WEBVTT - SYSK Selects: How Marijuana Works 0:00:01.160 --> 0:00:05.360 Hey, everybody, Happy Saturday. This is Chuck here to introduce 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:08.959 you to this week's Saturday Select, and we are going 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:12.719 with a classic from the archives, How Marijuana Works. Why 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:17.360 are we releasing this today on a Oh because we're juveniles, 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:20.720 that's why, everybody. I hope you enjoy. It's very insightful episode. 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:26.560 And here we go with how Marijuana Works. Welcome to 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:54.000 stuff you should know from how stuff works dot com. Hey, 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:57.360 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. 0:00:57.520 --> 0:01:00.920 Tuck Bride getting his demons out, man. And how about 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:04.960 this music? Yeah, this is a thanks to our guest 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:09.720 producer Noel. Yeah, who is Jerry's actually producing, but he's 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:12.319 got the musical touch. He's if you want to, he's 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:14.560 our dub producer. Yeah, if you want to reggae. If 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:17.600 I your podcast, Nol is the man. Yes, the big 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:21.960 thanks to Noel. Yeah, and great idea by you. I 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:25.600 and I yeah, yeah, I and I love that. How 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:28.360 you doing, man, I'm great. You've got some good feelings 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:32.880 going on. Yeah. I mean we've covered grow houses and um, 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:37.000 we had a medical marijuana right I don't think so. No, no, 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:39.319 because a lot of it didn't seem familiar when I 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:42.520 was looking into it in this article. So we've definitely 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:45.680 done grow houses, which is kind of backwards. Yes, well 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:49.560 not really. You gotta grow up. That's the first two. 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:53.840 So chuck, here we are. We're talking about pot, and 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:56.680 as is our thing. We're gonna talk about pot in 0:01:56.680 --> 0:02:00.800 a very like above the boards mature way, are we? 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:04.120 I think we can. We've talked about some other stuff 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:07.000 before poop. We've talked about poop plenty of times. Yeah, well, 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:09.600 I think booze. Every time we cover drugs, we like 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:14.560 to cover the scientific aspects, social ramifications, how it's impacted culture. 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:17.120 Why would this one be any different? Well, and this 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:19.560 is probably the biggest, you know, it's the most ubiquitous. 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:23.760 I would say, yeah, you know, yeah, maybe the gateway 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:29.760 to all the other episodes. Very funny, So, uh, I 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:32.200 guess if you we should start at the beginning. How 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:36.119 about that? Let's talk about pot and its history. It's 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:41.000 very long, long, long history, UM, and actually for most 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:46.880 of that history it has been widely beloved and appreciated. 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:51.640 The apparently pot has been cultivated or marijuana. We're going 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:56.440 to use all that, um and interchangeably, we'd pot marijuana, 0:02:56.520 --> 0:02:59.600 but cannabis, that's probably where it will stop. Like if 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:03.800 either want of us as ganja or sticky, it's in 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:06.520 this article, we should just shut it down it right then, 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:11.280 all right, all right, we'll do the Hey take that back. Yeah, 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:13.720 one of us will say that. Okay, uh yeah, But 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:15.679 like you said, I mean, this is gonna be an 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:19.200 overview because we could do honestly, four shows on the 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:22.720 history of pot. There's quite a rabbit hole we could 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:24.840 go down here. Yeah, we got to avoid it. Yeah, 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:27.360 but we're just we'll give you a historical overview about that. 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:32.160 So um, like I said, pot has been cultivated for years, 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:35.880 and like I also said that it's mostly been appreciated 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:40.360 most of that time for two reasons. One it is 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:44.400 um in industrial or it was, until the rise of 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:49.600 the synthetics, a major industrial fiber hemp. And then secondly 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:54.160 it was a um or it still is a medicinal 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:58.520 herb that kind of spills over into recreational use as well. 