In this episode, I am joined by Jason Beck, the longest continuous cannabis retail operator in the United States. Jason shares his journey, starting from his beginnings in San Francisco in 2001 to establishing his presence in West Hollywood in 2004. He also discusses his current role with High at 9 News, a daily cannabis news show that covers six stories every weekday, providing a platform for a variety of opinions and debates.
We discuss the evolution of cannabis policies, including the significance of the Cole Memo and the Rohrabacher–Farr Amendment, and how these have impacted the industry. Jason recounts his experiences operating under different presidential administrations, detailing the enforcement actions and raids that occurred during the Bush, Obama, and Trump eras.
The conversation also touches on the potential implications of rescheduling cannabis to Schedule 3 and its effects on the industry. Jason highlights the challenges faced by social equity applicants, noting the limitations and hurdles they encounter.
Additionally, we explore the historical context of cannabis legalization and the ongoing influence of government and lobbyists. Finally, Jason shares his insights on the upcoming 2024 election and its potential impact on cannabis policy, discussing the political dynamics and strategies that could shape the future of the industry.
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The auto-generated transcript is available below.
beginning January 1st 2020 the recreational use of cannabis will be legal in the state of Illinois available to stream now my mini do dives into the history of Illinois legalization starting with January 1st what should we expect the biggest thing that we need people to understand is that January 1 in terms of the Criminal Justice System here in this state is the end of prohibition see how Illinois missed its chance at real cannabis reform with key failures including the fact that the program includes regulation on possession limits so people can still be arrested for a possession and I want to highlight that in its first year of legalized recreational marijuana in the state of Illinois they arrested three times as many black people for possession than any other race we’ve run into so much cannabis we’ve run out of places to put it I have represented people and taken their cases through the court system who got charged with more serious crimes only because the police said that they smelled cannabis and not because the police said you have illegal cannabis or not because you have too much cannabis or not because you’re high on cannabis but because I can smell it and that’s it attorney goes he understands that he can’t be smoking and his cannabis flower shouldn’t be open and I was like I’d like to say a further record that I was not smoking and my flower was not open so uh that’s where we’re at right now in Illinois and I hope it changes start watching now at coal memo.com minock [Music] [Music] let’s let’s get it sparked up Jason Beck thank you so much for sitting down with me I’ll let you inhale that smoke and uh when you’re done can you uh go ahead and introduce s to my audience tell us about who you are and what you do sure I’m uh Jason Beck I’m the longest continuous retail operator of cannabis in the United States um been around for a pretty long time uh you know I’m now currently uh doing high at 9 News um which is America’s number one daily Cannabis News show uh we cover six stories uh Monday through Friday six different cannabis stories all recent current um with also in-depth opinion and a lot of controversy sometimes from uh from other correspondents that have uh differing viewpoints on different issues so we like to have that um good debate around around different issues and whatnot and uh help promote a healthy dialogue throughout the country H yeah I love it and uh if people couldn’t tell it’s it’s live every day at what time yes we are live every Monday through Friday at 9:00 A.M Pacific and high noon on the East Coast hell yeah hell yeah so tune in folks you’ll see me in the chat uh I am a frequent uh listener SL viwer and it’s a great way to like you say stay up to date but also get a good variety of opinions I like the rotating uh panelists that you have on in fact I’m going to play a clip that I’ve got queued up right now uh that I’ve got queued up already later uh that’s just a really poignant point that one of your uh panelists brought up but yeah you said you know longest continuous cannabis retail operator I’m curious how long you’ve been in the Cannabis my friend so I’ve operated and owned a storefront ever since like 20201 wow yeah started San Francisco in cannabis’s infancy and then was invited to West Hollywood in 2004 from a recommendation from the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco to the city of West Hollywood and uh have have been uh down in West Hollywood ever since and uh it’s been one hell of a ride I can tell you that yeah you’ve gone all the way through uh cannabis 1.0 right into cannabis 2.0 right with the coal memo and stuff and all the way through 4.20 you know yeah at the same time you know you mentioned the coal memo a lot of people put way too much emphasis on the coal memo in my opinion because the co memo is simply a memorandum as a directive it actually has no teeth or enforcement whatsoever um one thing that I that I worked on when I worked on federal policy when I was a finance chairman and point person on cannabis policy and messaging for Congressman roacher was the roacher far Amendment which is the federal Appropriations bill that prohibits the doj and DEA from extrapolating federal funds to go after State licensed cannabis businesses and that’s the sole piece of federal legislation that’s been a budget writer and passed uh unanimously every year that is the reason for the growth of the industry that we all witness today yeah hell yeah yeah and like you say um you know I I don’t the reason I actually I’m like sort of in love with the name but also like hate the name is because of what it seems your own name what’s that how can you hate your own name call right well obviously I love that part of it but um the like you say the Legacy that it brought not only did it was it not perfect and I wanted to get into that um but it really I I have a problem with the fact that it does seem to have birthed cannabis generation 2.0 which is like highly regulated limited licensed in other words like treating cannabis like a scheduled substance as opposed to what you started in in California which is like a caregiver SL homeg grower Market or at least close to it and I really like the roots of the movement and and how that was you know I’m not saying that cannabis can’t be highly regulated and and such but definitely not limited licensing like that just seems anti anti-American you know well I mean there’s a lot of lot of high power lobbyists out there that’ll be paying a lot of dollars to to make sure that those Frameworks are set up within these states and