guy, right,
Speaker 1: But I realized that being vulnerable was a superpower and
Speaker 1: not that I woke up one morning, but I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be vulnerable. But like when I started speaking on behalf
Speaker 1: of cannabis plants and the mushrooms, like you're speaking for
Speaker 1: something much greater than yourself, right, you're speaking for you know,
Speaker 1: all intelligence, you know, all mother nature. Right, we're speaking
Speaker 1: to something that's gonna help not just myself, but I
Speaker 1: like to think all mankind if you can, you know,
Speaker 1: look at it that way, right, It's going to help
Speaker 1: people live a higher quality of life, maybe raise consciousness,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe make a better world and.
Speaker 4: More gentler world, softer world in a good way.
Speaker 1: Right, And we could argue people are too soft now,
Speaker 1: but like but like really it lands up like opening
Speaker 1: the heart and allowing people's stories to be told by
Speaker 1: being vulnerable.
Speaker 4: But again, like in the locker room, you'd never.
Speaker 1: Talk about your emotions, you know, oh yeah, I'm feeling
Speaker 1: a little down today.
Speaker 4: Yeah I'm gonna play it. And I you know, that
Speaker 4: would never be a thing.
Speaker 1: But when you're on the back end of your career,
Speaker 1: when you're you know, you're retired now, Like not that
Speaker 1: you need to go out and like wave the flag
Speaker 1: like I'm depressed or I'm you know, alonely or whatever else,
Speaker 1: but like you have to kind of come out of
Speaker 1: your shell a little bit and like want to learn
Speaker 1: and want to try and reinvent yourself and maybe open
Speaker 1: to new ideas.
Speaker 4: But you get guys just stuck in their ways. Stuck
Speaker 4: in their ways.
Speaker 1: They've medicated their their emotions with booze forever and they don't.
Speaker 3: Stuck keep going.
Speaker 1: Like that highly addicting, right, Booze is arguably the most
Speaker 1: destructive substance.
Speaker 4: On the planet.
Speaker 2: It's the one you take a thing and turn it
Speaker 2: to poison rather than the other way around.
Speaker 1: A day Like yeah, right, yeah, I know so, but
Speaker 1: that's what guys know, and that's how they do it.
Speaker 1: So you know, it's a nervous system depressant. So the
Speaker 1: more you deal with your emotions and you deal with
Speaker 1: your struggles, that way goes darker and darker and darker. Relationships,
Speaker 1: fail relationship to sell relationships to your partners and your kids.
Speaker 4: They start hating you because you're bad.
Speaker 1: You know, you're just being a bad apple, and life
Speaker 1: gets even harrier. And that's why it goes, you know,
Speaker 1: it lands up going dark. For some of these guys,
Speaker 1: they just got nowhere else to go. They got no
Speaker 1: legitimate tools, and it's oh yeah, it happens all to off,
Speaker 1: not just in hockey, right, this is like you look
Speaker 1: at the veteran community and like, you know, like it's
Speaker 1: a real thing. I mean, yeah, I would say that
Speaker 1: mindful cannabis use is That is the difference between the
Speaker 1: way I approached my relationship with cannabis Back in the day.
Speaker 1: It was I say, recreational. There was no intent, there
Speaker 1: was no awareness brought forth to the plant and on
Speaker 1: some level of like honor, respect towards or like, it
Speaker 1: was like let's just burn some flour and get get stoned.
Speaker 1: Right again, there's no real relationship. There wasn't a healthy
Speaker 1: relationship built there. Now I would say it's it's it's
Speaker 1: it's about intentional cannabis uses. Like you can actually answer
Speaker 1: the question of why it's always about intention, right, If
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to get stone, well you'll just get stoned.
Speaker 1: But if I'm trying to heal or if I'm trying
Speaker 1: to create or use this in a different way.
Speaker 4: Intention is everything.
Speaker 1: So I would think that level of intent and mindfulness
Speaker 1: and respect, right, I think that comes down to respect. Right,
Speaker 1: I was misusing it, disrespecting the plant as I was
Speaker 1: disrespecting everything. You can use this analogy towards food, right,
Speaker 1: It's like you mindlessly eat and you have an unhealthy
Speaker 1: relationship with your food and all of a sudden, you
Speaker 1: bring some level of mindfulness to eating and chewing and
Speaker 1: being present with your food, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: like food has always been medicine, but now all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, it actually takes on a new meaning, right,
Speaker 1: And I think cannabis actually, when you when you frame
Speaker 1: cannabis use being used as a medicinal plant or a
Speaker 1: therapeutic plant, I think it shifts the conversation or something,
Speaker 1: you know. But yeah, pain management again, like understanding the
Speaker 1: psychology of the therapeutics that I could then now communicate
Speaker 1: with language. There's certainly helping with pain, Like you know,
Speaker 1: just say the chronic pain or the acute pain that
Speaker 1: I was accumulating over the season seemed like it seemed
Speaker 1: like chronic pain because it never went away.
Speaker 4: But then there was obviously some new levels of pain when.