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:03.000 So in the century in China, uh, it looks like 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:06.880 it was probably used medicinally yea, and not recreationally. But 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:12.000 they're definitely records written records of the cultivation of cannabis. Well, yeah, 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:14.440 a guy named shen Nung, who was an emperor but 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:18.960 was also China's first physician, wrote about how ma that's 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:21.920 what they called pot back then in China. H was 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:25.240 good for the yin and the yang, both of them, right, 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:29.440 which is actually is we'll see. Um, that's a pretty 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:33.960 astute observation early on, because what he's talking about is 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:38.719 balance or homeostasis, which pot definitely affects. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Uh. 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:40.800 They have found a mummy, a three thousand year old 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:44.279 Egyptian mummy, and looked into this and it it contained 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:47.560 quite a few drugs, but it definitely contained th HC. 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:53.360 So the Egyptians were getting down. Yeah, maybe medicinally, who knows. 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:58.040 In a thousand and one Arabian Nights, it makes an 0:04:58.040 --> 0:05:02.719 appearance called bang g Sambad apparently loves this stuff, but 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:05.880 supposedly his was hash mixed with opium, which is way 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:09.920 more hardcore than what we're talking about. Uh yeah, yeah 0:05:09.960 --> 0:05:13.920 probably so. Um they think it originated perhaps in India 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:18.920 and um north of the Himalayas is their best guess. Yeah, 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:21.640 they really have no idea. And actually there's like a 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:24.880 lot of debate still over whether there's more than one 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:31.040 um type of plant. What do you mean, So there's 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:35.200 Cannabis indica, Cannabis sativa. Yeah, they're different. There's another one 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:40.280 called Cannabis rude or alice um. And there's there's an 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:46.480 ongoing debate among botanists over whether they're all actually just 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:51.200 a different like um varieties of the same plant, or 0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:53.359 if they really are different species of plants in the 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:58.600 same family. Interesting. Yeah, but I think the the current 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:02.480 common wisdom is that there's at least two Cannabis sativa 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:05.440 and Cannabis indica. Uh. Yeah, we may as well get 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:07.880 into that a little bit. Um. The indica is uh, 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:11.760 the plan itself is shorter and fatter and better suited 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:16.320 for indoor growing. And the uh sativa is taller, it 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:21.360 can get really tall like um yeah, and thinner um. 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:25.440 Although I think for cultivation, I don't think uh, even 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:27.120 though it's grown outdoors, I don't think they're growing the 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:30.560 twenty five ft plants. No. I would imagine the helicopters 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:32.920 can see them a lot more easily. Yeah, And the 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:36.320 indica is known for more of a a body high 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:41.760 um quote unquote, couch locked, yeah, mellow, and the sativa 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:45.039 is more known for more energetic and cerebral and creative, 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:48.160 more of a brain high. Right, and then conversely, one 0:06:48.200 --> 0:06:51.040 can make you more paranoid, one can make you more druy. 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:55.400 Uh yeah. And typically these days, um, if you are 0:06:55.480 --> 0:06:58.240 a recreational or medicinal user, you're probably getting some sort 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:03.040 of a uh hybrid strain. Good point. And actually some 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:06.520 of the strains, those hybrid strains are have some of 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:09.880 the best names, like green crack. It's a pretty good name. 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:14.000 A K forty seven white widow. White Widow is actually 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:17.679 uh pure strain, isn't it of Indica. I'm not sure. 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:20.920 I think it is? Yeah, Maui wowie. The pot names are, 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:23.960 they're pretty funny. They've definitely gotten better from the seventies. 