CANNASYNC + SYNCTAPE #01

(upbeat music) This is synchronicity, this is synchronicity, this is synchronicity, this is synchronicity, this is synchronicity, this is synchronicity, this is synchronicity, this is synchronicity, this is synchronicity! (upbeat music) Welcome to synchronicity, this is a special episode this week, it's a little different than the other ones, where we've done like what you can, I think I've missed maybe one or two weeks since I started this in 2016? No, that can't be right, it's been longer, 2015 I think, it's when I started this podcast, so you can count up the episodes and figure out how long I've been doing it, I should have done that before I just started it.

But I didn't, oh well, but a special episode this week, I don't know that there's been one that's quite like this, no guest, so if you're in the guest and you're here for the guest, the fuck out of here, what are you doing, it's my show. But for the rest of you who write in and tell me you like this old episode, think you might like this one, and if you like the music that's on the show, you will like this one. So I want to talk about two things, see if you could figure it out from the episode title, I know it's very vague with the weed and sync tape. So let's talk about weed, let's talk about cannabis, marijuana, that is a pejorative term throughout history, except it has regular nomenclature for cannabis.

I went on a bit of a tweet storm this week, swing it, tweet way too much about something, and my favorite part about Twitter, especially for people like, I don't have tremendous amount of followers, I'm not too shabby, but I'm not, I don't have a large reach where I'm getting tremendous amounts of feedback from people. What it really is, is me just voicing my inner monologue, shouting into the void, if you will, but really it's just, for me what Twitter is, at least from the way I use it, you know, when I put stuff out on it, it's a way to flesh out my thoughts, because it used to be 140 characters, so you had to condense them into a relatively cogent, 140 characters, and now it's 280, so you got a little bit more breathing room.

But I still use it for that, because I've been using it like that since I've been on it, and it's been a long time, so that's what I use it for. I think it's been over a decade, definitely over a decade since I've been on Twitter, whoa. Anyway, we're going to be talking about weed today. What inspired the tweet storm is a couple of things. One is I've recently connected with a lovely woman up here, whom my mom tuned me into, who is advocating for organic, regenerative, sustainable growth, outdoor growth of cannabis, specifically in New York, and there is where there's farmland, so basically right where I am.

Her name is Andy Novak, I'm definitely going to have her on the show in the future, but she is in touch with various legislators in the New York State Assembly, and I was like, "Holy shit, that's amazing." Like, that's a real kind of bonus X factor, you're actually talking to people who dictate policy, that's pretty incredible, so you have to use that opportunity, and there's going to be some community chats up here and trying to put some things together, and also try to get some language into the bill that's going through the state assembly, but I digress, but that's one thing that's going on.

The other thing that's going on is you realize when you start looking at the current state of cannabis, both the industry and the various competing voices, the pros, the various gradients of people and voices within the pros, the cons, the different strategies and kind of techniques used by the people who are against any type of cannabis legalization, you have this really interesting cauldron of craziness, that's the only way I could describe it, because there's a lot of shit going on. But when you get tuned into it, you realize the people who are against it, and maybe I'm jumping to conclusions, and I really attempted to shift my perspective to one who would not be for legalization or medicinal use, and try to understand what would be driving that, and truthfully, I think it's like a lot of things we're afraid of that we don't understand.

It's fear, right? You're afraid. If you've been told that this is something that's going to affect your children, your community, your life, the global community at large, that's a pretty terrifying prospect, but that, unfortunately, is something that's going to affect your children, your community, your life, the global community at large. That's a pretty terrifying prospect, but that, unfortunately, is used all too often to kind of, you know, beat people into submission about certain topics. So, I want to be clear when I'm talking about cannabis regulation, I think sensible policy is really important, but I also think really at the root of it, no pun intended, like, this is a plant that has uses far beyond smoking it to get high. That much is clear. Is it convenient for those of us who have found it to be an ally in terms of how we approach life, psychologically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually?

Yeah, sure. That's a great boon for us, because now we can actually help people with serious diseases. People who are having seizures. Sean Dunn, right? You've heard him talk. His sister has seizures. CBD and cannabis has helped. I don't think it's just CBD. It was like a pilot, a pilot program. It's an amazing story. Go to an inch, Sean Dunn, by the way, very podcast. This helps her. You know, I mean, this helps a lot of people. There was the child and the family from Texas, I believe, who had to go to a different state just so they could stop their kids from having seizures. You know, I had a small ear infection. My son, three-year-old son had a small ear infection this last week, and I lost my shit. Like, I'm so ill-equipped for any type of benign malady, and people have to do with their children having seizures, or their loved ones, their spouses, whatever it is.

