The Cole Memo

In this episode, I speak with Austin Zamhariri about the status of cannabis legalization/decriminalization in Texas.

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Links mentioned during show

• https://txcannaco.com/

The auto-generated transcript is available below.

hello and welcome in this episode of the co memo clap clap clap clap my guest is calling from Texas I’ll spare you the singing This is the Cole memo I’m your host Colt Preston every episode is released in audio video and transcript format to find the transcript audio or video version of any episode please refer to the description of the episode that you’re listening to now within that description you can find a link that will take you to our website which will display the transcript for this episode and the platforms where you can find this episode in audio or video formats if you’re unable to locate the episode description on whichever platform you’re listening from Simply take note of the episode number and visit the memo.com from there you can find the corresponding episode using our search functionality in the top right hand corner and then you’ll be able to access the audio video and transcript version of the episode you might also find any links that we reference during the episode so that you might be able to do your own research if you’re not listening to this episode of the Cole memo on patreon then you’re listening to this episode later than our patrons to become a patron go to the memo.com patreon it’s a great way to support our show one of the best ways to support our show is free subscribe to or follow our show leave us a positive review from wherever you’re listening to us from favorite this episode give it a thumbs up leave a comment or post a review your engagement and support is appreciated today is June 19th 2024 once again if I didn’t say it already it is June 19th 2024 juneth and I’m sitting down with Austin from Texas cannabis Collective Austin tell us about please introduce yourself and tell us where we can find you online awesome thank you for having me Cole I’m uh Austin Zam I’m the executive director of the Texas cannabis Collective we’re a 501c4 nonprofit here in Texas uh dedicated to uh breaking news advocacy uh events uh focused on Texas cannabis policy industry and culture and you can find us at txc canoe.com um you can see it we’re most act every these days everybody has a social media platform that they specifically utilize uh our biggest influence base is on Instagram we’re TX cannabis Collective or on Twitter or X as they call it now uh at TX canico so uh we we stay pretty active on both of those uh sites and uh we we really try to bring a lot of of coverage and news as to what’s going on from reform standpoint just kind of from a cultural standpoint we do a lot of events here so uh anybody that is you know wants to know what’s going on if you follow us I guarantee you if we don’t cover we we’re like separated by one degree of people who do cover it so hell yeah hell yeah well this is so cool I’ve been really excited to speak to you I don’t believe well okay I have spoken to a few people from Texas but they they do like standup comedy there so I’ve been excited to speak to you since you’re like kind of you know more my people cannabis Advocates right I’m not I’m not a comedian I going want to be one um but I I would like to think I am I’ve earned my stripes as a cannabis Advocate through through all this work and for all those reasons like I said I’ve been excited to speak to you all and um or or to y’all as we say it here in Southern Illinois and they they say you say it into Texas right sure definitely anyways dude uh yeah thanks again for sitting down with me and I mean I guess we can start here uh because I think this is something really cool that you all do you push for like decriminalization at the local level because of course that’s kind of where you got to start I mean it’s actually believe it or not it’s where we’re forced to go we would love to do this at the state level however um there’s not as much of an appreciation amongst the legislature more specifically the Senate side um you know we really face like a big triple whammy uh when it comes to Texas that’s the biggest question I think I always get oh when’s Texas gonna legalize and all of that stuff and uh the first thing I gotta let people know is that our legislature unlike most other states our legislature meets once every two years for about 140 days so we’re talking roughly five months every two years to handle all of the business of the second biggest state in the country and so you know the over over 30 million people here in growing uh I live here in Fort Worth we’re the second fastest growing city in the country uh we almost have a million people here it’s it’s pretty crazy to think that that’s how our government works but it is um and not just that but uh in the state of Texas is it is there is no Statewide ballot initiative uh to gather signatures and put something on like a referendum uh you know at the ballot uh that