Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher. I'm your host Rams' job.
Speaker 2: They call me q Ward and yeah, that's what my
Speaker 2: mom calls me too.
Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, back up India again, what's going on with you.
Speaker 3: Q.
Speaker 2: Ah Man. Our country, our constituents, our brothers and sisters
Speaker 2: are people. We are dealing with a lot right now.
Speaker 2: All at the same time, you know, people trying to
Speaker 2: stay warm in areas where that's not typically a thing. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so that's that's kind of been not just dominating the
Speaker 2: news cycle, but you know, I know you do, and
Speaker 2: I have plenty of really good friends down in Texas
Speaker 2: that are dealing with what we see as a news
Speaker 2: story as a part of their regular, everyday real life
Speaker 2: with you know, not just adults, but their babies, you know,
Speaker 2: their pets, their animals, their families, their in laws. They're
Speaker 2: dealing with a lot right now. And thank god that
Speaker 2: they're starting to have some ah, some eco recovery. The
Speaker 2: temperatures are starting to rise a little bit to steal
Speaker 2: cold but livable.
Speaker 4: Right exactly exactly, And uh, you know when we were
Speaker 4: talking about that last week and and just kind of
Speaker 4: the optics around it, you know, I feel like we
Speaker 4: were able to help contribute to at h a national demand,
Speaker 4: media demand for our elected representatives to.
Speaker 1: Do better, you know, you know, the greed hope.
Speaker 4: So the greed was on full display, the selfishness was
Speaker 4: on full display.
Speaker 1: We don't have to rehash all that, but you.
Speaker 2: Know, shout out to capitalism.
Speaker 1: You know, we got to do a show on that.
Speaker 4: I was talking to a friend and uh, you know,
Speaker 4: you know that's going to be challenged at some point
Speaker 4: in the future, so we're going to have to really
Speaker 4: make our points.
Speaker 1: But yeah, shout out to capitalism one time. Well, today
Speaker 1: we have a very special episode.
Speaker 4: You know, for the past couple of episodes, I wanted
Speaker 4: to do, you know, a little bit more in the
Speaker 4: way of Black history. And I think that today we're
Speaker 4: going to be able to talk a little bit about
Speaker 4: black history. But we also have a couple of special
Speaker 4: guests in the building. So these guys are from the
Speaker 4: Arizona Black Cannabis Trade Association, and there's a whole lot
Speaker 4: that I'm really excited to talk with these guys about.
Speaker 4: So I want to say, welcome to Jesse mcquarie, how
Speaker 4: you doing.
Speaker 5: Thanks for having me trade.
Speaker 4: Of course, and I want to get this right, Chansen Chambers.
Speaker 3: Yep, that's right. Okay, all right, thanks for having us.
Speaker 1: Yes, of course. And so.
Speaker 4: In order to make sure that you know our listeners
Speaker 4: really know who you are and what the Arizona Black
Speaker 4: Cannabis Trade Association is, why don't we talk a little
Speaker 4: bit about how it started, why there was a need
Speaker 4: for it, and why you know, why it's important.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'll get started with that.
Speaker 6: So, uh, yeah, I started my adventure in in in
Speaker 6: the cannabis industry about five years ago. And uh, just
Speaker 6: like with anything else in uh in Arizona, we uh
Speaker 6: we just felt the need, uh that's needed within the
Speaker 6: Arizona for Association to help empower and educate and uh
Speaker 6: and further our people within the cannabis industry. So I
Speaker 6: just felt the need, uh to start a organization that
Speaker 6: helped that.
Speaker 4: Okay, that void and specifically uh black cannabis. So the
Speaker 4: black cannabis. Just to be clear, it's not about a
Speaker 4: certain color of cannabis strain or anything.
Speaker 6: Oh no, no, no, not a cultural companion, yeah for sure,
Speaker 6: for sure.
Speaker 4: Why why was it necessary to have a Black Cannabis
Speaker 4: Trade Association?
Speaker 6: Just with the surrounding events you know, with with Black
Speaker 6: Lives Matter and everything else that's going on in the world,
Speaker 6: we just wanted to be specific about what's going on,
Speaker 6: but not just target basis. It's more for everyone at
Speaker 6: the same time.
Speaker 5: But so with the passage of Prop. Two oh seven
Speaker 5: in Arizona, there's twenty six to twenty nine dispensary licenses
Speaker 5: they're going to be issued, and the Department of Health
Speaker 5: Services is putting out their rules for what it takes
Speaker 5: to qualify for these licenses that are earmarked as social
Speaker 5: equity licenses. And so right now in the state of Arizona,
Speaker 5: there's a lot of discussions going on behind closed doors
Speaker 5: and down at Department of Health Services about what does
Speaker 5: it mean to qualify for a social equity business. And
Speaker 5: so with the Arizona Black Cannabis Trade Association, the overarching
Speaker 5: goal is to ensure that those licenses provide opportunities and
Speaker 5: revenue into communities that have been disproportionately negatively impacted by
Speaker 5: the War on Drugs and specifically criminalization. So that's that's
Speaker 5: really what drove us to focus. You know, I poured
Speaker 5: up a chance seeing what he was doing, and I
Speaker 5: felt like it was a really important piece to the
Speaker 5: equation to make sure that that revenue is getting back
Speaker 5: into those communities, that those opportunities are really being provided
Speaker 5: for communities that have been negatively impacted by cannabis criminalization
Speaker 5: over the last forty fifty years.
Speaker 4: Sure, sure, and we definitely want to talk about that,
Speaker 4: but before we get there, I think that it's it's
Speaker 4: worth mentioning. You know, I think it's very special and
Speaker 4: it should be it should be normal, but I recognize
Speaker 4: it in this world, it's not yet normal that you,
Speaker 4: Jesse are white.
Speaker 5: It's a radio show.
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: I didn't know that about Jesse.
Speaker 3: You didn't know.
Speaker 2: No, I was when you just said it, I got confused,
Speaker 2: but I had to recounib you are white, Yes, yes,
Speaker 2: I am w I learned something new every day. Man.
Speaker 1: The reason that the reason that's special is because.
Speaker 4: You know this, or rather this past year twenty twenty
Speaker 4: has taught us a lot about ourselves and about each other.
Speaker 4: And you know, I tend to do this, but you know,
Speaker 4: it's my show, so I get.
Speaker 1: I can do it.
Speaker 4: You know, we're all brothers and sisters, and I think
Speaker 4: that last year really taught us, at least some of
Speaker 4: us approximately half of the more than half of us
Speaker 4: that you know, we're here together.
Speaker 1: We're in this together.
Speaker 4: We we we laugh, we feel pain, We you know,
Speaker 4: we want the best for our future and our posterity,
Speaker 4: and it's okay to empathize with each other. And one
Speaker 4: of the things that you know, you and I we
Speaker 4: talk about all the time is that, you know, last
Speaker 4: year when we were out on the streets, you know,
Speaker 4: for all the protests, and we were you know, tuned
Speaker 4: in into the media in a way that perhaps we
Speaker 4: never were before. You know, we saw, of course a
Speaker 4: lot of black people, a lot of black people writing
Speaker 4: their stories, you know, making sure that the stories were
Speaker 4: written the right way.
Speaker 1: Empowered powerful voices.
Speaker 4: But we also saw a crazy number of allies who
Speaker 4: looked nothing like us. We saw people from all faiths,
Speaker 4: all walks of life, many of whom were white folks.
Speaker 1: And so I think that it's.