in all honesty that’s how we have gotten through a lot of more conservative States uh if you if you would be um by having those types of um of limited lure marketplaces because one thing that I have learned throughout government is that government does not like monopolies but government loves oligopolies right yeah absolutely absolutely and uh that oligopoly like you say it’s been digestible in southern states like I’ll just name a random one and you know feel free to to name a better one or if you disagree with this example let me know but like Arkansas I feel like Arkansas is a good example of what you’re talking about where it’s like a limited market and you would I think differences is I if I remember correctly Arkansas um people are partnered there’s some people that are partnered with the government within Arkansas oh there’s some kind of I would I would say the best the best uh the best the best example in out of all 50 states for for this type of Market of marketplace I would I would say would be Florida yeah yep well said Florida you have very limited licensure you got what is it let’s just say 16 whatever it is the number licensers and then those people are allowed to be fully vertically integrated ated and allowed to open up as many retails um per the per cap base based off the number of patients registered with the state of Florida and and so I mean you have you have stores with with hundreds of locations throughout the state and I don’t think that that’s necessarily a bad thing um but I think also too people do need to know is that before people can open up those local stores they do have to get a local approval from the local jurisdiction as far as like some type of land use for that store to to inhabit within their their confines of their City yeah yeah yeah well hey we jumped right in and I figured we would but I want to take like a little bit of a step back because yeah one of the things I wanted to discuss with you I I listened can’t remember if it it had to have been a show that I listened to you because that’s about the the regular capacity that I listened to you and I was thinking it might have been a Twitter space or something for a second but I think it was your show and you talked about how like the differences in administration and I thought that was an interesting perspective that I had never heard before and and what I mean to be more specific was the differences in enforcement you you like named off through the years you were like in the Bush Administration I was RA rated this amount of times in the Obama Administration I was raid this amount of time C can you recap yeah no no of course of course under under under Bush um I was raid uh raid twice or excuse me excuse me once under Obama I was rid twice I was never raided under Trump and there were raids um within the City and County of San Fran Francisco under Clinton and so so I think that that’s that’s an important uh distinction to to make is that there have been raids throughout all of those presidential uh teners um so and you meant Clinton like is in like back in 1996 when uh California first started and such yeah yeah yeah yeah we all thought Clinton was G to be great for us and everything else like that but um but he came in with his his doj and he in essence closed down to dispensary that was operated by a man by the name of Ken Hayes and six Street and basically what ended up happening from that is that’s what really sparked the start of the growth within San Francisco um was when that shop closed down because a bunch of the managers and operators from that store all went and opened up their own stores once that place was raided and closed down by the federal government yeah and when you got raided like in the Obama Administration was that before or after the Cole memo good question bro I don’t remember um you’d have to pull up the date of when the call Memo was released yeah but I tell you that I was rated once in 2010 and once in 2013 and that was both under his tenor yeah I don’t think the Cole memo or at least the one that we like we are actually referring to because I actually learned there’s multiple versions of the Cole memo the version one actually uh did very I know you made the point that it did nothing but uh there were three versions and some people argue the third version was a bit better but it also again to your point didn’t stop the raids right it only it only yeah it did it just it just directed directed uh to say don’t enforce but there was no teeth behind whether or not and and then they created these kind of like artificial guidelines to kind of go over like as long as you weren’t violating these eight things then you didn’t have the then they didn’t feel as though that you should be subject to X Y or Z but yeah mean like those things still happened mhm what is a what is that conversation like to obviously it’s probably got to be shocking right off the bat to have your dispensary rated but like you know oh bro how go I mean I can put it to you the best I I think this is probably the best way people could possibly understand it possibly nowadays is if you can um if you’re playing your favorite video game and you’ve mastered everything and you got all the lives and all the weapons and all the jewels and all the coins and all the everything all the ammunition everything that you could possibly need and before memory cards your little brother or sister walked over to the console and hits reset and that’s basically what it’s like on your life I love the analogy because yeah that your heart like drops out of your chest when that happens you’re back at level one at zero nothing and you know what I’m saying like that’s it mhm yeah so is there any like conversation they have with you or they like kind of tell you why like like what do you mean they don’t have to have a reason it’s a schedule one drug they don’t have to have a reason yeah I didn’t know like yeah like do they are they just like they just come in take your [ __ ] close the door and they’re just like [ __ ] you or like like how does it go okay so basically they come in um and they’ll they’ll raid the place so generally when they get a warrant that warrant is active for you know what I mean anywhere from like 10 days sometimes a week to two weeks right that when they get a warrant from a judge then that gives them the ability to go and raid that space anytime within the timelines of that warrant so whenever they go in raid is sometime within that that that time period and then you you cannot really uh enter the building um or to remove anything or do anything until after that warrant is expired because that warrant is still alive so they can come back and and do what ever so it’s not like you can go and start to bring product back in there you know what I mean you can go and do maintenance cleanup um construction anything that would be considered federally legal you know what I mean but nonetheless they’re still watching the place they’re still they’re still there at least for the duration of