can’t be done it can be done at the legislature but those bills require like two-thirds majority both House and Senate they take for it’s they almost never get done and their Constitutional Amendments so that’s essentially how we would have to do it which is not is is very very very difficult will cost millions of dollars of lobbying to make that happen over probably a process of three to four legislative sessions so you’re thinking eight to 10 years um and then I think the third triple whammy you know the triple whammy of why were like why it’s difficult for us is that no duh Texas is very conservative the we are let’s just say a Democrat hasn’t won here Statewide uh election in since like the 80s so it’s pretty lopsided when it comes to politics and it’s pretty it’s pretty aggressive out here like they you know it’s pretty cut Cutthroat when it comes to the politics in Texas so much so that like right now our current Republican part is in like utter conflict with one another always is almost a civil war within the Republican party here in Texas it’s pretty um it’s pretty crazy so uh that’s why I think things are difficult at the state level but yes we do have something here in Texas called the home rule uh it’s a Texas is a very decentralized State we we rely Less on what the state says and does um and for cities that are big enough they’re allowed to really kind of make laws that that are good for their Community uh because Texas is just so big you know there’s El Paso is very different than Houston you know what I’m saying so um but because of that there are a lot of jurisdictions that have uh Charter amendments and and rules that allow for local ballot initiatives which is where we’ve come into play with uh taking something at the state level that the state has uh failed to do and bringing that to a city referendum that is wildly popular and we’ve proven now over multiple elections um is something that the greater majority of Texans want yeah and you’ve done it in several cities now I mean the only one I can name that I’m aware of is Austin I also look on your website right now and maybe did you do it in Dallas Too Am I Wrong so the campaigns that we have been affiliated with specifically are the Denton San Marcos and Colleen campaigns as well as the leet campaign that unfortunately failed earlier this year and we’ve also now been working in conjunction on the lockart campaign that was completed the signature phase was completed a couple of weeks ago and then also the Dallas Campaign which we uh today was supposed to yesterday was supposed to be the day we turned in signatures that has been moved to Monday so we’ll be turning in um approximately 55,000 signatures from the city of Dallas uh to put that on uh before city council was city council has already said that they’re going to put that up for a vote uh and for some reason if that vote doesn’t pass then we have the signatures there that is going to force the issue anyway so we’re kind of in a win-win situation um in the city of Dallas uh and so yeah there you City of Austin was the first original that was led by ground game Texas and uh they were able to get that job done in in Austin and then what you saw um the following year in 2022 as you saw several other local initiatives that were done really by Grassroots campaigns in those specific cities uh by local organizations that were getting um Aid um from ground game Texas from us Texas cannabis Collective um you know from some other cam uh organizations and we were able to really get those across the Finish Line uh Texas twostep we say gather the signatures and then vote for it right and so success on two different fronts and um the only like I said the only one that we haven’t been successful with was with lck but lck is perhaps what we would call the heart of the Beast of prohibition um and we were really willing to venture into what I would consider Mordor if you’re familiar with uh Lord of the Rings and uh try to cast the fire into the mountain of Doom and and kind of Vanquish it all because if if we had succeeded in loic it really would have it it would have crumbled the state of Texas so uh unfortunately that didn’t happen and so now we have lockart Dallas going uh and that’s here in the General on November 5th and then two months later we’ll be ready for the 89th Texas legislature in 20 2025 so a lot of moving Parts but we’re we’re we’re getting there yeah it’s so cool to to hear about all this what’s uh so like generally speaking what’s been accomplished so far is is like decriminalization of something like an ounce am I correct in saying like that in these different cities or what what is it is it a patchwork so in all of the cities that we’ve gotten the vote past the LI language has usually been pretty similar it’s a misdemeanor marijuana possession which is up to 4 ounces so about a quarter pound right uh the biggest thing that I think law enforcement is having an issue with is that it eliminates using smell as probable cause and so they’re saying that that that interferes with their ability