Speaker 4: Important, we both think it's important on this show to
Speaker 4: celebrate allies, brothers you know that may not look like us,
Speaker 4: but will take time out to help create a world
Speaker 4: where there's a little bit more fairness, there's bring a
Speaker 4: little bit more balanced to the universe.
Speaker 1: And you know, I know that you know, folks listening
Speaker 1: don't know the story.
Speaker 4: But what happened was you reached out to me through
Speaker 4: our social media, which by the way, follow our social
Speaker 4: media at Civic Cipher on all platforms, and you know,
Speaker 4: mention this Arizona Black Cannabis Trade Association, and you know
Speaker 4: you were asking about, you know, how can we be involved,
Speaker 4: how can we support And I think above all else,
Speaker 4: just kind of letting folks know what you're doing and
Speaker 4: why this exists. I think that on some level it
Speaker 4: empowers other folks to be an ally. It empowers other
Speaker 4: folks to, you know, take the time out to try
Speaker 4: to create something that brings a little bit more fairness
Speaker 4: into the world. So me saying that you're white is
Speaker 4: not just me saying it. Me saying that in that
Speaker 4: way is because I think it's it's almost critical. You know,
Speaker 4: there's you know, we were on the streets last year.
Speaker 4: I would guess that there was maybe ten percent black
Speaker 4: folks out there. Everybody else was all different colors of
Speaker 4: people all and it was beautiful to see that everyone
Speaker 4: was like, hey, these.
Speaker 1: Deaths are senseless, and you know, there needs to be accountability.
Speaker 1: These are these lives are precious.
Speaker 4: These lives matter, you know, and that's the same energy
Speaker 4: that I got from our initial interaction. So I thank
Speaker 4: you for coming up on to the show to talk
Speaker 4: about the Arizona Black Cannabis Trade Association.
Speaker 5: So thank you for having us, I mean, and thank
Speaker 5: you for welcoming me and putting me in a position
Speaker 5: to talk about this organization with you know.
Speaker 3: With chance.
Speaker 1: Sure, sure, absolutely so. You know, one of the things
Speaker 1: that we.
Speaker 4: Didn't get to talk about in the past is that,
Speaker 4: or rather with respect to black.
Speaker 1: History, is.
Speaker 4: The way drugs have affected the black community over you know,
Speaker 4: the centuries or over the decades, not centuries in this country.
Speaker 4: And you know there was you know, if you do
Speaker 4: your history, American history, you'll know you'll know that, you know,
Speaker 4: once upon a time there was an association with Negro
Speaker 4: jazz and marijuana cigarettes, you know, but there was no
Speaker 4: real criminalization of that, and once upon a time it
Speaker 4: wasn't even illegal.
Speaker 1: There was a smear.
Speaker 4: Campaign that I think was backed by big tobacco once
Speaker 4: upon a time.
Speaker 1: And the government to try to regulate.
Speaker 4: Don't hold me to this because I don't know it's
Speaker 4: not as fresh in my mind, but it was meant
Speaker 4: to create a means to infiltrate, you know, certain communities,
Speaker 4: and that's the same thing that has been done more recently.
Speaker 4: In the eighties especially, one of the things that we
Speaker 4: didn't get to talk about was the uh, the way
Speaker 4: crack made its way into the the country. And I
Speaker 4: know that we're talking about cannabis, but you know, I
Speaker 4: think that in talking about the crack epidemic in the eighties,
Speaker 4: we can begin to understand the way this war on
Speaker 4: drugs that was enacted under the Reagan administration, if I'm
Speaker 4: not mistaken, has adversely affected, you know, black and brown communities,
Speaker 4: overly criminalized, overly policed, and economically disadvantaged further black and
Speaker 4: brown communities. And so so that we can kind of
Speaker 4: continue on with our Black history theme while we still
Speaker 4: have the chance. For those that don't know, there was
Speaker 4: a a gentleman by the name of Gary Webb. He
Speaker 4: was a journalist and he wrote a story about how
Speaker 4: in the eighties, the CIA helped finance a covert war
Speaker 4: against Nicaragua's leftist government through the sales of cut ray
Speaker 4: cocaine in south central Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: Through rug dealer.
Speaker 4: His name was Ricky Ross. If you know the name
Speaker 4: Rick Ross. Then you know that Ricky Ross is where
Speaker 4: Rick Ross got his name from. He was a big
Speaker 4: time drug dealer and the CIA showed this guy how
Speaker 4: to make crack cocaine, and you know, that's how that
Speaker 4: crack epidemic started.
Speaker 1: It was funneled directly into black neighborhoods.
Speaker 4: And then, you know, we all know the story that
Speaker 4: a little bit later, you know, the laws were changed
Speaker 4: and new laws were enacted because this was a new
Speaker 4: drug that gave harsher sentences. I think it was either
Speaker 4: three or five times the amount of a sentence for
Speaker 4: crack cocaine than it was for just regular cocaine. So
Speaker 4: if you had crack cocaine, it was just more you
Speaker 4: get more punished, more harshly, which was exceptionally unfair because
Speaker 4: those two drugs almost you know, went along the color lines,
Speaker 4: you know, regular cocaine.
Speaker 2: No, not all, They didn't almost go along along in
Speaker 2: color corrected very very flavorly and very very intentionally drew
Speaker 2: that line based on the color of the people that
Speaker 2: were most affected by the different versions of the same
Speaker 2: right exactly chemical.
Speaker 4: And the crazy part about it is that you know,
Speaker 4: these people were taught how to make it by the government,
Speaker 4: the same government that's sending them to the prisons for
Speaker 4: these extended sentences, never recognizing that it's a health issue,
Speaker 4: only criminalizing, and that led to the further criminalization of
Speaker 4: black and brown peoples. That led to like a lot
Speaker 4: of the the expansion of gang activity, the economic empowerment
Speaker 4: of gangs, which led to more weapons and so forth.
Speaker 4: And then you get these ghettos that were created artificially
Speaker 4: by the government.
Speaker 1: But you know, the optics if you don't know.
Speaker 4: The story from a suburban white you know person, Look,
Speaker 4: it looks like, well, if you get all these people together,
Speaker 4: then they're just gonna act like animals and cages, and
Speaker 4: we want nothing to do with that. And there's a
Speaker 4: there's a disconnect where folks don't realize that, you know,
Speaker 4: a government can pull the strings and create a situation
Speaker 4: where that's the outcome. And so, you know, you can
Speaker 4: see the direct connection between the government and the CIA
Speaker 4: and them taking advantage of the War on drugs, which
Speaker 4: was already I think that was right approximately around the
Speaker 4: time when that was kind of enacted, and the the
Speaker 4: increase in the prison population, so you know, one of
Speaker 4: the statistics, so I went last week, and I got
Speaker 4: some information from the ACLU, and I'll just so we know.
Speaker 4: According to the ACLU's original analysis, we're gonna talk about
Speaker 4: marijuana now. Marijuana arrests now account for over half of
Speaker 4: all drug arrests in the United States. The eight point
Speaker 4: two million marijuana arrests between two thousand and one and
Speaker 4: twenty ten, just as a sample, eighty eight percent were
Speaker 4: for simply having marijuana. And nationwide, the arrest data revealed
Speaker 4: one consistent trend, which was a significant racial bias. Despite
Speaker 4: roughly equal usage rates, Blacks are three point seven three
Speaker 4: times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana.
Speaker 4: And that's a function of over policing in black and
Speaker 4: brown neighborhoods.
Speaker 1: And this is all before we get to the sentencing.