Speaker 1: You, you know, get a direct blow to a certain
Speaker 1: part of your right now you're feeling a different level
Speaker 1: of pain.
Speaker 4: So there's always that level of pain management. I guess again,
Speaker 4: at that.
Speaker 1: Time, I didn't realize how much it was actually helping
Speaker 1: with pain because I just never you know, you're just
Speaker 1: like you're in it, like when you're young and you're
Speaker 1: you're trying to take on this role of being a fighter,
Speaker 1: Like even if I had a certain level paine, I'm
Speaker 1: not even sure if I would actually like I have
Speaker 1: fully owned it. I'm fine, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: even though like I'm not, But yeah, I think the
Speaker 1: scope of pain is in my experience has been.
Speaker 4: It's helped with all of it.
Speaker 2: So kind of moving forward, and you know, we want
Speaker 2: to like to ad A lot of these episodes are
Speaker 2: like on a good what does the next frontier look like?
Speaker 2: And you've alluded to you know, I think we're going
Speaker 2: to get to a better place where we already are.
Speaker 2: What do you think that kind of looks like? You're
Speaker 2: in the industry, what do you think that looks like?
Speaker 2: From like a sports medicine standpoint, and then just kind
Speaker 2: of a general pop standpoint, and then from a mental
Speaker 2: health standpoint, like where do you see the future.
Speaker 3: And what are those barriers right now? Kind of to
Speaker 3: getting to that point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a it's some bit of a loaded question.
Speaker 1: I see two paths. I still see a true natural play.
Speaker 1: I see a pharmaceutical play. I see pharmaceutical companies entry
Speaker 1: owning the cannabis space.
Speaker 4: Probably a good chunk of it.
Speaker 1: I think there's always going to be like the organic cultivator, right,
Speaker 1: there's always going to be a market for people that
Speaker 1: are looking for premium cannabis, not just like they say
Speaker 1: factory farmed cannabis, right, or like the way we.
Speaker 3: People have the folder's coffee jug and yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah that's it.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 1: Do you want GMO cannabis or do you want you know,
Speaker 1: organically grown. So I think there's gonna be you know,
Speaker 1: two pathways. I think, you know, the federal the federal government.
Speaker 4: Needs to say de schedule.
Speaker 1: I think that the rescheduling opens up this pharmaceutical thing
Speaker 1: that I'm talking about way too much. So I like
Speaker 1: to deschedule it. But I mean, who knows how this
Speaker 1: thing totally plays out. But sports, in the sports world,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned earlier, I really think that this is like,
Speaker 1: you know, this is going to be a huge part
Speaker 1: of the sports science department. They talk about recovery and
Speaker 1: keeping guys healthy, but keeping them off the ambient, off
Speaker 1: the opioids, off the booze.
Speaker 4: I mean, this is an amazing tool. Again, it's already it's.
Speaker 1: Already in there in the locker rooms, but it's I'm
Speaker 1: not sure it's funneled down from the top. It's kind
Speaker 1: of like it's kind of guys doing their own thing
Speaker 1: and you're sharing.
Speaker 4: Chah, yeah, exactly that.
Speaker 1: But I like to think it's going to be a
Speaker 1: huge part of sports science. It's working too, it's working
Speaker 1: that direction for sure, And in society, I like to
Speaker 1: think that it's looked upon more as like that front line,
Speaker 1: that wellness type of look versus so reactive where it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: we got to be this sick, I got to have cancer,
Speaker 1: I gotta have epilepsy. So I'd like to think that
Speaker 1: we can get to a place where we're looking at
Speaker 1: this in the through the lens of wellness, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. Yes, it does help people heal, and
Speaker 1: it does does help people have an appetite when they're
Speaker 1: going through the cancer, and you know, there's there's a
Speaker 1: lot of amazing things it does, like in these real
Speaker 1: true medicinal buckets. But I like to I like to
Speaker 1: see this thing opened up in more in the world
Speaker 1: of wellness. And that's really part and parce of like
Speaker 1: where where I'm going with this, and is talking about
Speaker 1: this more of a mindful way, like you know, like
Speaker 1: pairing cannabis.
Speaker 4: With yoga or meditation.
Speaker 1: Right, it doesn't have to be like so reactive as
Speaker 1: I I kind of mentioned as like getting ahead of this,
Speaker 1: like really in the world of wellness, like let's let's
Speaker 1: feel better, Let's let's.
Speaker 4: Take ownership over a wellness.
Speaker 1: Let's use cannabis in a much more intentional specific way
Speaker 1: like we do. We don't need to eat fifty milligrams
Speaker 1: or a hundred milligrams to get the benefits of cannabis.
Speaker 4: We we could.
Speaker 1: We could have one milligram, you know, two milligrams, It
Speaker 1: gets tiniest amount, get the effect, you know, getting the flow,
Speaker 1: start feeling into the body, or again a little bit
Speaker 1: of the somatics, cultivating that relationship with self, you know.
Speaker 4: I think like we can do that with cannabis.