to use discretion um and stop bigger crimes and and that’s just not true and any if they really if they really want to like find harder stuff they don’t have to use smell as probable cause um which so but it is what it is um we’ve also in these cities I think the biggest one is they’ve worked on eliminating um funds for testing so they can’t even test the product to see if it’s legal him can aboid or uh illicit marijuana and so it’s really in these cities it has effectively specifically in the city of Austin we know this it has dismantled uh marijuana prohibition I don’t think somebody in the city of Austin outside of a DPS arrest which is a Statewide agency you haven’t seen an arrest in the city of Austin for simple you know marijuana possession and since the ordinance Colleen is and now of these cities the plot thickens because we have an attorney general who has now sued these cities um and so now there’s ongoing litigation in multiple jurisdictions um and every one of them is in a kind of a little bit of a weird different situation the biggest one is Austin they they face litigation from the attorney general and lost most recently I think it was last week they lost uh or the Attorney General lost to um oh the Attorney General lost that’s good yeah yeah yeah he he he sued the City of Austin and the City of Austin won and now it’s it’s the judge I will be honest with you the judge is a Democrat judge uh she’s in a jurisdiction where she’s voted in and she is very very Progressive uh so I anticipate when we go to appell when that that case particularly goes to appell at court um Kim Paxton will have some more favorable uh allies as far as judges go and and it’s not it’s not outside the realm of possibility that the Attorney General will take this all the way to U Texas Supreme Court which has usually been very friendly towards um the executives Paxton Abbot Dan Patrick all those guys well damn so wow that’s interesting that that like it seems like a fundamental thing that as uh that any state would want and like I even went to a local board meeting the other day they were voting on whether or not to allow a dispensary and I actually thought there was some really good discussion about it um but ultimately that’s all left up to kind of like you said home rule um and it’s interesting how in this case it seems like your attorney general’s like okay yeah home rule but but that part of home rule you can’t do yeah it violates state law is what they’re saying okay um that drug laws are a state law in that state sovereign state sovereignty supersedes home rule um the the district judge did not see it that way so uh and I’m not saying that because of a political uh bias by any means um there was a lot of Merit in that this is a true home rule issue given the facts that the state of Texas has done a disservice to the state by rolling out a h can avonoid program for the last five years that is essentially a legal recreational Market um with without any of the funding on testing on ageg gating on on really anything um and really just they they’ve really just kind of dropped the ball as far as expanding our medical program to make to be more in line with other states like Oklahoma New Mexico some of our neighbors uh and so because of that you know like Texas is just very behind on the issue and uh the biggest thing that I always like to say is they want to have their cake and eat it too because they’re making billions of dollars in sales tax from the legal hkin abood Market but then they’re also making all of their criminal justice money on arresting people for either illicit marijuana that comes in from pick the legal state Missouri New Mexico Oklahoma uh Colorado Nevada Arizona California I me I got had a guy bragging to me that he got he got this Montana weed that he was just like bragging about I’m like like this is this is insane do you ever hear anybody talking about getting Illinois weed they say cost it cost way too much in Illinois yeah like I had a buddy a couple buddies that live in Chicago and they’re just like no man we’re we’d rather just grow our own it’s way too expensive that was an amazing response hell yeah well that’s that’s cool to hear though anyways I mean it’s not cool to hear the the foundation of what you saying is that your medical program sucks and that the states surrounding you have a lot better access that that sucks to hear but yeah and and in fact that’s what we see in New Mexico because New Mexico is 100% fully recreational legal and but their biggest money-making cities are all on the border of Texas um and if you ask any of these dispensary owners where they’re you know their target market is it’s Texans uh specifically El Paso and in Los cruus and um and then pretty much everywhere all along the long border that we have with New Mexico uh there’s there’s a place called Texico which is a really tiny small town that’s about an hour and a half away from Leck and it’s a nothing Town there’s nothing there in Texico all right like 50 people but they have a dispensary that literally the the border