that of that warrant as a minimum wow from my experience wow that’s crazy well uh once again I just wanted to say it before we got too far into the episode folks sitting down with Jason backck from high at 9 it’s high at 9news.com we’ll have all the links in the podcast description just like usual I wanted to make sure to say that before we got too far into the show so that’s interesting one thing that I felt like you didn’t mention and I’m curious I felt like you had mentioned before and I just can’t recall what you had said um you so you said Bush Obama Trump did any have I know Biden’s not over yet but there’s no there’s no ra Trump no raids under under Trump no and and which is really ironic because everyone was you know oh Jeff sessions da d d d and in in all fair in all honesty too there has to be some accountability from the industry because what really got it on Jeff session’s radar at that time was when he was still a senator close to when the time he was trying to get uh confirmed or right before um there was a bunch of activists from uh Philadelphia DC and whatnot that thought it would be like cool to go and like dress up like clowns and go and try to have a conversation with the then Senator and and they went and did all this and they all were dressed up in their crazy outfits looking like clowns and uh and and then they decided to smoke a joint in his office yeah now and it’s like these people you know are it was just I was just like I I was so Furious because all of a sudden that made it a bigger issue for then Senator sessions once he became attorney general and there was a lot of work that had to go in behind the scenes during that time um and whatnot to to to ensure the safety for roacher far which was the Federal Appropriations bill um at at that time but nonetheless we were able to be successful in that but there was a lot of work that had to be done that was just extra work um because of actions that’s crazy so you’re saying that and I’m I don’t know I’ve just feel like I’ve maybe never heard that bit of the story before you know people know as you just said earlier people will be critical of Jeff Jeff’s sessions and they’ll even put it on the Trump Administration uh that he revoked the Cole memo right and they’ll be critical of that doesn’t do anything so it doesn’t it doesn’t right I understand your point but but the thing you said that um I found interesting was uh you’re saying that he was also like considering maybe targeting the roar backer far Amendment and well there was there there uh sessions was was making moves to try to get that removed from the from the budget he was lobbying for that and whatnot and so we had to put a stronger lobbying up effort in regards to to maintain that status that that no one no one sees unless you know what’s going on behind the scenes kind of thing right right that’s very interesting stuff um I was just trying to find the video uh that everybody knows with Jeff’s sessions uh good people don’t smoke marijuana yeah I mean and and that that’s the generation that he grew up in and that’s kind of just his position on it and it is what it is I mean you know shortly after um his his appointment to that to that office um he was he was he was removed and then we um ended up having uh William bar and uh we we had no federal raids under either um attorney generals so and not to mention Trump signed the the farm bill which in my opinion default legalized cannabis period you know what I mean with thca and everything else and how how everything else is being sold throughout uh throughout the area yeah States I mean you live in Illinois you go into gas stations and you see what’s going on yeah and you know I I don’t think it’s really a problem to be honest like some people I don’t I know you didn’t mean it that way I’m assuming you didn’t mean it that way but sometimes people will be like oh this [ __ ] gas station weed it’s like yeah they sell a lot of crazy [ __ ] at the gas station like what what are you talking about that’s true that is true they do sell a lot of crazy things at the gas station and have the time crazy boner pills that yeah because and obviously it wouldn’t be there unless they it was selling right and my thing is like if you you know to the people that are like oh this gas station stuff it’s like don’t smoke it if you think that about it I don’t smoke like there’s a gas station down the road that smells like Delta tin stuff and it’s like I don’t smoke it but if they had a jar of like some thca flour that I could like inspect and smell like I would consider buying that like real real deli style right yeah yeah like get out of here I would love that if I could buy that at the gas station you know a flower bar coming to your nearest Petro fuel up get get your gas and get your other gas yeah so I uh I figure we’ll probably bounce all over anyways but just to bounce in the direction you took us like uh I I tend to agree with you and I I can’t help but wonder I just feel like it would be strategically genius if you know if if Trump was really looking for motivation from voters if he basically stole the Cannabis issue from the now Harris campaign basically saying like okay you guys are talking about rescheduling cannabis I descheduled cannabis why don’t we take it the rest of the way like I and I’m just telling dude like that would be a brilliant move he could own the issue and and literally say I went like you said he could say I went further than you already exactly exactly well I mean ultimately hopefully that’s probably what what may have to happen if we go into schedule three because I don’t believe schedule three would be good for the industry it’ll be good for um the msos that may possibly be looking for a big buy out by big farmer or whatnot but as far as for the the the the small craft business um you know that that has really been the backbone of this industry I I see it as like an elimination yeah yeah and that’s mainly due to the fact of how schedule three drugs have to um have to be sold as far as you know they have to be sold by a pharmacist has to be you know X Y and Z and all these different different things and you know with the with the food drug and cosmetic act every single uh every single product on a cannabis shelf is either a food drug or cosmetic everything would fall under that and I just don’t think that uh removing 280e is worth having this whole new agency have governance over us when um when when we have the one agency that really would have governance over us as as the DEA in a current schedule one format um basically uh tabled with the pending legislation to where like we can operate as a business but um I you know and at the same time I have friends that have gone that say that they’ve gone to talk to um the Biden in regards to um these different things and and have assured everything that that the uh that the government has no intention of of trying to hamper any of the businesses that are operating and whatnot under a schedule 3 format but at the same time