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:29.600 Like Maui wowie. Yeah, that sounds very slapping. Yeah. Um, 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:33.320 so should we talk about we should we talk a 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:36.320 little bit about um its history in this country, in 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:39.040 the United States. Yeah, so, I think we should get 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:42.040 to that because, as I said, Chuck, when you look 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:45.520 back on pot all of these years, and um, it's 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:51.120 how it was used. It was generally like appreciated, used, medicinally, used, recreationally, 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:55.160 not vilified. It wasn't until it hit North America that 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:58.200 it really started to become vilified. Yeah, well it had 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:00.880 a good run here too, Uh in the States for 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:04.000 a couple of hundred years. Um, it was hemp was 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:08.960 grown and cultivated and widely used. Some people say it's, 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:13.320 you know, the most versatile plant on earth as far 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:14.800 as the different uses you can get out of it. 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:19.520 And it was in the sixty nineteen Virginia Assembly Assembly 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:23.160 they even said, do you have to grow hemp if 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:26.720 you're a farmer in Virginia. So not only was it encouraged, 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:30.080 it was actually law in Virginia at least. So I 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:34.480 had had a good run until the early nineteen hundreds 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:37.520 and nineteen twenties. Well, what's what's interesting is back in 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:39.640 this time, you remember that part in Days and Confused, 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:43.839 where um the like the this the biggest owner of 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:46.800 the whole group is talking about George Washington like, oh yeah, 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:49.320 like planning camp all day and then comes home and 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:53.600 smokes Martha. It's not clear whether or not any of 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:56.400 them were smoking pot, and it's entirely possible that they 0:08:56.400 --> 0:09:00.160 weren't because the idea of smoking pot was law to 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:02.920 the ages for a very long time. Um and the 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:06.439 Greeks actually grew marijuana, but they didn't smoke it. They 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:08.920 just used it for its fibers. And it almost appears 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:10.640 like they had no idea you could smoke it and 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:15.479 it was psychoactive. So it's possible that they our forefathers 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:18.640 didn't smoke pot, you know, and they were they were 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:21.760 just growing it for industrial uses. And meanwhile Native Americans 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:25.800 were like, you guys are crazy. Rope rope is nice, 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:28.959 but you know it can be both, that's right. Uh. 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:32.640 In um the early nineteen hundreds, the Mexican Revolution of 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:35.040 nineteen ten, this is one of the big turning points 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:38.480 because a lot of Mexican immigrants came to the US 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:41.880 and they were like, hey, you know, you can smoke 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:47.439 this stuff. It's pretty nice. And because Mexican immigrants had 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:50.400 a UM, we're sort of looked down upon all all 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:53.439 of a sudden, putt was looked down upon. Really, Mexican 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:57.400 immigrants were looked down upon somewhere in the US history. Yeah. 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:00.440 The the whole thing about um pot being very ified 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:04.520 or UM. I guess there was a moral panic basically 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:06.600 is what they call it, that erupted around it. Yeah, 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:10.000 and a lot of it was based in racism towards um, 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:13.560 Mexican Americans or Mexican immigrants. Yeah, in the nineteen thirties, 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:17.760 especially in the depression, UM, they were sort of had 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:20.840 a bad name because you know, they're immigrants in this 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:23.400 country and we're Americans and we're in depression and we 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:25.959 want the work and uh, kind of a lot of 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:29.120 the same arguments here these days. But um, the association 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:32.200 with Pott was definitely a part of it. It definitely was. 