of New Mexico and Texas is a street down this middle of this tiny little town and the dispensary is literally 10t from the Texas border so like these guys they’re making a lot of money um in New Mexico and Texas is is just really really backwards when it comes to this particular issue I wish I had a logical explanation but at this point you know it’s really just power and control uh in narrative at this point yeah and I want to get to hemp and stuff like that um I also want to talk to you about what your medical program is it sounds like there’s not much to it um but yeah I’m curious before we get to that I wrote down you know that you gather signatures and all that and Texas being very conservative skipping the the easy signatures right if you were to knock on my door in Texas and you’d open it up and you could smell the weed probably and you’d be like you want to sign this and I’d be like yeah for sure skipping people like that what’s it like to get people that are on the fence and even you know like just totally anti maybe they just laugh you off their porch I’m curious to hear about those experiences if you have any oh yeah I mean sometimes you run into those and um to be honest with you though it’s it’s pretty rare man most people are very for it in fact a lot of times I hear like I don’t do it but I don’t care if somebody else does it you know what I’m saying so we typically get a lot of support um anybody that’s not interested in it I think is is either had there is some kind of moral aspect to it um you know I I’ve heard of a couple of different like religious reasons why you know whatever okay um and then I’ve also heard from a decriminalization standpoint here in Texas you know we’re a lot of people there’s a lot of fear about cartels and and undocumented immigrants coming in and causing crime and doing that kind of stuff so that that that’s a real prevalent argument but it’s not again man you’d be even shocked the people the the old crusty white guys who there’s like no way that they’re gonna say yes to this like absolutely you know everybody everybody here is pretty much for it the only people that aren’t are the politicians and those guys are paid to play so you know it is what it is yeah I’m sure you’ve seen me maybe you remember me well yeah you said you recognized uh because I was from ch ch Illinois podcast back in the day sometimes I’d retweet some of your content and poke fun at Tex um you know like because of this idea that they’re so conservative I’ve always wondered and I know we’re not going to solve it on this little podcast but I’ve always wondered why conservatives don’t like own this issue as a States right issue as an individual rights issue like you’re not if you’re not hurting me what’s the big deal type of thing it seems like it falls in line with everything that’s Texas you know yeah you would think so but it um it’s got a century long propaganda spin on it um that you know there’s whole budgets and systems that are built around arresting people for it and um and seizing their property which there’s like a financial incentive for them to do things like that yeah right yeah civil civil asset forfeiture is a big one out here you know what I’m saying they they can like literally take everything you have uh so it’s I I don’t have a whole lot of reasons other than the prison industrial complex is very very strong out here uh the police unions and the sheriff’s Association is very strong out here um and we just have a lot of old school like conservative religious representatives and Senators that really it’s one guy it’s the lieutenant governor and this dude is like in his mid 70s he’s not even from Texas he’s from Baltimore Maryland and he’s just uh a religious zealot who is against it um and is not interested in how much it helps people he’s more concerned with how it might hurt people if if that’s the best way that I can put it um and he he’s the most powerful man when it comes to legislative work because he controls the entire Senate and I would say you know whereas the governor Abbott has been very vocal about wanting to see changes he signed every every Bill cannabis bill that has come to Governor Abbott’s desk he signed it right he hasn’t vetoed one cannabis related bill so if he gets to his desk the governor is for it and he’s been vocal about penalty reduction and things to that nature it’s just the lieutenant governor when he gets to the Senate he’s he literally is Tech Vladimir Putin and just treats it that way it’s the best way I can put it I wanted to ask you you know you mentioned that Governor has you know uh signed everything that has come his way I’m about to Google it as well what is what is Texas cannabis policy like nowadays I am under the impression that you have like a pretty limited medical program or something like that but tell us about it yeah we have What’s called the Texas compassionate use program it’s a it’s what I would call probably the most restrictive or one of the most restrictive cannabis programs in the country um it has a limited amount of qualifying