like you know like it clearly states how schedule three drugs have to be sold and right that is not how any of these dispensaries are operating not to mention that there’s only probably a couple of the msos are going to be able to put maybe three to five SKS through a whole FDA um FDA uh you know uh skew making process um for for some of their products and so it’s just I feel like it’s just going to make the Trap live on and you know and there’s a lot of people that are like hopeful that like oh they’re going to put these Provisions in place and d d d but like I really I don’t see how they do that legislatively Provisions in place for what like um like like like like workarounds to to to remove enforcement on how schedule three drugs are sold and whatnot have to be produced whatnot so then that way it can kind of confine within the industry of how the industry is built out and laid out um to Pro proot a more you know harmonious economic situation but uh I I don’t I don’t I don’t see how they do that but there’s some people that say this and that and I just I I just know that if it’s written in there then then then it can then it can happen and it’s a reality so you know just because it doesn’t happen today doesn’t mean it can’t happen tomorrow right yeah and I mean I don’t mean to take a a step back but it’s just interesting like what we started with and now what we’re talking about now like this feels like if it if it were to be schedule three and if it were to be the way that you described it I’m not I’m not talking about the provisions I’m talking about like the way we understand schedule three to be just just how how schedule three drugs have to be solded just we’re just taking it on face basis on what the rules are currently how they’re in place and how they’re written and everything like that currently right like Marinol for examp example or any other schedule 3 drug that yeah yeah so um and to your point maybe if if we if we should just like spell it out before we move on like you’re you folks you can’t just go to Walgreens and say hi I’d like Marinol which by the way is an FDA approved schedule 3 cannabis drug you can’t you can’t just but and I’m contrasting that with your experience at a dispensary where you can just go and be like I want an ounce of this yeah you know and and that’s the difference is that you need a prescri destion for right is that what you’re trying to make the I mean in essence in essence in essence schedule three drugs are only uh are only sold by prescription I don’t know of any over counter schedule three drug that that I’m that I’m aware of um you know maybe someone in your chat know knows of one but I mean I’m not I’m not aware of one but I’m not a uh pharmaceutical drug expert either so I don’t want to I don’t want to act like I am either right so but yeah I worry that schedule three is almost like cannabis gen 3.0 and again we defined cannabis gen 2.0 as like highly regulated limited license compliance focused I I I think I worry and we worry that gen 3 becomes this like pharmaceutically regulated no nothing like we’ve ever seen before and it’s like again to take us a step back and even I’m curious what you thought about this like I I saw that Dennis Peron before he died got some like hate because he he opposed the 2016 adult use initiative in California but he explained that tax and regulate like we had he basically said and I’m Loosely quoting and I can try to find the direct quote but he said something the effect of like oh go ahead you remember no I was gonna say I say I know the quote I know exactly what you’re but but please yeah if you can find the direct quote I’m sure the um your audience would love to to hear hear hear the direct quote Yeah but I know I know exactly what what what you’re referring to and um and you know uh I was around for a lot of those different typ of times back then and and um a lot of the old school industry um you know Founders and and Legacy Advocates and uh we’re we’re all against prop or were all against uh proposition 64 they were they were all against it because they felt that it was you know way too restrictive and all of this and you know for for for a lot of reasons and I think a lot of those reasons were valid um I on the other hand was on the side of 64 because there was a state bill that had passed the California legislature known as Mersa okay and Mersa was scheduled to go into effect okay it had been voted on the legislature and was going to go into effect and I think a lot of the activists don’t understand how um how regulatory process affects business and commerce and how they get everything and and whatnot but basically um Mersa was a super basically a lot of the same restrictions that are in prop 64 were in mura very very similar in that sense um the problem was is that it regulated Medical in that similar way okay and one of those other regulations was it also regulated doctors and so and said that doctors can only write a 100 uh uh recommendations per year so and I was like there’s not enough doctors at this time to even suffice for the amount you know because we there there was doctors that were doing paper mills that were just seeing you know 300 300 patients a day signing them off you know what I’m saying to to to be patients back then and so so the the patient base was extremely extremely large um at that time especially in a city like uh West Hollywood Los Angeles area um San Francisco is another big area and you know and and even in the Central Valley um you know San Diego still had a lot of enforcement on on things back there so it really wasn’t as open as as what it is today um and uh so it’s been it’s been very very interesting uh to watch in that sense yeah and I got the quote by the way so Dennis Bron when he asked why he said why he opposed it if prop 64 was aiding prop 215 I’d be all for it but it’s not it seems to be rewi rewriting what we’ve already accomplished we don’t need more rewriting of laws we have enough cannabis laws I mean I I I agree with him on that and and like I said my my my reason for supporting it is because we were going to get mura otherwise and I felt that mura was far more restrictive damaging yeah yeah far more damaging than what prop 64 was and and and so and so to me I was I was an advocate for prop 64 I got a lot of hate I even got like a couple Instagram accounts deleted from all the hate and whatnot from dur dur during that time but you know what whatever you know I mean yeah yeah the one interesting documentary I’ve seen that kind of covers some of prop 64 and like its impact and such uh is uh murder Mountain which has you know it covers a kind of a different story but along the way it covers this and it’s very interesting very interesting stuff know Murder Mountain was a great a great um great uh great documentary um and you know that was that’s where bro you’re out there you’re out there in the woods bro you know what I mean tree falls and no one’s around does a tree really fall you know what I mean right right yeah so