Speaker 4: So I'm gonna pause here because I wanna talk about
Speaker 4: why the Arizona Black Cannabis Trade Association, or rather what
Speaker 4: the Black Arizona Black hender Bistrade Association can do to help.
Speaker 1: Write these wrongs in the past.
Speaker 5: So, I mean, there's a couple things that correlate to that.
Speaker 5: The statistics show in Arizona over the last thirty to
Speaker 5: forty years, that numbers as high as four and a
Speaker 5: half times, so as a black male in Arizona, if
Speaker 5: you're part of an interaction with law enforcement that's based
Speaker 5: around cannabis versus a white male in Arizona, all other
Speaker 5: things being the same, as a blackmail you're four times
Speaker 5: more likely to be arrested and spend time in jail
Speaker 5: after that interaction. Sure, okay, And that's that's one of
Speaker 5: the things that when you talk about social equity licensing,
Speaker 5: and that's that's one of the things that I talk
Speaker 5: to a lot of people about is just flat out
Speaker 5: there's a disparity there, and that disparity needs to be addressed,
Speaker 5: and there's a way right now that we can address
Speaker 5: that is through these social equity licenses. They're gonna be
Speaker 5: issued in Arizona. In terms of ABCTA, one of our
Speaker 5: first order is a business and one of the things
Speaker 5: that we're really looking to accomplish is to bring those
Speaker 5: licensees together and make sure that the resources that are
Speaker 5: produced with these businesses that are starting. These are very
Speaker 5: valuable licenses and there's a lot of revenue generation that
Speaker 5: goes on and being able to take those and enact
Speaker 5: education is where I genuinely believe we can start some
Speaker 5: social change in the right direction, and I think fear
Speaker 5: of policing is one of the is one of the
Speaker 5: big things that we can really educate people. What are
Speaker 5: your rights now now that Prop two O seven has passed,
Speaker 5: Now that it's legal to have cannabis in your possession
Speaker 5: as an adult living in this state of Arizona. Now
Speaker 5: that it's legal to grow plants on your property at
Speaker 5: your home, what are those rules actually? You know that
Speaker 5: you can't just it's not a free for all, right,
Speaker 5: there's rules about it. And then also on the flip
Speaker 5: side of things, educating the police force. You know, I'm
Speaker 5: sure every police officer in the state of Arizona got
Speaker 5: a memo, has some briefing. But what is the real
Speaker 5: interaction that's going on between the communities that are being
Speaker 5: policed and the police that are policing them and what
Speaker 5: the rules actually are, what the laws actually are. And
Speaker 5: I think through ABCTA, we really aim to start the
Speaker 5: ball rolling getting education into those communities and that's the
Speaker 5: start of social change. It's taking some of the fear
Speaker 5: out of policing in the black community.
Speaker 6: Sure, good, No, it was just just to follow up
Speaker 6: what he said, that's the purpose is to get into
Speaker 6: these communities and educate. It's educated what's going on with
Speaker 6: the laws, because people within the communities don't know anything
Speaker 6: about the cannabis laws or what's.
Speaker 3: Going on within the cannabis industry.
Speaker 6: So our main focus is is to penetrate the community
Speaker 6: and the least educate them so they know they have rights,
Speaker 6: you know, and they can and they can move forward
Speaker 6: from there.
Speaker 4: So and I'm glad you mentioned that. There's two things
Speaker 4: that I want to talk about there. One is the uh,
Speaker 4: the education. We'll talk about that first. But the other
Speaker 4: one is the.
Speaker 1: Fear that there is. I think that the fear is
Speaker 1: a two.
Speaker 4: Way street too with the black community and the police.
Speaker 4: And I think that's the two way street because we've
Speaker 4: seen how afraid the police are. That's been on full
Speaker 4: display for a very long time. And then of course,
Speaker 4: historically black people have really had no real rights or
Speaker 4: real way of protecting themselves against the place. This is
Speaker 4: why the Black Panthers, you know, rose to power, you know,
Speaker 4: was because they were able to police themselves from the police,
Speaker 4: because the police were the actual terror force in black
Speaker 4: neighborhoods in Oakland. Once moon a time and around the country.
Speaker 4: But first, you know, you're absolutely right in terms of information,
Speaker 4: in terms of you know what these things actually mean.
Speaker 4: There's an opportunity here for you to educate me and
Speaker 4: you because we've never we've never done any marijuana related
Speaker 4: things or.
Speaker 1: Anything like that. So we've always followed the law.
Speaker 4: Not that I'm going to, but if I wanted to,
Speaker 4: like you said, grow something in my house, or if
Speaker 4: I wanted to if I had something on my person
Speaker 4: when I interacted with the police, what are some things
Speaker 4: that you can share with us now at this point
Speaker 4: that are legal versus illegal or you know, what do
Speaker 4: I rights look like? Oh?
Speaker 3: I'll go first.
Speaker 6: So under the old law, which is the medical marijuana Prop.
Speaker 6: Two six, you're protected to have two ounces and if.
Speaker 3: You actually go see a doctor and get to have
Speaker 3: what's the.
Speaker 6: Qualifying medical recommendation, medical recommendations, having a medical marijuana car.
Speaker 6: So that protects you when you're interacting with the police
Speaker 6: first of all. So and then under the new law
Speaker 6: that just passed two seven, it's adult use twenty one,
Speaker 6: twenty one and over, So anyone that's twenty one and
Speaker 6: over can possess and have possession up to what a ounce.
Speaker 5: One of the key pieces there is that it's for
Speaker 5: adult personal use. So if you have announce of marijuana
Speaker 5: on you in your possession, you're interacting with the police.
Speaker 5: They ask you what you're doing, and your response is,
Speaker 5: I'm on my way to a party. Me and all
Speaker 5: my friends are gonna smoke. You've now violated the law.
Speaker 5: You know, to the letter of the law, you're allowed
Speaker 5: to possess marijuana for your own personal adult use. And
Speaker 5: it's the same thing with growing. You're allowed to grow
Speaker 5: up to six plants for your own adult use as
Speaker 5: an adult. You now have the right to make that
Speaker 5: decision if that's something that you want as part of
Speaker 5: your life and you want to be able to use marijuana,
Speaker 5: whether it's cannabis for medical use or whether it's something
Speaker 5: that you consider recreational social use of marijuana, you now
Speaker 5: have the right to make that decision as a citizen.
Speaker 5: But you can't just plant your entire backyard. Right you
Speaker 5: have the right to grow six plants, they have to
Speaker 5: be contained and they have to be locked. And then
Speaker 5: you know, there's a lot of when it comes to
Speaker 5: buying from a retail location, dispensaries there's over one hundred
Speaker 5: dispensaries now in the state of Arizona that have the
Speaker 5: right to sell to adults twenty one and over. You
Speaker 5: walk into pretty much any dispenser in Arizona. Now are
Speaker 5: you a medical patient or are you a wrec patient?
Speaker 5: And there's two lines. If you have your medical card,
Speaker 5: you go to one line. If you're there for recreational purpose,
Speaker 5: you go to another line. And the reason they do
Speaker 5: that is it's taxed differently if you're Yeah, so there's
Speaker 5: restrictions on the concentration of THC in products that are
Speaker 5: sold to medical patients. And then there's a sixteen percent
Speaker 5: tax that applies to recreational buyers that doesn't apply to
Speaker 5: people that are using their medical marijuana cards. So there's
Speaker 5: over two hundred thousand medical marijuana cards cardholders in Arizona.