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:36.040 But also I read this um, this MPR blog code 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:39.280 Switch about this very topic, and they were saying, like, yes, 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:43.000 there's a lot of racism that led to the criminalization 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:47.280 of pot, but Mexico was twenty years ahead of the 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:51.040 US and criminalizing pot as well. So you can't just say, well, 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:54.920 it was just Americans disdain or dislike or distrust of Mexicans. 0:10:55.400 --> 0:10:57.800 It was you know, it's more complex than that. And 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:01.040 this guy was saying that, really you could conclude there 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:03.840 was a fear of what this drug did. And the 0:11:03.880 --> 0:11:05.640 reason why there was a fear of what the drug 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:09.760 did was because the newspaper reports at the time had 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:13.560 people like killing entire families and like wandering around the 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:16.679 streets like with somebody's head, right, um, covered in blood 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:20.200 because they just smoked a joint. And um, they were 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:22.600 really trying to unpack this, like why would that happen? 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:26.400 Did it happen? Where all of them just overblown reports. 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:29.560 The fact was when you picked up the Los Angeles 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:32.320 Times of the New York Times, there were front page 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:36.120 stories about this, and they were like brown skin, Mexican kills, 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:40.240 white family of eight on marijuana cigarette and that's why. 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:44.439 And actually the word marijuana was kind of used as 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:48.160 a derogatory term to kind of Mexican afi cannabis, which 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:52.240 is what it had been called prior to that. I 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:54.720 did not know that. I'm off my soapbox. Look at 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:58.600 you teaching me. Well. Movies like Reefer Madness definitely didn't help. 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:02.520 In n six The Family, a propaganda movie from French 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:07.760 director Louis Gasnier, it's, you know, required viewing for any 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:11.199 college student at some Yeah, it's it's not very good 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:12.680 and it's not very enjoyable, but it is kind of 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:15.680 funny showing the the reefer addicts, you know, driven to 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:21.679 insanity by the marijuana cigarettes. And somebody gets murdered, right, 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:26.120 I think someone murders somebody else because they smoked pot. Uh. 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:29.360 And then a n seven um a year after refer madness, 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:33.200 Congress packs past the Marijuana Tacks Act, and this is 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:37.440 basically where the tide turn, and it was essentially criminalized 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:43.360 because it called for restricting possession just two individuals who 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:46.560 paid attacks, which is like a thousand dollars for medical 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:49.000 or industrial use. So in other words, if you're just 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:53.880 you know, Sammy pod head, you can't live that way 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:55.599 anymore in this country. Now. You would basically have to 0:12:55.600 --> 0:12:58.520 show set up a shell organization, pay the thousand dollar tax, 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:01.120 and then you'd be able to impore marijuana. But if 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:03.840 you were caught with smoking it, you'd still get busted. 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:06.800 It was a big deal when that happened. And you 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:08.600 can kind of lay all of this at the feet 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:10.920 of one guy, a moral crusader who ran the Federal 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:13.720 Bureau of Narcotics in the thirties, well the thirties until 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:17.480 the sixties. His name was Harry Anslinger, and he was 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:20.240 the one who really kind of started this crusade against 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:23.840 Pott and got the government to um turn against it, 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:26.480 got the press to turn against it, and got the 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:30.160 Marijuana Tacks Act passed. But even while this guy's like 0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:33.520 sitting there shouting like all marijuana is gonna kill us 0:13:33.520 --> 0:13:35.760 all as a horrible drug and it's it's as bad 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:39.440 as it gets. There were studies, independent studies that were 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:43.360 um funded by the government that we're showing, like, you 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:46.320 guys are kind of overstating this a little bit. Yeah, 