conditions although that has expanded out a little more you know you started with only intractable epilepsy and now it includes like cancer uh spasticity related issues like multiple sclerosis um autism uh neuropathy a couple of different uh PT SD I think is the big one that’s the one that gets a lot of patients and uh we’ve been we really think if we just get chronic pain on there that would solve just about everything because the chronic pain is such a a vague vague enough term that um that really will Encompass the majority of patients um and that’s a lot of the patients that I’m that I’m hearing are coming in are that are calling in that are wanting to get into the program they want want to get in because of chronic pain related issues um unfortunately that’s not a qualifying condition uh so a lot of patients are are using PTSD or some other uh diagnosis that does qualify uh but it you know it’s restrictive in in not only the the patient pool base but uh the it is not business friendly the the licensing is is just ridiculously high uh like about $500,000 um it there there’s some just absolutely ridiculously regulation you know ridiculous regulations like you can’t store medicine off uh the the manufacturing facility uh for longer than 24 hours so you imagine a state like Texas you know that’s several hundreds of miles that you got to cover to get patients medicine but if you can’t store it outside of the manufacturing facility then it makes that logistical Pro process a nightmare um and so access is really difficult there’s no flower in the program it’s all Edibles tinctures yeah I see it says like low THC what does that mean it’s a 1% THC cap by dry weight so I mean that means so hemp basically almost I know it’s not I know hemp is three but like yeah yes exactly um yeah that and and that’s why you’re seeing such a divide between medical program and the hemp program is that a hemp license is a 100 bucks you know what I’m saying and we have 7,000 and you could probably buy one in the morning and get it at the end of the night right automatically it’ll just have it online you know what I’m saying yeah and it’s easy to get um and and so just the hemp side is made it’s almost like opposite see they went one program is the most restrictive in the country the other program is like the most like wild west like free gun in Industry that you can imagine and now we have tangible numbers that show that we’re doing eight billion doll on Revenue we’re bringing in a billion dollars in sales tax revenue um we High we have I think 50,000 jobs have been added you know and so real tangible numbers that are are showing the the economic prowess of cannabis but um you know it’s at some point they’re at some point they’re they’re gonna have to figure out what the strategy is going to be uh because how are you gonna how are they going to try to fix it that’s the question if they ban it all which is what Governor has said he wants to do um that’s that’s really going to cause a lot more problems than solve any so we’re waiting to see what happens in 2025 well first we’re waiting to see who gets elected in 2024 and then we’ll see what happens in 2025 right yeah that’s interesting so what is the H hemp market like is it basically like your adult use Market in uh Texas right now oh absolutely dud it’s I mean every canono that you can think of D6 through 20 it feels like I’ve seen some people that like for sure I I get that because we have that stuff here too but I’ve seen some people that are running shops I actually just went to this one the other day I’m about to uh post the podcast they just opened up a straight up hemp dispensary they’re just selling flour like they they have you know drinks and Edibles and stuff but it’s straight up like a dispensary you just buy weed from do you have a lot of that there or is it mostly the synthetic absolutely yeah there selling what’s called you know you’ve probably heard of thca flow right y yeah yeah or yeah exactly but that’s that’s if I mean unless unless they’re doing sprayon application which you don’t necessarily you don’t really have to do just sell an herb out here that’s Pro and here’s the problem is that a lot of it has like the whole trick is that it hasn’t been de carb yet H it’s by the time it’s in retail space it’s probably been DEC carboxilate so most of these guys are just on straight up herb you know what I’m saying and it’s everywhere it’s prevalent it’s you know and what I’m finding is that most that’s where a lot of people you know people are always going to continue to go to the black market because they have a guy that has trusted that has a better price that can get probably get better product but a lot of people don’t have that guy you know what I’m saying and they don’t want to mess with that guy they’d rather just they’ll they’ll pay a little bit more of a premium to have it ready to go rock and roll they have variety they have selection um you know they have a quality vendor that’s localized that they have relationships with so like you know it’s it’s wildly popular