Speaker 5: They're not going to be taxed an extra sixteen percent
Speaker 5: on their purchases of their medicine that they've been buying
Speaker 5: for the last four years or two years, or however
Speaker 5: long they've been doing it, because this law passed. But
Speaker 5: that's where the revenue is being generated, is that sixteen
Speaker 5: percent tax. So they that's where they separate it when
Speaker 5: you go into a dispensary. And then you know, when
Speaker 5: it comes to concentrations to THC for recreational and social purposes,
Speaker 5: there are some very highly concentrated edibles and concentrates, you know,
Speaker 5: stuff that is deemed by Department of Health to be
Speaker 5: these concentrations are for medical use only. These are not
Speaker 5: for recreational and social use. So one of the big,
Speaker 5: one of the big thresholds for that right now is
Speaker 5: ten milligrams per unit when it comes to edibles, and
Speaker 5: one hundred milligrams per package. So in most of the
Speaker 5: dispensaries you'll see a separation of the edibles where these
Speaker 5: are the medical grade edibles, these are recreational.
Speaker 4: I'm gathering that medical grade is something that's more powerful
Speaker 4: or more.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's generally gonna be more potent, and depending on
Speaker 5: depending on the medical condition that people are dealing with.
Speaker 5: You know, the science and medicine, the science behind the medicine,
Speaker 5: excuse me is is really showing that when you start
Speaker 5: using cannabis for medical purposes, the general thinking behind it
Speaker 5: is start low, low dose and work your way up, okay,
Speaker 5: and kind of kind of figure out where your sweet
Speaker 5: spot is for whatever your specific medical need is. Everyone's
Speaker 5: in no cannabi noised system receives THHC and CBD differently.
Speaker 5: Everybody has a slightly different tolerance, if you will. Everybody's
Speaker 5: body responds differently, and so it's it's more art than
Speaker 5: science when it comes to dosing, and that's one of
Speaker 5: the big topics of conversations. But the HS is, you know,
Speaker 5: through a couple of years of research and advisement, they've
Speaker 5: sort of made the decision. Okay, when it comes to
Speaker 5: adult use products, you don't need edibles that are concentrated
Speaker 5: more than ten milligrams per sure. You know that's that's
Speaker 5: a fair dosage for adult use medical usage. A lot
Speaker 5: of a lot of medical patients like the edibles because
Speaker 5: they don't want to smoke. They found, you know, the
Speaker 5: way that they do. Some people cut them up micro does,
Speaker 5: and there's there's a million different reasons why. But there's
Speaker 5: a lot of medical patients out there that need just
Speaker 5: a much stronger dose to deal with the medical ailm
Speaker 5: at their deal.
Speaker 4: Pin Sure, Okay, Well, if you're just tuning into civic
Speaker 4: ciche from host rams as Josh.
Speaker 2: Then call me q ward. That just so happens to
Speaker 2: be my name, And we.
Speaker 4: Are sitting with the Arizona Black Cannabis Trade Association members
Speaker 4: Jesse mcquarie and Seanson Chambers, and uh, we're talking about
Speaker 4: some of the.
Speaker 1: Things that.
Speaker 4: The Arizona Black Cannabis Trade Association is doing to, you know,
Speaker 4: bring some equity to U two black and brown communities
Speaker 4: to make up for some of the jest is that
Speaker 4: the War on drugs has created and the over policing
Speaker 4: and over criminalization of black and brown people historically by
Speaker 4: this country.
Speaker 1: Real quick, did you want to say something?
Speaker 2: Nothing in particular. There's there's a lot that I want
Speaker 2: to learn, but I don't have any specific questions.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 4: So one of the things that I did want to
Speaker 4: talk about, though, is money. So and I again, I'm
Speaker 4: not the most educated person when it comes to this,
Speaker 4: so I'm just gonna talk about what I know and
Speaker 4: then you guys can educate me. So there's been this
Speaker 4: conversation that's been happening now that many states are beginning
Speaker 4: to legalize or create pathways for folks to legally consume
Speaker 4: marijuana medically or otherwise. And I remember this is a meme,
Speaker 4: but I think it reflects the attitude somewhat of the
Speaker 4: consensus that I've kind of been made aware of over
Speaker 4: the past few years. And this meme says there was
Speaker 4: something about this white woman and she's like, oh, whenever
Speaker 4: I smoke, when I smoke a joint, it makes me
Speaker 4: a better mom. And then the response to it was
Speaker 4: it probably makes black men better dads too, but you
Speaker 4: keep locking them up, right, So you know, there's this
Speaker 4: attitude I think that's prevalent, especially in black communities, where
Speaker 4: it's like, Okay, well now they're changing the laws and
Speaker 4: you know, these guys can't provide for their families, or
Speaker 4: they can't relax when they need to or whatever, and
Speaker 4: then all the good guys are going to look like
Speaker 4: they're you know, white, you know, corporate or whatever. And
Speaker 4: then the bad guys will still look like criminals. And
Speaker 4: then all the people with all the money, you know,
Speaker 4: because we want to talk about the money, all the
Speaker 4: people with all the money are going to be white folks,
Speaker 4: and all the people who are you know, uh saddled
Speaker 4: with you know, court debt and you know everything.
Speaker 1: Else that poverty and all this sort of stuff.
Speaker 2: Fell in their convictions. Yeah, sure, there's.
Speaker 4: Still there's and and so what is it that the
Speaker 4: Arizona Black Cannabis Trade Association is going to do or
Speaker 4: is planning on what what's the approach with respect to
Speaker 4: economic inequality or economic empowerment.
Speaker 5: I mean, I think it's I think it's almost a
Speaker 5: two part question because the expungement process and the prison
Speaker 5: process being you know, we're going to be releasing some
Speaker 5: some people from prison. One of the one of the
Speaker 5: other groups that I really really push people to look
Speaker 5: into is called the Last Prison or Project. That's a
Speaker 5: that's a nationwide organization and their specific goal is to
Speaker 5: be there to provide resources until every last nonviolent cannabis
Speaker 5: offender is released from federal prison.
Speaker 3: Real quick, real quick.
Speaker 4: Eighty eight percent okay, half all drug arrests, to quote
Speaker 4: what I said earlier. According to the ACLU, half of
Speaker 4: all drug arrests in the United States were from marijuana, and
Speaker 4: eighty eight percent of those almost ninety percent of those
Speaker 4: were for simply having marijuana.
Speaker 5: So, all right, continue, So right now, you know, as
Speaker 5: the people as yea, as it stands, there's you know,
Speaker 5: marijuana is still Schedule one. It's still a federally outlawed substance. Sure,
Speaker 5: and there's over forty thousand people currently incarcerated federally for
Speaker 5: nonviolent cannabis only offensives. So there's over forty thousand people
Speaker 5: that are in custody being detained in federal prisons for
Speaker 5: nonviolent cannabis only offensive and that's last prisoner project. Their
Speaker 5: goal is helping with that and then more locally and
Speaker 5: more specifically through the Arizona Black Cannabis Trade Association. If
Speaker 5: you or anyone you know is in prison or is
Speaker 5: in that scenario, is released from prison and has a record,
Speaker 5: and they need guidance, they need assistance from We've got
Speaker 5: lawyers that we work with. There's a lot of lawyers
Speaker 5: in Arizona that are really excited and really passionate about
Speaker 5: hoping with that process. From everything we've gathered, from everything
Speaker 5: we've heard from the state, it's not going to be
Speaker 5: an extremely labor intensive, it's not going to be a
Speaker 5: costly process. It's something that people are going to be
Speaker 5: able to fill out the paperwork, get it to the courts,
Speaker 5: and get their records exposed. And that's that's a big
Speaker 5: part of Prop two O seven. And you know, obviously
Speaker 5: with the stats, it's it's going to be a lot
Speaker 5: of people in minority communities that need that assistance. So
Speaker 5: that's that's really really something that this type of platform
Speaker 5: people that are listening. You know, if you're in Arizona
Speaker 5: and you and you need that assistance, you have questions
Speaker 5: about it, we can guide you to those resources.