um anyways like I I don’t know I just as we progress I don’t mean to be like things can’t change I don’t mean to to sound like an old man or anything but I do hate it it just seems like you know one of my complaints especially with the way the Illinois has done what we’ve done I is that you know my only complaint was that I had to look over my shoulder when I would go to the Weedman right and you know just for lack of better words and and by that I mean looking over my shoulder for like law enforcement making sure like you know I’m not going to get [ __ ] arrested like that was my only complaint it’s nice to have dispensaries don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining I love dispensaries they’re they’re awesome it’s cool to go to a place with like a big selection I’m just saying that you know when you hear somebody like our governor and the way that the legislature talked about it they looked at it as a budget issue instead of like a justice issue and it just I mean look I I I don’t mean to sound ignorant either everybody told me coal they’re not going to legalize it until they figure out how to just milk people from money off of it you know what I mean but I mean if you look I mean but you know as as my co-host Rico would say follow the money and if you look at the Illinois um how how that Marketplace was set up and you look at who was the ultimate recipients of the licenses yeah um out there I mean it it wasn’t it wasn’t anybody you know it wasn’t anybody that didn’t come for money right you know and so and so and then and then after that then they were like oh now we got to do the social Equity component and and you know and the social Equity component I mean these people don’t have money and they’re not getting government grants to start their businesses or anything else like that they’re making them partner up with different predatory investors that are taking advantage of a lot of these situations and whatnot and you know suppos something that that designed to create um you know some type of you know economic stability for generational wealth um I think ended up in most markets became a uh ultimate tax burden right yeah well and you know not only like you said were the original lenses all wealthy people the initial set of the initial licensing round which was marred in controversy uh because of uh an accounting firm that had a lot of issues scoring our applications they got a no- bid contract uh from the state of Illinois for $7 million they renewed it for $1 million they outsourced the work to bid workers for $700,000 so they walked away with like millions of dollars still and on top of all that like I said in the first round of Lies uh there was only 21 people and they were all connected to the original set of lenes and some of them connected to really other really wealthy people like restaurer Phil Stefani who posted like mini presidents in Chicago at his restaurants and so like you say yeah it’s just funny how it always always ends up working and I will just say folks stay tuned to your point about what Rico said we did follow the money and uh you can either check out our work at Co memo.com history folks that are listening or stay tuned for my upcoming mini documentary where I show you all the money that’s come in and who it went to um yeah so it’s interesting stuff and uh it makes sense why everything is the way that it is when you look at it that way I mean yeah I mean even uh one one of the operators uh from your State uh the the the Wrigley right yeah um I believe so yeah yeah I mean and you know the Wrigley you know what else they own Mars right you know what Mars owns and like a lot of [ __ ] let me pull up the map yeah have you gone in to one of their dispensaries out there Co and ask them for some Skittles you should well there was the whole thing you remember they asked people to stop calling it Skittles so that’s that’s what birthed Skittles with the Z oh bro I was here I was I I was had a front row SE for for all of that over the years yeah I’m know I just I find it ironic that that you know after after all that the the way how everything’s panned out yeah so um it’s it’s interesting you know I one of one of the main catalysts for me wanting to like I I’ve been wanting to reach out to you anyways I’ve been really busy with this mini do so it was nice that we were both able to carve out some time um but one of the things that really kicked me back into gear uh doing this was and this is the first podcast I think I’ve recorded since this happened was the assassination attempt on Donald Trump dude like our country reached a whole new level of heat and it’s we’re still a few months away from the election um how are you feeling about and also you know Biden’s no longer in the race how are you feeling about this upcoming election man I feel it’s going to be interesting to watch you know I what what I really been monitoring is um different changes that are happening within the uh States because because the States run the each State’s election right and um there has been some things happening um with these uh voter uh voter registar in these different states where just like masses amounts of people are being um added onto these different rosters and and uh there’s no social security number attached with them and so and and so or it doesn’t it doesn’t match into like the government system and so like it you know some of these states are kicking them out other others aren’t and so I’m just I’m I’m watching more of that because I that’s that’s you know something that that I I often often wonder because you can’t tell me that the videos when you see uh when you see just random people throwing in hundreds of ballots in a mailbox you can’t tell me that that’s legal like they’re they’re not they’re not like the caretaker for everyone in their building and dropping everyone’s ballot off I’m not buying that for a minute so but you know um so but it’s it’s a tragic thing that happened uh you don’t gather all your neighbors ballots and no no no bro not enough time in the day for for all of that you know man what a life it would be if you I was raised to go around and collect all of my neighbors ballots and bring them you’re but you’re from Chicago and that’s the foundation politics which is vote vote early and vote often because mayor Dy had the cemetery vote and you know what the cemetery vote was right uh no I I think I Loosely know what it is yeah when mayor Dy was the mayor of Chicago um he basically if you had a family member and you didn’t have the money to have them have them uh have them buried he would pay for your funeral and for their burial and in exchange he would own your voting rights for 10 years and that was known as the cemetery vote okay interesting well I have I have to Google that one I’ve never heard of that Cemetery vote I’ve always heard of the dead people voting or people saying that you know that’s yeah well that that that’s because the the the there’s not like uh like Federal database of of Voters which