out here and I don’t see I don’t see it going away it’s going to piss a lot of people off if they take it all away and that’s actually what I was about to ask you is like now that people and I’ve kind of that’s why I went to that one dispensary is as as people go in there and get used to it and then because there have been attempts to ban it here in Illinois as well um but when we say baned of course cannabis is legal so what they mean by that is we’re going to ban it from that open market approach that you just described where you can buy a hemp license and just start a business we’re going to make it so that you have to get a cannabis license which good luck getting a cannabis license like we have a limited license Market we don’t even issue them um so sure so um it’s interesting to see that but but to the question um and to the point you just brought up like I’m hoping that consumers are getting used to this so that when they try that [ __ ] again and then I know it sounded like you might get it from your executive Governor or something like that so maybe that’s like something that the people won’t be able to fight but my hope is is that people will fight you know what I mean because they’re they like they’ve gotten used to this access and you’re what you’re GNA try to take away my little shop that has been selling me good weed like what yeah that’s what we’re hoping for too because it’s everywhere when I say everywhere I mean by the border on the coast in East Texas in the Panhandle West Texas I mean you name it do you see any busts for it so that has been one thing that has started recently not recently over the last six months there have been some I haven’t really heard of a few happening lately um but it’s often because the local police department doesn’t understand uh First Federal hemp law and there well they don’t understand State hemp law um and because of that they defer to traditional marijuana law uh which just makes their job harder and they end up seasoning product that is technically compliant and they’re forced to kind of like either save face or or or give the product back and move on and so um there there have been some issues but for the most part it’s not it’s not happening like left and right all over the place it’s happened in a few small town not small towns but like one or two places near a suburb in a metro area but that’s only because that jurisdiction the that law enforcement agency doesn’t really know the difference between um what you know what 3% Delta 9 THC by dry weight what that concept is um they don’t know anything about thca flower they you know they have no I they don’t know the difference between 8 and nine uh so it’s just the state has failed um the state of Texas has failed the community if you will on on this issue and from every aspect from funding to education to regulation and so uh they they have a lot of work that they have to do to to kind of fix things um but not I think piss everybody off where they take it away and cost literally billions of dollars in in Revenue to our state so right because what you have is better than any state-based program uh like there you can get as much flour as you want presumably at these hemp shops cuz there’s not supposed to be any like in in Illinois stores I guess what I’m trying to say say is if you came here especially you Austin you would be restricted to 15 grams of flour per purchase you could get like 250 milligrams of Edibles and two and a half grams of concentrate per purchase right so I guess you could go to multiple different dispensaries but as you just said earlier why the [ __ ] would you do that in Illinois it’s so goddamn expensive and my point is is that hemp is like better in those regards like no purchase limits no dosage caps so you can buy higher dosed drinks if you want to if you don’t you can still get those lowd do drinks there are definitely plenty of options for that um there just so many different ways the open license approach you know but like you say there’s definitely room for improvement with regard to like testing and labeling and age gating I think that’s something else you mentioned yeah definitely definitely room for improvement there but gosh there are so many good things about the way that it just happens it sounds like in Texas and also in Illinois and a lot of different states that haven’t banned it yet yeah it’s it it’s really it’s really opened up the eyes of a lot of people that would NE wise never had access to it um it’s crazy because there are people in Texas who like have never been to they’ve never even been to They Don’t Really Leave Texas you know what I’m saying Hell there are people in Texas whove never been to like other parts of Texas and so but they’re getting access and they’re they’re really finding out that it’s not as bad as we’ve all been led to believe sky isn’t falling down um it’s actually being bringing a lot of positives to our communities um you know it I think that at some point they’re GNA have to merge the Cannabis and hemp markets kind of into one um at some point