Speaker 1: That's what we're here for sure.
Speaker 4: And and I want I want to make sure that
Speaker 4: this is this is stated now it's the Arizona Black
Speaker 4: Cannabis Trade Association, But as you mentioned earlier, you will
Speaker 4: help other people who are not black too. Oh yeah, okay,
Speaker 4: so even if you know someone who is not black,
Speaker 4: you can still receive help. You guys still have the
Speaker 4: framework for this. This is just created specifically to help
Speaker 4: black folks, but you.
Speaker 5: Will and I'm white.
Speaker 6: Yeah, And that's the good thing about the cannabis industry
Speaker 6: is diverse and you have and it just you know,
Speaker 6: it brings people together for a good call. So and
Speaker 6: for me personally, the a b c TA means going
Speaker 6: out and just being an example to the community.
Speaker 4: Okay, you know, Okay, So I want to still talk
Speaker 4: about the money.
Speaker 2: Now before you move on. The Arizona Black Cannabis Trade Association,
Speaker 2: the National Association for the advancement of colored people, historically
Speaker 2: black colleges and universities. The Black Panthers. I cannot recall
Speaker 2: an organization started with black in the title for the
Speaker 2: very specific purposes of helping and uplifting black people, ever
Speaker 2: isolating their resources to black people.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, No, I just want to make sure we
Speaker 1: said it.
Speaker 2: I want to make sure I said that too. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 2: because in most cases, the reason that there's an Arizona
Speaker 2: Black Cannabis Trade Association and all those other organizations that
Speaker 2: I said is just because there is a lack of
Speaker 2: resources to black people, lack of opportunity to black people,
Speaker 2: lack of access to black people. Not hey, we're just
Speaker 2: helping black peop Well, no, no, no, no, no. Black
Speaker 2: people are just in very very severe need of our help.
Speaker 2: So we want to create something for them in a
Speaker 2: lot of cases by them. But every one of the
Speaker 2: organizations that I just named, the one that was the
Speaker 2: most radicalized and criminalized of them all the Black Panther
Speaker 2: Party at Man White People you know Google Rainbow Coalition. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that part started by the Black Panthers, and the whole
Speaker 2: idea was uniting as many people as possible to fight
Speaker 2: against racism, oppression, police brutality, and a long laundry list
Speaker 2: of other things. So please don't think that the ABCTA
Speaker 2: is exclusively helping black people. You know, I think, and
Speaker 2: I'm speaking assumptively on their behalf, that their whole mission
Speaker 2: is to help as many people as they can that
Speaker 2: need them. And I took those liberties without asking them first.
Speaker 2: But that's just the impression that I got.
Speaker 3: That's the energy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, generally the way it works. So yeah, thank you
Speaker 1: for adding that. There's thank you show. Good job dude.
Speaker 4: Okay, So another thing I wanted to add to that
Speaker 4: was that if you're gonna google, you know, we ask
Speaker 4: you to do your own independent research. If you listen
Speaker 4: to the show, you know this already google the Rainbow Coalition.
Speaker 4: It's a beautiful thing. Last week we were talking about
Speaker 4: the increase in tax on our Asian brothers and sisters,
Speaker 4: and we made our show available to anyone who had
Speaker 4: anything to share, anything any way that we can help
Speaker 4: them power our Asian brothers and sisters, who have you know,
Speaker 4: bore the brunt of this previous administration and their racist
Speaker 4: rhetoric about the China virus and all this sort of stuff.
Speaker 4: If you've got any pushback and you need to air
Speaker 4: it out, there's a space.
Speaker 2: For you here.
Speaker 4: So and in spirit of the Rainbow Coalition, I definitely
Speaker 4: want you to google that, but also google somebody named
Speaker 4: Fred Hampton if that doesn't come up in your Google search,
Speaker 4: and research that man as well.
Speaker 1: And you know, we got to do a show on
Speaker 1: Fred Hampton.
Speaker 4: We also have to do one on Malcolm X because
Speaker 4: you you saw what came out about Malcolm X the
Speaker 4: police officer. Absolutely yeah, that there was at which we
Speaker 4: knew the whole time, but you know, to have it
Speaker 4: actually be admitted by someone who took part in it was.
Speaker 1: I guess that's just how it goes.
Speaker 4: So we had to wait to have it be formally
Speaker 4: the truth, whereas before we just kind of just knew
Speaker 4: it in our bones.
Speaker 1: Now I don't want to get too far away from this.
Speaker 1: The money.
Speaker 4: Now, here's how it works, or this is my understanding
Speaker 4: of how it works. And again, forgive me if I
Speaker 4: don't have it quite as exact as it should be
Speaker 4: or I'm not as precise. There are there's definitely one
Speaker 4: huge company corporation that is getting all the licenses or
Speaker 4: you know, building the national infrastructure. Think of it as
Speaker 4: like the next Philip Morris or whatever.
Speaker 1: But for cannabis, right, this huge corporation.
Speaker 4: And there might be another couple of corporations, and what
Speaker 4: they do is they will basically build the industry in
Speaker 4: their image, right where historically, if somebody wanted to get
Speaker 4: you know, marijuana. This is maybe I'm being stereo, maybe
Speaker 4: I'm stereotyping, but in my mind, the way it used
Speaker 4: to work is, hey, I know a guy, let's go
Speaker 4: to the poor part of town. He's a drug dealer,
Speaker 4: and they go and they exchange their money. And that
Speaker 4: was you know, that was a big part of hood economics,
Speaker 4: if you will.
Speaker 1: Right, So, these big corporations are putting these.
Speaker 4: Little guys out of business, these little guys who have
Speaker 4: you know, learned their markets, These little guys who have
Speaker 4: you know, some of them were botanists themselves, you know,
Speaker 4: in terms of creating a lot of guys in Los
Speaker 4: Angeles have been on that tip for a long time.
Speaker 1: And other places too.
Speaker 4: I know in Michigan and Detroit there's that you know,
Speaker 4: that's a city where.
Speaker 2: New Jack City is about Detroit, Michigan. So if you
Speaker 2: guys are wondering how the drug industry is in Detroit. Again,
Speaker 2: Google is free, do your research. A lot of people
Speaker 2: think that's about New York because that's where it was filmed.
Speaker 2: The writer the story a true story based on some
Speaker 2: brothers from my hometown. So yes, Detroit, Michigan, New Jack City.
Speaker 4: So as far as these corporations, you know, moving into
Speaker 4: the community and changing the optics of how marijuana looks
Speaker 4: and how marijuana is used, and how it's celebrated and
Speaker 4: how it's you know, how the money moves around it.
Speaker 4: You know, there's a lot of fear that I've encountered,
Speaker 4: which is, Okay, well we got beat this thing, beat us,
Speaker 4: and then these other people are going to co opt
Speaker 4: it and it's going to be a cash count for them.