it should be to like kick people off when they pass or whatnot and States I don’t think a lot of times have the technology or whatnot or don’t do it don’t clean their voter registar or even like with a census or anything else like that so there’s just there’s a lot of information gathering but not a lot of like cross information sharing to you know what I mean clean clean up the data so you got a bunch of dirty data old data in a lot of different places yeah interesting but uh yeah yeah how you feeling about uh Camala or is that I always I feel like I mess it up it’s Kamala Nota camela or some I don’t know I’m pretty sure it’s Cala you know I can’t believe that they’re that they’re trying to spin the narrative that if you don’t say it the right way that that’s racist I think that’s crazy but nonetheless I would like to know honestly I just don’t know much about her it’s oh K okay cool and then they they say say Ka Kamala is when is how you’re not supposed to say it okay great I’m glad I that’s that that and that’s that’s to my understanding who who knows I could have it have it totally mixed up too but I don’t you know KLA I’ve known kamla for a a long time um she was a district attorney in San Francisco um when I was in San Francisco and I served on her medical cannabis task force and um and there were still some arrests when she was um there some prosecutions for cannabis and whatnot um when she was there and I think you know there is some people that point to her record that there weren’t many um during that time and you know and I’m here to say that that that there weren’t but there still were um and at the same time the the bigger numbers that everyone talks about and references is when she was the Attorney General some people I think people conflate the two numbers or whatnot but those numbers are from when she was the Attorney General um of the State of California overall so was she uh in that position you’re talking about after being an attorney general I’m sorry I don’t know the no she was she started off first as the district attorney in San Francisco and that’s when you that that that’s when I worked with her and then from there she went to become the attorney general for the state so the arrests kicked up that’s kind of what I was trying to yeah well she had a she had a larger pool of enforcement and San Francisco was its own city and county and so um we had a task force that that that would meet with them and if there um Sharon woo was her uh her head of Narcotics Department during that time and so we had a relationship uh with her and so when there were different uh people that we knew that were within the community we would make sure to acknowledge that and let them know that hey you know these are these are our providers D D um but there there still were there still were some arrests during that time not not many but there still were some yeah I mean my thing is it doesn’t really to me it sounds worse that the arrests got larger in number as she got more resources because it’s a larger yeah she she had a larger pool defish in right and and and if and if if there’s nothing happen if no one knows anyone that’s over here what’s going on over there you know no one doesn’t it doesn’t amplify you know you have to remember too back then the speed of communication you know we’re going from from from pagers to cell phones and just in the beginning of that you know what I mean there was no smartphones you know what I mean you know there’s like before Blackberry even and so I think that’s one thing that people don’t really factor into a lot of how things happened back in the day is the speed at which information traveled during that time period because everyone is just used to information boom immediately um in in this day and age with everything being at the tip of your tip of your fingertips in your phone but the world wasn’t not not like that a long time ago it was very very different right well you know it’s crazy as to your point I almost was like is bringing up the Trump assassination like too old news you know it’s been two weeks right I mean but but it’s still crazy news so that’s why I thought like yeah we should talk about it did you see the hearing with the um with the uh director of the FBI cuz she resigned the day after uh I only saw bits and pieces on Tim Dylan okay all right all right all right he was talking about the sloped roof and yeah yeah it was really funny yeah and and you know what’s funny what’s what really trips me out the most is is there’s a social media battle going on um between everyone um on Instagram and meta is uh is is saying that this guy uh Crooks is the shooter and meanwhile on Twitter everyone else is saying that it’s a totally different guy and this other guy um had a uh uh had a had a prior um prior wrap sheet for uh violence at at a political function back in 2017 and if you look at the pictures of the um of the of the of the shot would be assassin um and you look at his face um you can see his ear and and like people that have gaug you know what I mean like your ears never grow back you know what I mean and and and the person from the 2017 uh incident had had big gauges in his ears and and then uh it you know and like when people get can get them sewed back together and you can see like a like a crease in there wherever how they get stowed back together and it’s like a long crease um you know kind of it’s just it doesn’t just all go back as go back as one and smooth like a like a normal brand new earloop um so um in and if you look at that picture of of of the person that the as salent that was shot and you look at his ear it looks like he was previously had gauges and so that that would couldn’t be Crooks then if that’s the case because Crooks never had gauges interesting I will say the other I didn’t know about that whole thing but one thing that I’ve noticed is that there’s only ever been it seems like they’re only showing that picture of him as a younger kid so like yeah and now they gotten gauges I guess is my question yeah but like if you look at all the he didn’t have them then he didn’t he didn’t have them fair and it takes a while to stretch those things out I’ve got friends that have gotten those idiots by the way no offense people but like what the hell are you doing I mean I mean there’s not gauges in and all the photos that they’re showing I get it they they could be all older photos or what not but um I’m sure that something would have surfaced from uh from like his employee file of him having them at the nursing home that he worked at or whatnot and um and then to the nursing home yeah and did you see um that there was a uh there was a there was a whole thing where there was a a a little phone tracking thing um that uh there was someone that kept visiting him quite often and would always end up for some reason at the local FBI office yeah I saw this online I saw this on Twitter my thing about that one and I don’t even know how to confirm this it’s like where does that information come