And there's something that actually shows that it is medically valid to help that. Anyway, so my point is this is rather than just get crazy angry at opponents of cannabis, I try to think about, like, what can we do? And so here I am. This is how we miss this. I'm about to read my own fucking tweets on my podcast. Yeah, I am the thing I hate. But anyway, I'm gonna do this shit. So deal with it. I wrote this. It's okay to not like cannabis. It's okay to not want to use cannabis. It's okay to teach your kids that you don't like cannabis. But to push your fear base, non-scientific opinions, and pass them off as sensible policy recommendations, or medical evidence is malicious and misguided.

And here's a storm, so that was tweet number one. It also speaks to a deep fear about altered states of consciousness. Anti-cannabis vigilantes can't handle the plant's psychoactive effects, so they demonize it. It's really that simple. And then I go on this. You can go to my Twitter if you want to read. But essentially, you know, if you read the anti-cannabis medical stuff that it causes psychosis and that all these things happen, you realize that if you just look at it very quickly, you can usually see it's funded by some anti-cannabis, like smart approaches to marijuana or some Koch brothers type, you know, money funnel thing. That's number one.

You also notice that the sample sizes for these things are so incredibly small that it's like, really, you cannot take this too seriously. So like, if you're just doing any type of statistic stuff and you need a sample size, it took some classes at NYU and I was doing my digital marketing. N is your sample size. You want an N that equals 1000. And yes, that's for marketing. But seriously, like, if you're doing it with like 17 people and like nine of them show something and eight of them don't, like, your study sucks balls. Anyway, dubious methodology is also a part of it. And it really is just used as kind of a tool for furthering fear mongering and looking and trying to make it seem like this is some evil thing. And what's even more fucked up about that.

What's not more, it's equally as fucked up is the genesis of this policy against cannabis came from purely racist motivations. It's not very surprising in the United States that that happens. And for people who think like when I say it's not surprising, because I know, I know there are people will sometimes probably not listen to this podcast really why shouldn't all the United States, man. I'm not actually think the United States is pretty fucking amazing in a lot of ways, but it's also pretty fucking terrible in a lot of ways, kind of like life. So it's not like we're just shitting on the United States, but it's undeniable that the roots of this country are steeped in horror genocide and racial oppression. It's just kind of how it works.

So to not acknowledge that and then can kind of continue with this narrative that this is some horrible thing. Meanwhile, when we have alcohol, it's the same or I don't need to give you the hippie arguments for why weed is good. What I'm saying is is that you have to look at why this is happening, why these people are the I'm specifically thinking of smart approaches to marijuana, right? These are the people who try to build coalitions in states and nationally to just go shit on whatever they can do to not let any type of cannabis legalization happening that'll do. They'll go join people they don't agree with. They'll go campaign with people who they really are willing to sell down the river as soon as this is over.

It's just anything they can do and they're loud and they're angry and they put on these weird conferences where people just make up these stats and they're super against it. And honestly, most of these people seem like they took a hit sometime and they freaked out and now they're making this is the worst thing ever. And you know, if you've listened to the show up, my stance on weed is in terms of the quote unquote negative effects that would usually be paranoia for people when they ingest or smoke or inhale. I think that's trying to tell us something. I don't think it's a bad thing. That's what I think is going on.

It doesn't mean it's going to be comfortable all the time, but it may be trying to point something out. It may be something deep in your subconscious or unconscious that you're getting shown to and it's uncomfortable. But if you can deal with it, it actually helps you a lot. So that can give you also an idea of how people can evolve to a very negative stance on cannabis. So this dovetails into a card. Twitter was a big part of my life this last week because my kid was sick and I was sick and I'm googling shit. What the fuck is, why do they allow these medical sites to exist? It's just a nightmare.

But anyway, I'm not going to get political very quickly, but Joe Biden announced and I'm not a Joe Biden fan because he's just like, he's kind of shithead and not kind of, he wants to lock people up for cannabis. That's his last stance on it. And it's just weird to me in general that of all things, this thing you grow on the ground, the male variety of it hemp is incredibly useful. It's just like the weirdest thing to be against. And especially if you recognize any of it's kind of what I would call consciousness effects. It's just so weird to me, but yeah, that's just how stuff works. So that's my cannabis rant. And all I can say is if you live in a state where it's legal, and I know a lot of you do based on from listening to the show, appreciate it, truly appreciate it.