Speaker 4: So speak to those concerns with respect to the abc TA.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So I think the bigger picture right now in
Speaker 5: Arizona is what is that legislation going to look like
Speaker 5: when they issue those licenses? Okay, when department and it
Speaker 5: has to be said on a side to a Department
Speaker 5: of Health Services and the State of Arizona is doing
Speaker 5: an incredible job right now. Sure, And you know, between
Speaker 5: COVID and UH they actually implemented mandatory testing in the
Speaker 5: cannabis industry to kind of focus on cannabis. Having their
Speaker 5: hands full with dealing with the pandemic and all the
Speaker 5: things that they're dealing with, they've done a really, really
Speaker 5: good job up to this point. So right now they're
Speaker 5: tasked with they have to decide how these twenty six
Speaker 5: two twenty nine additional license And to put it in perspective,
Speaker 5: there's one hundred and thirty licenses currently in the state.
Speaker 1: That's licenses for dispensaries.
Speaker 5: That are that are dispensary licenses right now that are
Speaker 5: owned in the state of Arizona. So we're adding twenty
Speaker 5: six to twenty nine licenses through Prop two O seven
Speaker 5: for the adult use. They are supposed to be your
Speaker 5: mark specifically for social equity. They haven't defined what social
Speaker 5: equity means yet. So this window that we have right
Speaker 5: now and with chance and I and ABCTA, and there's
Speaker 5: lots and lots of people out in the world right
Speaker 5: now out in Arizona. There was actually a bunch of
Speaker 5: people down at the state today with a bill that
Speaker 5: came in front of the Senate. I believe it was
Speaker 5: SB one one two one that had a bunch of
Speaker 5: language in it about cannabis and where things were headed
Speaker 5: and what was going on with all that, and some
Speaker 5: of the big companies actually helped to say this, this
Speaker 5: isn't this isn't the best way to proceed with this.
Speaker 5: And SB one one two one was something that was
Speaker 5: going to greatly limit the ability of smaller operators to
Speaker 5: do well. It was gonna it was gonna limit the
Speaker 5: types of processes that could be used to extract marijuana.
Speaker 5: There's a lot of I wasn't there. I haven't read
Speaker 5: the build I just became aware of it today and
Speaker 5: I was just on a phone call on the way
Speaker 5: over here this evening with somebody that was down there
Speaker 5: trying to get as much information as I could. So
Speaker 5: I don't I don't have the details, and I don't
Speaker 5: want to misspeak about it. But when it comes to
Speaker 5: these twenty six twenty nine licenses, we've got a pretty
Speaker 5: small window. There's there's a couple of months when citizens
Speaker 5: and groups like ours and different people can step up
Speaker 5: and say these are some processes, these are some policies,
Speaker 5: these are some things that we'd like to see in place,
Speaker 5: so that these twenty six twenty nine licenses don't go
Speaker 5: into the hands of just just the big corporations that
Speaker 5: are already that are already doing what they're doing. They're
Speaker 5: doing a good job. And you know, corporations and corporate money.
Speaker 5: When it comes to something that's generating this much revenue,
Speaker 5: that's almost an inevitability, right, excuse me in out of
Speaker 5: inevitability function. Yeah, yeah, And so you know, our role
Speaker 5: is to make sure that these things that are supposed
Speaker 5: to be giving minority communities an opportunity get to those
Speaker 5: minority communities. And so when it comes to the money, obviously,
Speaker 5: that's that's a huge piece of it. These licenses are
Speaker 5: probably speculatively licenses right now, just just the paper license itself,
Speaker 5: without any cultivation attached, without a retail space attached to
Speaker 5: just the paper license itself is probably worth six to
Speaker 5: eight million dollars. So there is a lot of money
Speaker 5: on the line, and those corporations aren't just going to
Speaker 5: turn a blind eye to that money.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm curious, why are they so cheap? That's a joke.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So, I mean, how do you how do you
Speaker 5: legislate minority ownership for these licenses to go out? And
Speaker 5: you know, there's been a lot of speculation. A lot
Speaker 5: of states have tried to implement different social equity programs,
Speaker 5: and one of the things that's happened in a lot
Speaker 5: of places is they've they've done a merit based system
Speaker 5: where you put a group together, you put your group
Speaker 5: in front of the government, and you say, this is
Speaker 5: this is our group that wants to own one of
Speaker 5: these licenses. This is why we're qualified, and this is
Speaker 5: why we should be at the top of the list.
Speaker 5: And the government has to go through hundreds and hundreds
Speaker 5: and hundreds of applications and decide who they think deserves
Speaker 5: essentially a six seven million dollar lottery ticket based on
Speaker 5: the story that they tell. Now, that's that's a tough
Speaker 5: ask for the government. That's a tough ask for Department
Speaker 5: of Health Services. It's already dealing with pandemic and all
Speaker 5: these other things. So in Arizona, more than likely there's
Speaker 5: going to be a checklist. You're going to qualify through
Speaker 5: your application, and everyone that qualifies and gets a qualified
Speaker 5: application in is going to be considered a lottery. So
Speaker 5: they're gonna they're gonna be entered into a lottery, which
Speaker 5: is the same way that they issued medical licenses, you know,
Speaker 5: and it worked, okay. So what happens in the other
Speaker 5: states is they end up getting shooed and government doesn't
Speaker 5: want to get sued. They you know, the people that
Speaker 5: don't get picked, they come back. I think in Illinois
Speaker 5: there's about a billion dollars in the lawsuits right now
Speaker 5: that the government's got to you know, fight in court
Speaker 5: probably for the next ten twelve years. So Arizona wants
Speaker 5: to avoid that and understandably saw understandably self.
Speaker 6: And then with our group, we want to make it
Speaker 6: easy for him. You know, we want to put those
Speaker 6: applicants in front of them that that qualify. So since
Speaker 6: we're connected to the community and we know with me
Speaker 6: being a native here so we pretty much know the
Speaker 6: community that's that's been hard by the worm drug. So
Speaker 6: with ABCTA, that's what that's what we aim to do.
Speaker 6: Make it easier and communicate with hazy dhs and everyone involved.
Speaker 1: So with so in short, the way the money works is.
Speaker 4: It's still being what what social equity is is still
Speaker 4: being worked out. Yes, still being worked out. But the
Speaker 4: assumption is the operating assumption rather is that somehow or
Speaker 4: other the cell of marijuana will have a portion of
Speaker 4: the profits earmarked to benefit economically or otherwise black and
Speaker 4: brown communities, communities that have historically been wronged by the
Speaker 4: war on drugs. That's what Yeah, that's what I wanted
Speaker 4: to make sure that we got out there.
Speaker 5: And again, it's you know, it's a it's a difficult
Speaker 5: puzzle to try and put together for everyone involved.
Speaker 2: You know, that's ambitious.
Speaker 5: So how do you how do you regulate? How do
Speaker 5: you legislate what a company does with their profits? Right,
Speaker 5: and so it's again this small window right now before
Speaker 5: DHS issues these rules and decides this is what we
Speaker 5: are defining in the State of Arizona social equity. We've
Speaker 5: got to stand up and we've got to have a
Speaker 5: voice and people have to say this is reasonable. And now,
Speaker 5: you know, you have to have the money to start
Speaker 5: the business, and it's it's it's a costly undertaking to
Speaker 5: build an indoor grow facility to grow medical marijuana or
Speaker 5: recreational marija cannabis, to supply a retail store is a
Speaker 5: multi million dollar undertaking. You have to have access to capital,
Speaker 5: you have to have access to people that understand the
Speaker 5: process of building that type of facility. You have to have.
Speaker 5: There's a lot of security that goes into it, and
Speaker 5: so you know, it's not just twenty six people who
Speaker 5: are going to get a seven million dollar lottery ticket.