when they figure out federal rescheduling and what is the 24 farm bill look like if we even have a 24 farm bill that doesn’t there’s such you know I was in DC back in April and that place is just a [ __ ] show left and right um and so the the political gridlock there is just the partisan gridlock is so it’s so toxic that they’re just having a hard enough time keeping the government open much less passing legislation like especially something Farm was supposed to be done last year we may not get it till 25 till after in fact I’m going to tell you right now we’re not going to see it till after at least the general so like we may get it in that small little session between the general and the end of the year but that’s highly unlikely um so we’ll see we’ll see what happens you know it’s it seems like our politics continue to get toxic over just about every issue and this is the one issue that it doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of toxicity over it everybody’s pretty much in general consensus um that like you know this is something we support and so there’re like I said you’re going to be hardpressed to find another issue uh that everybody agrees on yeah I would say the only thing about this this topic that people that that can get a little controversial is at least in Illinois right now it’s been like I said that approach to hemp so there there are some of these operators that have started selling products that that like like you say legally comply with hemp so people come out with these public safety concerns these concerns about children be being able to get them and so these operators say all right we’ll do ageg gating we’ll do testing we’ll do labeling we’ll do the same testing and labeling that cannabis operators do and they say no because you don’t have a cannabis license and it’s like all right well then give me one and they’re like no you know so yeah that’s uh but that I know that’s an Illinois thing but it’s quickly becoming a you know it’s even a Florida thing and everything else but I’m curious just to kind of on a different note as we start to wrap um do consumers our consumers have you ever heard of people that have been able to kind of get out of legal trouble under the guise of him I know you were saying earlier the local law enforcement doesn’t really know about it but like like put a hypothetical scenario out for you like let’s say somebody’s pulled over and they have a bag of hemp in their back seat or whatever like have people been able to get out of it by saying like yo that’s hemp or have you ever heard anything like that uh I mean you know I’ve heard I’ve heard of a few PE an otally yeah I’ve heard of that but um I’ve also I’ve also heard a lot of people getting arrested for legal hemp compliant product you know what I’m saying um there’s 254 counties in the state of Texas most of them are super Rural and so um you know Taran County cops are they you know they they get it they they they understand what’s going on but 100 miles Southeast and west of here like you know these these these country guys they don’t they don’t know nor do they care they’ll just arrest and deal with it in court you know what I’m saying uh and so there’s a lot of people who’ve been you know prosecuted for something they bought at illegal hemp shop and we’re just in the wrong place at the wrong time and uh I’ve seen I’ve seen some people um try to use that a lot of people try to you know if they’re in probation or parole or something like that they try to utilize the the Cannabis program the the compassionate use program um but at the same time that can get you in a little bit of trouble as well because uh you know depending on your probation officer what they’re testing for how they’re testing how much are they testing for like it can get a little sticky no pun intended um so yeah it really it really has made the issue a little bit more difficult because big jurisdictions really aren’t Prosecuting a whole lot anymore for simple pom uh but small jurisdictions absolutely are and so we’re still going to arrest 25,000 plus people for essentially a joint couple grams something like that damn well yeah um as we start to close uh I had just a few other questions quick ones well this one’s just kind of to be funny um as I said earlier I’m a want to be comedian so I the scene out of the Texas Chainsaw mascara I’m just bringing it up because Texas is in it if you watch the uh the like gosh which one is it I need to Google this really quick the one with Tommy Lee you know who I’m talking about uh or what what’s that guy’s name um out of R Lee irmy I think that’s his name yeah I’ll show a picture if you’re not familiar with who I am oh yeah yeah know that’s the that’s the Remake yes the Remake exactly so yeah I needed to make sure to get it dated because there’s been a few remakes but I wanted to make sure that we narrowed it down to this remake so in this remake it was in like 2000 or so and I love that a plot point in it because it was from like that time period was they you know they’re pulled over in this