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:51.360 in Mayor Leaguardia of New York issued a report that 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:56.720 basically said that it doesn't induce violence, insanity, or sex crimes. Yeah, 0:13:56.760 --> 0:13:58.959 and he was a moral reformer himself, remember doing on 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:02.200 after the Minsky brother there's the burlesque episode. Yeah, so 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:04.560 it's not like he was just some big pothead, Like 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:07.760 he was a moral reformer himself and he still founded 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:11.400 this report. Yeah, that's good point that led to um 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:14.000 the The sentence and laws over time have kind of 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:17.240 waffled back and forth. Uh. In the fifties they were 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:20.720 pretty strict because of the Bogs Act and the Narcotics 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:25.200 Control Act, and that's when they started setting mandatory minimums 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:30.080 for basically any drug but including marijuana of course. Yeah, 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:32.400 like you would go to prison for a long time 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:34.280 if you got caught with pot. Yeah, two to ten 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:37.440 years for a first uh, first time offender in the 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:41.840 nineteen fifties getting caught with pot. Yeah, that's it, any 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:45.680 any amount. Uh. And in the sixties, things relaxed a 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:49.080 little bit, um in every way you can imagine in 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:53.360 this country. And uh, you know, President Kennedy and UH 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:56.920 and lb J issued reports that found kind of the 0:14:56.960 --> 0:14:59.200 same thing as they found out in the forties. It 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:02.440 doesn't induce islands. Uh. And then these reports it said 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:06.080 it didn't wasn't a gateway drug either. Yeah. In the 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:10.440 nineteen sixties, which is still up for debate. Really, Yeah, 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:14.400 I've ever been definitively because you read every other report 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:15.920 you read, it's going to say something a little different 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:18.320 about what the gateway drug is. And plus I think 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:22.440 defining what makes a gateway drug two has never been 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:25.640 fully established. Yeah you can how can you test something 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:30.000 scientifically if it's you can't have it defined, you know. Yeah. Uh. 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:32.280 And the that led to the nineteen sixties led to 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:34.680 a repeal of a lot of the mandatory minimums in 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:39.520 the seventies. Um. But then, of course Ronald Reagan in 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:41.640 the nineteen eighties brought a lot of that stuff back, 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:44.560 and Nixon too, he fought that tooth and nail like, 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:47.040 even though the tide in the country was turning one way, 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:50.840 Nixon was like, Nope, we're going to keep pot as 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:53.280 illegal as possible, and as a matter of fact, we're 0:15:53.280 --> 0:15:55.720 going to put it on the same level as heroin 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:59.760 and cocaine. Yeah. And during the Nixon administration, the Schaefer Commission, 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:04.360 it was a bipartisan commission, found again that it should 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:06.680 be decriminalized. And Nixon was just like, well, I don't 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:08.440 I don't want to hear that. Sorry, I'm gonna make 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:11.520 up my own mind about it. I'm the president exactly. Yeah. So, 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:15.160 like you said, the Reagan era brought it back. Um, 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:19.520 not brought pot back, No, brought back any kind of um. 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:24.680 Anti government sentiment toward pot itself was redoubled in the eighties. 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:30.880 Under the Reagan administration, mandatory minimums were or mandatory sentences 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:35.120 were reenacted. Um in six things to the Anti Drug 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:38.920 Abuse Act. If you got caught with a hundred marijuana plants, 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:44.160 you got the same um jale time as if you 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:48.040 were caught with a hundred grams of heroin. Yeah, that's 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:51.280 interesting plants versus grahams. That's sort of a apples orange 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:55.040 in comparison. Yeah, plants versus heroin. It's like plants versus zombies. 