from you know like I I saw the map and there was like lines and it looks official but I’m like but how am I reading this weeks like how who just dropped this on the Internet is my question or like how did that come out do you know um I I I I don’t know exactly but I don’t either but I saw what you’re talking about you know and so you know and and I’m not here to say that that all of these things are true these are just things that that make me question a lot yeah you want to see a crazy one I saw on the internet which it’s like lower Stakes but it’s still like one of those sort of conspiracy theory type things it’s uh on Twitter and actually I’m glad I ended up preserving this tweet because this person deleted it you know no offense to this and if they deleted it maybe they realized what they said was wrong but they just said FYI there are pictures of the gun man with a vape in his hand let’s remember the minimum age to purchase legal THC or tobacco in Pennsylvania is 21 and joshiro refuses to legalize adult use so this was likely illegal unsafe untested hemp and I found that picture because I know what he was talking about and I recognized this device right away so this is allegedly a picture of Thomas krooks and he’s got a vape it’s in like a movie theater this picture and um I just showed the picture of his hand and this is clearly an elf bar or a a Dr fog like nicotine Vape it’s not in my opinion a THC vape right yeah I I mean I think I think most most Vapes are are are uh tobacco tobacco based that that you see people consuming for the most part exactly especially this like style like I see him it’s very popular amongst people like my age and younger than 21 I just want to say like it’s not like this is yeah this is The Vape even though it’s made for all people over 21 a lot of people younger than 21 use them so anyways I like this conspiracy theory because even though they like seem to have retracted it I liked it because it’s just like a desperate grab to point out that like hemp is bad and it’s like first of all you’re like cutting off your nose to spite off your face or to spite your face because you’re you’re like propagating Reefer Madness Talking Points and it’s like you’re you’re not helping the cause by doing that you know yeah um you know with I wonder you know show showing that tweet and the fact that it’s been deleted makes me also wonder if uh if if the governor’s office reached out to them and asked them to delete that tweet because because the governor could possibly be up for a vice presidential uh nomination because the reality is um if the Democrats want her to be taken as a serious candidate they’re going to have to pick um um they’re going to have to pick a a some someone like a governor um or a senator from from from a from a red state that is has a blue seat in essence so like uh Governor Shapiro would be a perfect example because that being Pennsylvania being a pretty purple State overall um or maybe even like a governor Andy Basher out of out of and so I wonder if because it mentioned um the the fact of his position on cannabis that they may have reached out to try to scrub that off the internet yeah and it is an in I think it’s a pop I don’t know it’s just a cannabis investor um so yeah it’s uh it’s it’s interesting I I don’t know that’s the one thing I will it’s so I’ll tell you this Jason I can’t wait for something to happen with hemp and I hope it’s nothing bad but for God’s sake I just want something to happen with hemp because like I’m tired of arguing with people that I know I agree with mhm like they’ll they’ll find every reason to hate on hemp like oh it’s this synthetic [ __ ] that Mitch McConnell legal it’s like dude you’re reaching it’s weed it’s weed well you know I feel like when they first legalized the the the the farm bill they missed a critical opportunity especially under the Trump Administration with as far as make America great again and there should have been some budgetary things in there um that allowed for the creation of of this of that of the textile industry being reproduced um within America with American grown hemp and whatnot and I feel like that that was a crucial component that was left out or overlooked or you know what I mean not not thought of in the creation of the original uh uh farm bill um but I think like if you want to have that type of um uh you know and it’ be it’d be do because we could bring so many manufacturing jobs back to back to our country and be very very self-dependent and self-reliant on a lot of the goods that we all import from China and whatnot in the east on a regular basis um you know and then so that’s something that I I think would be ultimately uh valuable for us to invest in within our infrastructure of our of our uh country yeah well and I mean I mean to your point I never thought about it that way it’s as if like these people that are in the consumable hemp business like there may not be as many like I feel like I I don’t know I’m having a rough way of saying this no go ahead please oh I was just gonna say like to your point that since they didn’t like capitalize these people to take really advantage of industrial hemp like all these people are like why are they taking advantage of this this part of the farm bill it’s like well because it’s they like they’re not to your point like they it’s hard it’s very hard they need like Capital built in to like actually do something like that and to really change this country and how we use the hemp plant you know well like let’s so let’s just let’s just say let’s just you know speak speak for one thing let’s just say I wanted to make hemp based paper towels right okay now that’s going to take an extreme amount of uh infrastructure to to to build a factory to produce paper towels okay hemp-based paper towels and then once I’m producing those where do I sell them at at the same time too and so and so like you need that type of government assistance to kind of uplift those types of Industries um you know to to for them to ultimately be successful and succeed and really really do the good that that they ultimately can yeah yeah yeah much more well said than that you yeah you put it into words for me I was I was stumbling so no worries I got you call hell yeah so when did you I’m curious when did you start high at nine news dude because I feel like I’ve been watching for at least a year but how long has it been going we are approaching our two-year anniversary um August 22nd 22 we aired our first episode of high at 9 news and uh we have been going uh every single Monday through Friday uh since then hell yeah hell yeah I think I remember you used to do them on Twitter spaces I think I joined once and well what happened is um uh some of us were doing another uh show uh during covid that was only on clubhouse uh okay and and and uh the the the lady that had started that she wanted to to to stop it um her her her uh father had recently passed and she just didn’t have the time or the energy to continue to um to to do it or maintain