van and the the cop finds a joint and as a result of that he takes his gun out and he’s like pointing at them you know what I mean and it’s funny because it didn’t even require you at the time to suspend your disbelief like that was a totally appropriate reaction um you know what I mean as if it’s like he found like a knife or a gun he finds this little dbe I don’t know yeah yeah I love is that the one where have like the pinata full of like yes they end up having that yeah if only they knew that was gonna be that was the least of their problems is losing a bunch of herb exactly exactly but I love that they like to yeah they they didn’t even question it it was kind of baked in the movie they didn’t even question it it’s like oh yeah what he’s doing is totally fine because what we have warrants that type of response you know what I mean to get your gun out as if they’re going to hurt them right or hurt him so anyways just thought that was like kind of a funny part of that movie that like as time has gone on to look back at that now it’s like wow um the last question I’m just curious because I started this podcast in 2019 and um I only felt comfortable like getting on it and talking about cannabis and actually smoking cannabis on the podcast because that’s when we legalized it you know there’s still criminalization in Illinois and everything but that’s ultimately why I felt comfortable doing that um like how is how does that feel for you do do you still like since you’re not in a legal state do you still feel like you’re in like prohibition you’re looking over your shoulder all the time like I’m just curious do you get my question yeah yeah yeah um you know not really not anymore not like where we live in the major metro area it’s not that big a deal and everybody does it anyway so it’s really it’s really not uh the Paradigm Shift has even reached Texas if you will um and it was funny because and I like to share this story we went when we were in Washington we were there for the last prisoner project and uh we were right there in front of the White House and like you know we were we were sparking up blunt right there in Lafayette Park rocking and rolling they’re like hey man you know that’s like federal crime to do that here just like pleas let Joe Biden come arrest me right now like I dare him to yeah it’d be cool to frame that ticket you know there was some people that were like oh man these these Texas boys man they don’t give a [ __ ] at all and it’s like come come live in Texas and you will find out how quickly we do not we really you come and take it you know what I’m saying like that’s that’s the attitude the mentality out here uh and so we’re just going to keep trekking along and keep forcing the issue and keep being loud and obnoxious even um and they have the they have we we don’t you think we want to be at the legislature no I would rather be in a field somewhere doing a Cannabis Cup hanging with my people um but until then we’re forced to go City by City uh go to the legislature make a scene waste people’s time money effort all of that stuff and so finally when things change um we’ll get to look back at these times and laugh hysterically at how asinine it was yeah uh I think you said just real quick uh the decriminalization it’s only been for possessions so far has there been anything that like includes like small amount of cultivation or anything like that or is that just a no no yeah no no hom grow like yeah they I mean that’s that’s almost a non-negotiable when you try put that in legislation it’s like the first thing that get stripped every bill so um you know it’s something that’s it’s something whether anybody wants to accept it or not it’s something that’s coming um and the best thing that I can tell people is that Homebrew has not killed the beer industry has not barely even been felt by the beer industry so like cannabis is the same exact way you’re going to have like the 1% of the population that’s going to grow it and utilize it sure but nobody’s growing their okra nobody’s growing their Tomatoes everybody’s going to the grocery store and getting those items they’re going to continue to go to the store uh where 99% of the harvesting work has been done you know what I’m saying so and even you can grow most of the Growers out there are shitty anyway so like you know but we’ll get there I’m excited for those times we will get there and hey I just want to thank you for spending your time with me and for fighting the good fight in the uh great state of Texas dude when I come back there I’ve been a few times uh when I come back I’ll try and holler at you and maybe we can connect and smoke some some of my homegrown so hell yeah there we go let’s do it hell yeah well folks uh I hope you found as much value in this episode as I did in this conversation as I did I mean to say um you can check out Texas cannabis Collective online the links will be in the show notes uh to the social media and everything as well so thank you so much for checking out this episode and we’ll see you on the next one take care