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:57.800 I know at one point this is sort of off 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:00.160 topic topic, but I don't know if they've changed, But 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:08.600 at one point they were sentencing LSD users by the weight, right, 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:10.560 and when that the deal is like they would like 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:12.800 if you were an LSD dealer and you had twenty 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:16.800 sheets of acid, they would weigh it. And they were like, well, 0:17:16.800 --> 0:17:18.600 wait a minute, you can't weigh the paper. That's like 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:21.919 weighing the suitcase the cocaine comes. Yeah, and uh, I 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:23.840 think that's still the same though, didn't it. I don't know, 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:26.240 but I do know what you're talking about. And apparently 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:28.240 like if they would if you had it mixed in 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:31.440 with liquid or something like diluted into liquid form, they'd 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:33.639 take the weight of all the liquid rather than the 0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:36.159 proportion of it. Yeah. I don't know. It could be 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:39.800 we could be like showing our gullibility for urban legend 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:42.160 or not, but I know that's the case. I don't 0:17:42.200 --> 0:17:43.800 know if it still is, but I know it definitely was. 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:46.680 Definitely was yeah, because I saw like an HBO special 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:49.760 on he's LSD dealers, So we're basically serving like life 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:56.840 sentences for dealing acid right alongside murders and rapists. Um. Yeah, 0:17:56.880 --> 0:17:58.399 I'll have to check into that and people who were 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:01.840 caught with pott in the thirties. That's right. So pot 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:06.400 these days, costwise, um, varies a lot depending on quality. 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:10.440 Obviously it ranges. Um. I love that in this article 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:13.560 it says a dollar seventy seven to seventeen dollars and 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:17.840 sixty six cents per graham, like one gram of marijuana. Please. Yeah, 0:18:17.880 --> 0:18:20.560 that's interesting. Um, but these days you can expect to 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:25.200 pay um for you know, what people consider good marijuana 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:29.119 about a hundred and twenty dollars for uh a quarterback, 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:31.879 which is a quarter of an ounce, right, which is 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:34.880 seven grams, right, because there's twenty eight grahams in and out. Yeah, 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:37.760 I think between seven eight grams. But um, it depends 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:41.600 on if the dealer likes you exactly. Yeah. But that's 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:43.679 generally how it breaks down. As you know, you have 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:47.560 it by the pound, which is you know the pot, 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:50.719 uh dealer, I guess, and then they break it down 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:54.359 into ounces and then to quarterbacks and dime bags and 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:56.760 whatever people can afford. I guess. Well. It's funny because 0:18:56.840 --> 0:19:00.320 in the state of the country right now, Like you 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:03.720 can take dealer and dispensary and basically flip them and 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:05.920 interchange them, and no matter what you're talking about, the 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:10.520 virtually the sentence is going to remain unchanged basically, you know, 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:15.840 because the marijuana dispensaries are following like basically the same 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:19.680 format that marijuana dealers in this country have for decades, 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:22.800 you know what I mean, like pricing and yeah, the pricing, um, 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:26.159 the way it's sold by weight, like I think you 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:30.280 still't buy like like quarters and half ounces and ounces 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:32.480 and stuff, which makes sense. But they're also getting a 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:34.119 lot of this stuff from people who are growing at 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:36.359 indoors in their basement. And it's like now they have 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:38.760 licenses for all this, but it's basically like all the 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:42.439 people who were doing it illegally before or some of 0:19:42.440 --> 0:19:44.919 the people who are doing illegally before point and applied 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:46.720 for licenses and now they're doing the same thing, but 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:50.000 they just have like a a license to do it 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:52.919 in a frame on their wall. Yeah, and dispensaries, you're 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:56.800 gonna find a lot of other things, uh, like edibles 0:19:57.480 --> 0:20:01.879 and um, they even have now cannabis strips, like you know, 0:20:01.920 --> 0:20:05.440 the little listing breath strips. They have a little cannabis strips. 