it or anything else like that or whatnot and so um I wanted to keep on keep on going and so um I made something different um and you know you know because that was only an audio based type of application so we came up with the concept of doing uh doing a YouTube based you know what I’m saying live type of production daily daily news show and you know put the pieces together and uh and made it happen and it was like a really pretty seamless uh seamless transition we stopped we we we ended that show on a Friday and we started uh the show on a one day so you know we still kind of still made sure to to bring people um the information even though uh they needed to figure out where we were at and people are still trying to figure out where we’re at and here we are high n news at n news baby hell yeah um no but I remember I remember at least that so I’ve been I’ve been along for the ride you know I’ve seen the transition and I I must say that it’s you know it a great show like I said a huge fan and I just love the way that you have the rotating opinions and I actually wanted to play one just to give people a taste if they haven’t seen one and I think it’s really pertinent or relevant um to what’s going on here in Illinois let’s play the clip and then maybe you can share some of your thoughts and tell us tell us who this is too cuz I can’t recall uh the person’s name we’ll watch the clip like this isn’t that [ __ ] hard we can’t hold the city responsible and social Equity is not a guarantor of success what social Equity is if you guys can’t hear me [ __ ] turn your thing up but it’s the opportunity to fail like everyone else and not to be kept out of a business opportunity because of socioeconomic or criminal history etc etc it’s a chance to stand up and fail just like everyone else or they would say hey social Equity applicant here’s your store we’ve already built it here’s the money to run it have a great [ __ ] day so I want to see Tucky win I love you to death Tucky so yeah I thought she nailed social Equity um please tell us who that is and if you have any thoughts so that’s my friend uh Jenny Beth Dills awesome she was she was hting the nail the nail on the head you know um with with with all of those with all those talking points and so um you know as a little bit of followup uh on that um the story that we were that we cover was about a closure of a retail operation in Oakland that apparently um had only had a 5year lease and upon upon later after the Airing airing of that um that operator reached out to me and said said that said that that that wasn’t the reason um that that they had they had longer than a five-year lease um um but never went into what the reason was or anything else like that so um I you know this that that article uh from where we sourced it from is still up to my understanding and whatnot so I I don’t you know but I did I did get that call afterwards so I would like to definitely just make note of that since we we’re playing that in particular clip makes sense um but no she’s uh Jenny’s great uh I’ve known Jenny for a while um she has a company called um uh kind kind Consulting and uh really really uh Mar girl yeah well and the reason I thank you for clarifying that because I wasn’t you know I think yeah I heard her at the end of that clip when I was playing saying somebody’s name so I appreciate you C clearing that up but the reason I was playing it is because what what she addressed high level is I mean you said it earlier you understand it uh but I’m just if I could put it out clearly that is what Illinois has defined as social Equity they guarantee your success ESS guarantee generational wealth you you shouldn’t have to face Natural Market forces God forbid you go out of business even though Som I just I just don’t understand that you know I mean uh La tries to portray that too and I feel like if they want to that why don’t they just start cutting cutting people that won these licenses checks and don’t even don’t even need to open up a business just start cutting them checks every month right you know because like this it’s definitely not happening other way because there’s far too much uh government regulation that just drains all the money and then all the taxes um so a lot of these businesses especially these social Equity shops don’t really really turn much because at the same time too a retail uh retail storefront has the least uh type of deductions on with with a 28 structure yeah yeah well you know it’s it’s funny this hemp debate in Illinois they’ve made it about the talking point they’ve made it is that hemp is a direct competitor to our social Equity licenses in other words these people that are selling these products at gas stations or you name it online and such they’re they’re undercutting the social Equity licenses and what’s hilarious is I’ve had and I don’t have the drink right now they’re in my fridge I’ve had this company on my show that is a social Equity licy that also sells hemp products just like many cannabis companies do and it’s just a you know it’s one example that I can pull I’m sure there are more I’m sure there are others I’m sure they’re not alone because other people in Illinois definitely are also in the hemp space but I’m just saying they financed their social Equity operation with their hemp money wow because it was so hard to get up and R up and running in the Cannabis industry in Illinois you know I believe it I believe it yeah there’s I mean one one one market you it’s like it’s like um it’s it’s like a mirrored world it’s like you have one side that has high taxes and overregulation and the exact mirrored side is just this free and open market that is just booming and popping and pretty much zero regulation for the most part yeah yeah well Jason uh I got a split but I hope this isn’t the last time I have you on the coal memo and uh oh thank you for having me today Cole yeah absolutely absolutely again I’d love to have you back on and I just want to say again folks check out high at N I have the links in the podcast description so you can just click and go right on over subscribe check out their live streams hit the chat it’s a very interactive experience and the the crowd is awesome usually so there’s always a lively chat in addition to the show so yeah we try try to try to keep it interesting and yes we are on every Monday through Friday at 9:00 a.m. Pacific in high noon on the East Coast that’s when we stream live or you can catch us at any time that is most convenient for you and uh we we’re also available on uh YouTube Rumble twitch Twitter Instagram Facebook and on our very own website at http://www.h highight news.com folks I hope you found as much value in this conversation as I did once again Jason I look forward to the next time I have a conversation with you my friend most definitely Cole you guys have a fantastic day and thank you to all your audience for tuning in and checking this out hell yeah see you guys
The Cole Memo 
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