Speaker 5: It's it's got to be twenty six groups of individuals
Speaker 5: that understand the industry, that understand the business, and that
Speaker 5: have resources like ABCTA. You know, there's there's other groups
Speaker 5: in the state of Arizona that are based around cannabis
Speaker 5: that want to make sure that these groups succeed and
Speaker 5: have the resources to build their retail location, to build
Speaker 5: their cultivation, to hire the right staff. But it can't
Speaker 5: just be the biggest companies that have already done it
Speaker 5: ten times. You know, it's got to be opportunities for
Speaker 5: people that have seen it from a distance that they
Speaker 5: want to be involved and want to become entrepreneurs, become professionals,
Speaker 5: become you know, business people in this industry. Whether it's
Speaker 5: you know, twenty one year old kid and wants to
Speaker 5: learn how to grow the best pot in Arizona, Let's
Speaker 5: send them to community college. You know, MESA has an
Speaker 5: incredible agriculture program down there. Let's send them down there,
Speaker 5: put them on scholarship. You know, teach them how to
Speaker 5: grow the best pot in Arizona and then get them
Speaker 5: a job at one of these companies. That's that's gotten
Speaker 5: one of these twenty six licenses. And so that's that's
Speaker 5: where you can really impact it legislatively and make sure
Speaker 5: communities are getting opportunities. It's not just handing out twenty
Speaker 5: six lottery tickets and hoping they do something good with it.
Speaker 5: It's education, it's opportunity, it's you know again, the fear
Speaker 5: of policing and those things all coming together.
Speaker 2: So I have a couple of questions. One is from
Speaker 2: my there's a cynical space in my head that just
Speaker 2: is always occupy, so forgive me. And another is a
Speaker 2: more more from an educational place. Are there organizations that
Speaker 2: are the antithesis to what you guys are doing, like
Speaker 2: that are going out of their way to kind of
Speaker 2: squeeze minorities out of that space because they already are
Speaker 2: in it and they want to own it completely. So
Speaker 2: that's that's question one.
Speaker 5: From a capitalism standpoint, I'm sure that there's companies that
Speaker 5: it's in their best interests to.
Speaker 1: Competition.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, but that's it has nothing I don't
Speaker 5: think I don't think, truly in my heart of ours,
Speaker 5: that there's an organization in Arizona that's fighting against minorities
Speaker 5: having opportunities in cannabis. I think there's probably a lot
Speaker 5: of organizations and a lot of companies that are looking
Speaker 5: out for their own best interest and are always going
Speaker 5: to fight to be on top of the mountain, right
Speaker 5: I mean, that's that's their job as a company, has
Speaker 5: to fight to be on top of the mountain. And
Speaker 5: I think there's probably there's probably certain companies that don't
Speaker 5: necessarily think about the collateral damage of that, you know what.
Speaker 5: I mean, every industry that's emerged in America has probably
Speaker 5: fought that same flight.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: And the second question, and that this is more of
Speaker 2: a you educating me and our listeners. What would constitute
Speaker 2: a qualified group? You know, say I had a group
Speaker 2: of people that wanted to give me some money because
Speaker 2: they believed in me as a person, and I thought,
Speaker 2: you know, let me see what it would take to
Speaker 2: start a company that would be seen as or deemed
Speaker 2: worthy of receiving one of these licenses or at least
Speaker 2: a realistic opportunity. What type of capital would it take?
Speaker 2: You know, what type of liquid assets, What type of
Speaker 2: you know, professional background would the applicants have to have
Speaker 2: if I had a group of individuals or wanted to,
Speaker 2: you know, reach out to some people I know that
Speaker 2: are in the alcohol and spirit industry or the nightlife
Speaker 2: industry that or professional athletes that had the working financial capital,
Speaker 2: what other type of things and what amounts of money,
Speaker 2: if you will, What would it take for something like
Speaker 2: that to be realistic.
Speaker 6: So with us, it's about group economics, you know, coming
Speaker 6: together and pulling our resources together through ABCTA. So if
Speaker 6: you did have a group, I think a good starting
Speaker 6: point would be with us since we know pretty much
Speaker 6: what's going on and we can give you that information
Speaker 6: and give you solid numbers as far as what's gonna take.
Speaker 6: So and that's what we're in the process of doing
Speaker 6: vetting different people want a chance at a dispensary license,
Speaker 6: you know, because the more we have on board, the
Speaker 6: more powerful we are. So we are going to go
Speaker 6: through a vetting process with you know, with teaming up
Speaker 6: with other organizations or people that's interesting in being involved
Speaker 6: in the process.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I mean to kind of address the numbers.
Speaker 5: That's a question that's asked in almost every single networking event,
Speaker 5: every zoom that I go to, somebody somebody asked that
Speaker 5: same question, and nobody really has the answer right now.
Speaker 5: There's a couple big factors at play. One is how
Speaker 5: much the application fee itself is going to be, which
Speaker 5: I think, you know, in reality, I think it's gonna
Speaker 5: be about twenty five thousand dollars per application, So essentially
Speaker 5: it's a twenty five thousand dollars lottery ticket. And that's
Speaker 5: that's probably the least expensive part of the equation. You're
Speaker 5: definitely going to need a lawyer services, and there's a
Speaker 5: couple of law firms here in Arizona that are specifically
Speaker 5: geared towards cannabis businesses. But you've got to do air
Speaker 5: tight partnership agreements, You've got to have all of your
Speaker 5: all of your partners, you got to do background checks
Speaker 5: on people, you got it. There's a lot that goes
Speaker 5: into establishing that application writers are are going to be
Speaker 5: part of the equation. And then one of the biggest
Speaker 5: expenses that we're not sure what DHS is going to do.
Speaker 5: For example, when they were issuing medical marijuana licenses dispensary licenses,
Speaker 5: you had to have the real estate you had to purchase,
Speaker 5: You had to own or have a lease agreement on
Speaker 5: the real estate where your dispensary was going to be,
Speaker 5: and it had to be zoned. So that obviously is
Speaker 5: a huge expense. You know, it's a huge expense to
Speaker 5: buy a piece of commercial real estate that's zoned for
Speaker 5: cannabis just to apply. And so DHS hasn't decided, they
Speaker 5: haven't put out the rules yet whether or not that's
Speaker 5: going to be part of the equation for social equity applicants,
Speaker 5: you know, but there's a scenario where you're gonna have
Speaker 5: to have a six seven, eight hundred thousand dollars a
Speaker 5: million dollar piece of commercial real estate just to put
Speaker 5: your application.
Speaker 2: And the real estate has to be pre zoned for
Speaker 2: commercial cannabis.
Speaker 5: That's the way they did it with the medical program. Now,
Speaker 5: whether or not that's going to be part of the equation,
Speaker 5: that's part of the conversation right now. That's the window
Speaker 5: that we have is to say, these things are going
Speaker 5: to lead to more true social equity opportunities for the
Speaker 5: people to get these licenses. These things are going to
Speaker 5: lead to the big companies getting their hands on most
Speaker 5: of them. So we got to kind of decide what
Speaker 5: direction DHS is going to go. They got to protect themselves.
Speaker 5: You know, the last thing anybody in Arizona wants is
Speaker 5: for twenty six people to end up with these licenses.
Speaker 5: In five years from now, three dispensaries have open because
Speaker 5: nobody has the capital or the know how to get
Speaker 5: them up and running.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 5: So that's that's a fair question. But it hasn't been
Speaker 5: answered yet, and we got to wait for DHS.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm also super curious to know, and this might
Speaker 2: not even be something that exists yet as far as information. Uh,
Speaker 2: for example, if the four of us started a group,
Speaker 2: would you disqualify us?