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:11.480 It's just a little uh edible strip of concentrated cannabis. 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:13.760 And I guess you put it under your tongue and 0:20:13.880 --> 0:20:16.720 that's better for your lungs. I would imagine if you're 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:19.000 a oh, yeah, a cancer patient or something. Yeah, And 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:20.880 we'll talk about that in a little bit. Let's let's 0:20:20.920 --> 0:20:25.680 talk about the planet itself, chuck. Um. Maybe the most 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:29.120 recognizable plant that leaf, you know, yeah, which is um. 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:34.240 Here's a little fact for you. The botanical description of 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:39.600 the way that marijuana leaves are arranged is groovy called 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:44.280 palmately like the palm of a hand with five fingers outstretched. 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:48.840 That's the pot leaf. That's you. You can find on 0:20:49.000 --> 0:20:54.679 lighters and baseball caps, that gas stations, um and the like. 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:57.800 You said. The planet itself, depending on which variety it 0:20:57.920 --> 0:21:00.919 is either very tall or kind of tall, depending on 0:21:00.920 --> 0:21:06.800 whether it's trimmed or not. UM. And the the buds 0:21:06.920 --> 0:21:10.480 or whatever that are smoked are actually the flowers of 0:21:10.520 --> 0:21:14.320 the plants, the flowers of the female which apparently are 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:18.080 that's sentemia. So the definition of the word sentema are 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:22.720 female flowers that have reached maturity without being um pollinated. 0:21:22.960 --> 0:21:25.800 I can't hear that word without thinking of Caddyshack. What 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:28.320 I don't remember that part Bill Murray A little California 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:31.960 sens to me. Yeah, yeah, so that's what that means. Yes, 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:35.800 that's the term sense of mea means. So basically, unless 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:40.280 you're like fourteen, if you're smoking pot, you're smoking centemia. 0:21:40.680 --> 0:21:46.240 So yes, the term centemia means pot, the pot that's smoked. 0:21:46.560 --> 0:21:49.520 Although the male flowers do have some THHD, it's just 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:53.680 far far less of female than female. Yeah. As a cultivator, 0:21:54.560 --> 0:21:57.480 males are not what you want. In fact, males can 0:21:57.720 --> 0:22:01.280 can disturb the cycle of the female plan. So the 0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:03.280 goal of the cultivators to get the mail out of 0:22:03.320 --> 0:22:06.160 there as quickly as it can be identified. Basically. Yeah, 0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:09.040 and weed's actually good moniker for pop because it's it 0:22:09.280 --> 0:22:14.320 spreads very easily there. Um pollen is like twenty four microns, 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:18.240 which apparently is very easily wind born and goes very 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:23.480 great distances. There's very few obstacles to pollenization. Um. So, 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:27.439 if you have female plants and you have what you 0:22:27.480 --> 0:22:29.880 suspect to be a male plan anywhere nearby, you want 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:32.760 to get rid of the mail plant and then tell 0:22:32.800 --> 0:22:37.040 the officer, Uh, they must have just blown over here 0:22:37.040 --> 0:22:41.040 and taken roots. Are right, These d plants in my 0:22:41.080 --> 0:22:44.959 backyard came from my neighbor. The pollens is twenty four microns. 0:22:45.000 --> 0:22:47.960 Come on, yeah, he says, He says, tell your story 0:22:47.960 --> 0:22:52.200 to the judge, my friend, Um, there are about uh 0:22:52.240 --> 0:22:56.480 we should also say they are hermaphroditic plants. Hermaphroditic plants 0:22:57.320 --> 0:23:01.880 that feature both male and female flowers are probably a mess. Yeah, 0:23:01.880 --> 0:23:03.480 I think that maybe that's a good thing. I think 0:23:03.480 --> 0:23:07.840 that's like a lot of hybrid ones are hermaphroditic. Okay, yeah, Well, 0:23:07.880 --> 0:23:12.960 there are hundreds of chemicals in the marijuana plant. Um, 0:23:13.040 --> 0:23:16.960 a hundred and nine of which are cannabinoids. About thirty 0:23:17.200 --> 0:23:20.320 three are cancer causing, and we'll we'll get to that 0:23:20.320 --> 0:23:24.840 stuff later too. But ironically they also are cancer killing 0:23:25.520 --> 0:23:28.560 some of them. It is an odd plant. But we're 0:23:28.560 --> 0:23:31.919 gonna get to all that stuff too, right, Um, And 0:23:32.040 --> 0:23:36.040 your th HC is really the main psychoactive ingredient. What's 0:23:36.080 --> 0:23:40.119 the long name for it, Delta nine tetra hydro cannabin 0:23:40.200 --> 0:23:45.119 all that is th HC. That is what the high 0:23:45.160 --> 0:23:47.919 that you're seeking. It lies within that chemical. Yeah, and 0:23:47.960 --> 0:23:50.359 actually you can point to the part of the plant 0:23:50.400 --> 0:23:53.680 where it is. UM. If you've ever seen a marijuana 0:23:53.720 --> 0:23:55.719 plant and it has kind of this hazy a period 0:23:55.840 --> 0:23:57.840 appearance from far away and you get up close and 0:23:57.840 --> 0:23:59.919 you realize that haze is actually made up of a 0:24:00.000 --> 0:24:04.800 into a little clear, sticky protrusions coming off the leaves. 0:24:05.160 --> 0:24:08.440 Those are called tri combs, and that is where the 0:24:08.480 --> 0:24:11.679 th HC is stored. That's right. And depending on the plant, 0:24:11.840 --> 0:24:14.639