Speaker 1: I think, out of all the earth medicines that I've
Speaker 1: you know, been fortunate enough to work with, cannabis is
Speaker 1: probably the hardest one to master because it's so easily abused. Right,
Speaker 1: And yes, you can abuse anything. I'd like to think that,
Speaker 1: you know, people that use abuse cannabis will still wake
Speaker 1: up the next morning, right, I mean, and no one's
Speaker 1: dying from a cannabis over, right. Could we be more
Speaker 1: mindful of their cannabis use. Yes, but to me, it's
Speaker 1: still a.
Speaker 4: Version of harm reduction or drug diversion model. Right.
Speaker 1: We're getting people off hard drugs and if they need
Speaker 1: to use cannabis for however long, they need to use
Speaker 1: it to maybe avoid the withdrawal or cut the addiction.
Speaker 4: Out or you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean states that had recreational or robust medical
Speaker 2: programs had significantly decreased opioid overdose and desks from either
Speaker 2: synthetic opioys or heroin. And so to that point, it's
Speaker 2: removing that other thing from there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, just getting people well, I mean, who knows
Speaker 1: where it goes. But I'd like to think, like with
Speaker 1: all the information that's out there, all the anecdotal stories,
Speaker 1: I mean, cannabis movement was piggybacked off storytelling. The psychedelic
Speaker 1: movement is doing the exact same thing. How many stories
Speaker 1: have hurt people and people dying. We have to share
Speaker 1: before you know, the Congress, and you know, they get
Speaker 1: they hear us. I'm not sure if they want to
Speaker 1: hear us, you know, but we keep doing what we do,
Speaker 1: and we keep banging the drum and keep sharing the
Speaker 1: stories and doing whatever we can to help more people, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just helping people increase quality of life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Ron again, I want to I want to think
Speaker 2: where can folks go to kind of find some of
Speaker 2: this information or where you're at, like, yeah, where can
Speaker 2: we send send people?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's my personal website Rileycote dot com are kind
Speaker 1: of showing the different things I'm involved in doing so
Speaker 1: reaching out to me there and the phone number yeah,
Speaker 1: email addresses there.
Speaker 4: So awesome.
Speaker 2: Thanks again, man, Yeah, thank you of course here see
Speaker 2: you guys coming.
Speaker 5: Yeah, good interview. Man, it was good that kind of
Speaker 5: from the bruiser to the heeler.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I kind of like it's nice, nice like circle
Speaker 2: circle life. It's crazy like we think of all these
Speaker 2: drugs is like party drugs. But Riley talked about it
Speaker 2: where it was like we were going out, it was
Speaker 2: booze and pills all the time here in this party mode.
Speaker 2: It was actually like this is my way of actually
Speaker 2: getting away from it. It was like partying less. And
Speaker 2: I think that's actually very resonating to a lot of people,
Speaker 2: like that culture of booze.
Speaker 5: And maintenance, maintenance exactly.
Speaker 2: I think that's just really neat to hear that from
Speaker 2: someone that experienced about as much of like waking up
Speaker 2: every morning, like you could you could see his face,
Speaker 2: like thinking about it like that would probably just give
Speaker 2: you the shivers. Man, if you're not I mean, he's
Speaker 2: a tough guy. He's not afraid, but it's just like
Speaker 2: you just you know, I don't know. You you do
Speaker 2: something and you're like, I gotta do that.
Speaker 5: Get like I was saw when I went ice skate.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Period, Now that's your job to do that at a
Speaker 5: high level and fight and play hockey.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And the other side of it, where you know folks
Speaker 2: that are his age or even older that just kind
Speaker 2: of kept going down that path of the booze and
Speaker 2: the pills and you know, trying to find a purpose
Speaker 2: and a value in their life after sports and all
Speaker 2: these things.
Speaker 4: You know, it's semi okay.
Speaker 3: When you know the train's rolling, but then you're going
Speaker 3: to real.
Speaker 2: Life and all these things are happening and it's a
Speaker 2: huge change and he's seen the other side of it,
Speaker 2: and so hopefully his story can be you know, continue
Speaker 2: being an inspiration to others to kind of maybe just
Speaker 2: look outside of that see if like, hey, if you're
Speaker 2: going down this path, maybe there's other ways to help
Speaker 2: and assist and remedy this similar like Marcus and others. Yeah,
Speaker 2: there's there's other paths and things. And I just want
Speaker 2: to thank Riley so much again. Open his home up.
Speaker 3: I know, his h his.
Speaker 2: Girlfriend's dog was like sick and coming through and so
Speaker 2: he was dealing with a lot of stuff. So he
Speaker 2: was really really generous with his time and so yeah, no,
Speaker 2: thanks again and very excited about our next episode again
Speaker 2: just like.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he teaches us the difference between the weed business
Speaker 2: and the cannabis industry.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and he broke that down expert he did.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So if you want to hear what that.
Speaker 4: Means, tune in the next episode. Until then, I'm greg lad.
Speaker 3: This is the War on Drugs.
Speaker 5: Let's go.
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Speaker 2: with proven change makers to co create solutions to some
Speaker 2: of the most pressing issues in our country, including criminal justice,
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Speaker 2: ending the War on drugs.
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