Speaker 5: Honestly, I don't know. I don't know. There's there's a
Speaker 5: lot of things to go into it, and that that
Speaker 5: questions come up obviously being the white guy as part
Speaker 5: of the ABCTA board, it's you know, it's a question
Speaker 5: that I love it.
Speaker 2: It's fair, you know, it's I asked that question though,
Speaker 2: because so you know, my my professional background is mostly
Speaker 2: in sports. Before I was a DJ, before I got
Speaker 2: into alcohol and spirits, I represented pro athletes as a
Speaker 2: marketing agent. A piece of advice that we would give
Speaker 2: because once upon a time, I'm not sure if this
Speaker 2: is still true, the federal government would give first right
Speaker 2: of refusal on let's say government contracts. If you were
Speaker 2: a contractor and you were black, you'd have first right refusal. Right,
Speaker 2: So one of our client's white friends that were in
Speaker 2: construction would would partner up with his black friend at
Speaker 2: whatever percentage was necessary to put himself in position to
Speaker 2: get that minority first right of refusal. I'd imagine that
Speaker 2: not someone like yourself, but someone white who saw that
Speaker 2: as a loophole would say, Okay, well I have some
Speaker 2: black friends or I know somebody black that I could
Speaker 2: give enough money to be the face of this so
Speaker 2: that I could get that license. So that's why I
Speaker 2: asked that question.
Speaker 6: And that's been the problem with a lot of social
Speaker 6: equity programs that ask Like another states, you know, those
Speaker 6: big operator raiders are coming in trying to get under
Speaker 6: someone give them the money, and you know, pretty much
Speaker 6: just give them a lower percentage of what of what
Speaker 6: they're uh what they supposed to be getting. So and
Speaker 6: that's what's gonna go on here in Arizona, is that
Speaker 6: we're gonna try that we're gonna prevent that and get
Speaker 6: the people that's really qualified and work with you know,
Speaker 6: that's our main thing.
Speaker 2: So the thing that makes that tough is that you
Speaker 2: do have honest people like yourself, where you know, we
Speaker 2: could honestly be best friends and really have each other's best interest,
Speaker 2: you know, at the forefront of everything that we're doing.
Speaker 2: And I think it be that's gonna be hard for
Speaker 2: them to regulate because I think it'd be unfair for
Speaker 2: us to be disqualified because my son's godfather, my daughter's
Speaker 2: godfather is white, right, you know what I mean. I
Speaker 2: don't use the person I probably most likely if I
Speaker 2: was doing something like this go into business with.
Speaker 5: I don't anticipate that Arizona DHS is gonna be able
Speaker 5: to disqualify anyone based on the color of their skin, Okay,
Speaker 5: I don't. I don't think that that's something that they're
Speaker 5: gonna that they're gonna wanna try and legislate.
Speaker 1: We want to touch that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so other states and their speculation of well, if
Speaker 5: you grew up in this in this zip code, if
Speaker 5: you can prove that that's where you lived, and that
Speaker 5: that's an area of town it was over policed and
Speaker 5: et cetera, some people want to put forth legislation that
Speaker 5: if if you've spent time in prison or you've been
Speaker 5: charged and convicted of a cannabis crime, Okay, now you've
Speaker 5: got first writer refusal, you're going to the top of
Speaker 5: that list. But again, when you start sorting through all
Speaker 5: the little loopholes and all the little things and people
Speaker 5: can do to get to the top of that list,
Speaker 5: and then the state's got to make decisions and assign
Speaker 5: those licenses, you're talking ten twelve years of lawsuits and
Speaker 5: expecting an organization like a governmental agency like the HS
Speaker 5: to sort through all that is a big, big ass.
Speaker 5: So I think, you know, I think most of the
Speaker 5: smart money in Arizona right now is that there's going
Speaker 5: to be a list of qualifiers. You've got to check
Speaker 5: all the boxes. You got to have an airtight application.
Speaker 5: And once once you get to that point, you're it's
Speaker 5: a ping pong ball and you're pulling for the lottery.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the rest of those boxes are harder.
Speaker 3: Though.
Speaker 2: The money is the easy part, yeah, right, because people
Speaker 2: are smart and they see, okay, we'll probably make six
Speaker 2: to eight million dollars doing this. It's easy to give
Speaker 2: people to get people to invest in something like that.
Speaker 2: So the money will be the easiest part. I think
Speaker 2: the other boxes on that on that checklist will be
Speaker 2: the things that are that are that narrow the pool
Speaker 2: a bit more than just the money. I think the money,
Speaker 2: the money part, I think will just keep people who
Speaker 2: aren't serious from applying.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I think I think that's fair. And a
Speaker 5: lot of people, a lot of people look at that
Speaker 5: application fee, Oh well, that's going to disqualify people from
Speaker 5: applying for socialcation fee.
Speaker 2: When he said, then will kind.
Speaker 5: Of back that up, like if if you can't put
Speaker 5: up the twenty five thousand for the application fee, what
Speaker 5: was your plan for the eight hundred thousand dollars real estate?
Speaker 5: And and the two and a half million are build out?
Speaker 5: And then on the back end, you know, you gotta
Speaker 5: the cultivation is gonna be six or sex, Like, where's
Speaker 5: that capital coming from? You can't come from zero and
Speaker 5: expect to acquire that type of asset no matter what industry.
Speaker 5: It does.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, and it's good that there's organizations like the Arizona
Speaker 4: Black Cannabis Trade Association to educate folks. And I believe
Speaker 4: in power folks, the folks who need it the most
Speaker 4: and who have been hurt the most by you know,
Speaker 4: previous policies, and so of course we can't you know,
Speaker 4: get into everything. But if if folks have a question
Speaker 4: for you, if they want to, you know, you guys
Speaker 4: have social media or any way they can reach out
Speaker 4: to learn more, be more educated.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we're on Instagram, Arizona Black Cannabis, Uh, Facebook, reach
Speaker 6: out email.
Speaker 1: It's Arizona Black Cannabis.
Speaker 3: Arizona Arizona Black Cannabis.
Speaker 1: All right, and Jesse has anything for folks to.
Speaker 3: Reach out to you?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, I don't know if it's I can
Speaker 5: just put my cell phone number out on the air.
Speaker 1: If that's you can put it whatever you want your
Speaker 1: social media.
Speaker 5: So yeah, if you want to reach out to me directly,
Speaker 5: my my number is four eight zero eight eight one
Speaker 5: two six three seven, And that's always going to be
Speaker 5: the easiest way to get a hold of me. You know,
Speaker 5: if if you send an email, Uh, we can definitely,
Speaker 5: we can definitely get to it that way.
Speaker 4: Too, Okay, absolutely, and that's going to do it for
Speaker 4: us here on Civic Cipher once again, I'm your host,
Speaker 4: rams Is John.
Speaker 2: They called me q Ward and uh.
Speaker 4: You know, hit up, Hit us up on our social
Speaker 4: media again at Civic Cipher, hit the website civic cipher
Speaker 4: dot com. Submit all your questions, any topics you want
Speaker 4: us to cover. Download previous shows on all podcasting platforms,
Speaker 4: and of course, donate, donate, donate, consider becoming a Patreon.
Speaker 1: It really helps us out here a lot.
Speaker 2: And yeah, Rams, this's Jift for president or mayor at lead.
Speaker 1: That's way too much.
Speaker 2: But I'm just saying the question.
Speaker 1: All right, we'll see that next week