And also try to figure out a way to honor the plant. This is now I'm going to move into hippie dippy mode to honor the plant, truthfully, to really let it do its thing. I'm getting more interested in the idea of outdoor growth. I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with growing your own plants inside. If you're really caring and attendant to them. But these industrial grows, right? Like I went to these dispensaries, the distance dispensary in Massachusetts. And it's like really corporate and like, the weed is fine. It's good. It's not great. And it's just like the thought of all these plants just growing in this room to be processed and sold.

Isn't cool. That's the only way I can say it. It kind of makes me sad in a real like tangible way. So what I'm saying is this is if you live in a state where it's legalized, start thinking about that type of stuff. If you if you smoke it or you buy edibles or interested in CBD, start thinking about like the actual process. You know, we do fucked up shit to animals. I'm guilty of it as as much as anyone in terms of how we treat animals, but it's also important to think of plants too. You know what I mean? Just like think that it's a thing that you can show loving attention to. You may be sacrificing at the end and ingesting in part of your consciousness.

But you know, my point is, is if you live in a state that it's legal, start thinking about some of this stuff because I think it's important. I was lied about being done with this. The last point is this is these big marijuana companies that are coming in trying to ride the coattails of grassroots advocates. And just kind of once they get in, bar the doors and corporatize it and have really expensive things that are prohibitive and forget about things like social equity and, you know, in franchising communities and people who have been oppressed because of the war on drugs in the past 30, 40 years. Those people fucking suck those companies. I am on record. I announce it publicly. If I change it, I don't buy any marijuana stocks. I don't buy any companies that have anything to do with marijuana.

And the only way I would do that is if I knew the people and I knew what they were doing was ethical and that I was like, alright, these people are really doing something that I think is in spirit with honoring the plant and helping people, you know, by getting it there. Because I think it's bullshit that there's going to be like sour diesel brought to you by Marlboro. Like, what the fuck is that? I find Marlboro a very difficult word to say anyway, so the last shit that's made by them the better. But that's the people in the legal state. So start trying to support people who you know are honoring this plant and like, hey, maybe you have a friend who's running kind of a grow up and they're flipping peas or they're doing all this stuff but they're only in it for the money.

Maybe you can talk to them about bringing in some other things, give back to charity. It doesn't even have to be plant related, cannabis related, but like try to use the plant consciousness, the better the world. Don't just make it a money-making endeavor. That's I think a really important thing. And I think I see a lot of people doing that just to be clear. It's a weird place. Like there's industries in some places, there's small businesses in some of these states and there's other, you know, the people like in New York or other states where it's not legal, we have to try to move the needle. We have to hit up our elected representatives engaged with the political system. Oh God, if there was one thing that could make me really have to start going back to politics, it's weird.

It's the irony. It's the cosmic wink slash giggle. Anyway, try to do something to push your state. Like this is in, I can only say this through personal experience and seeing the experiences of many others. This is a beneficial plant if used responsibly, ethically, and in line of how it's supposed to be used, truthfully. That's, that's my opinion. So, all right, that's my cannabis grant. That was probably longer than I intended it to be, but it's something that's pretty important to me. And I know some of you just won't give a shit. I'm always happy to talk about this stuff. And if you want like more specific ideas on what to do, hit me up.

If enough of you hit me up, we'll put together a little group and we'll start figuring out what we can do because I think that's a good way to do stuff. All right, and the second part of this show is just going to be a collection of a lot of different intros, bumper music, things that I've used in this show or songs and bits and pieces just to round out the episode because I was doing it last night. I had some edibles and I ended up listening to music on my headphones at night when I showed him I'm just going to sleep for like three hours. And I was like, you know, there's some good shit in here. I'm going to play this on the podcast. So that's what I'm going to do.

That's it, rate and review, if you can. If you've gotten through the cannabis grant, you obviously don't think I'm a total idiot or you're doing or just recording or show your friends like, oh my God, look at this guy. But rate and review the show. Really appreciate if you could do that. I don't think I did sponsors last week, but I'm not going to do it this week. We're going to do two in a row. Next one. So we'll make them a little more fun than usual. That's it. Mind pod network. Go check out some other shows. Good stuff going on there. All right. Let's go to the music. It should be. [Music] [Music]

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