April 8, 2025 • 39 mins
Lead MC of the legendary Cypress Hill, B-Real grew up in LA at the height of the drug war, initially on the street hustling side of things. Music took him out of that life, but when California began to legalize in 2016 B-Real got back into the game on the legitimate side. He found however what many early-adopting entrepreneurs are finding - the Federal ban means you can’t use the banking system, and when you try and expand state to state you’re faced with a byzantine maze of conflicting regulations. What all this means is that the people that were formerly operating outside the system - are finding that operating inside the system is something of a dead end. B-Real’s companies employ hundreds of people in California, and could do so for thousands nationwide. But small operations like his can’t afford the regulatory navigation, so are increasingly losing market share to bigger institutional players, or worse, being driven right back into the black market.
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Additional Notes:
Because of federal restrictions, most banks won’t work with cannabis businesses, forcing them to operate almost entirely in cash. This makes them easy targets for crime and creates huge financial challenges. Reforms are needed so legal businesses can use banks like any other industry— reducing crime, improving oversight, and keeping the public safer. To learn more, click here.
High taxes, complex regulations, and expensive licensing don’t just hurt legal cannabis businesses—they push consumers back into the black market. When legal products are too expensive or difficult to access, unregulated sales grow, putting people at greater risk from unsafe products and criminal activity. To learn more, click here.
The podcast, its co-hosts, and its sponsors do not endorse or promote any specific products or companies discussed during the episode.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know all the hoops you have to jump through
with the city and state that you have to deal with,
the regulations, the penalties, de fees and all that stuff
on top of taxation. It makes the margins hard for
an operator.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Lava for Good and Stand Together Music present The War
on Drugs Podcast, Season two. This season, we're diving deeper
into the real stories behind the War on Drugs, its impact,
its failures, and the people offering a better path forward
today on the show. Founder and lead MC of multi
platinum seminal West Coast hip hop group Cyprus Hill, with
over twenty million albums sold worldwide for hits like Insane
(00:37):
in the Brain, I Ain't Going Out like That and
throw your Set in the Air, and first hip hop
group to have their own star.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
On the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Cannabis advocate and entrepreneur The One and Only Be Real.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Welcome back to Season two War on Drugs Podcast. I'm
Clayton English.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I'm Greg Laud. Yes, we're back, Yes, and then we're
going back yeah, going.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Back back back to Charlie. Yeah, it's gonna be, it's
gonna be. It's gonna be one of those ones.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
This was super cool, for those that don't know, we
went out to California. Yeah, sat down with uh Cypress
Hill's own be Real. Yeah yeah, he had us at
a studio, which was amazing. I think you said that
you were like, yeah, this is everything thirteen fourteen year
old me you would expect out of a Cypress Hill. Think.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, like close your eyes and you're like, Cypress Hill
is in the cannabis and podcasting game. Now where do
you think this is going on? And then up here
and you're like, yeah, I'm in Southsage, Los Angeles.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Yeah, we're in a car studio, smoke.
Speaker 5 (01:41):
He's got a lowrider that he shoots the hot Box
show out of.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
You get to see that.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Laven three D be Real just is a absolute source
on everything we talked about during the interview. You know,
just reading back on history and things like that. Like
he was always like this like arbiter in the in
like the hip hop community, where because he was seeing
someone that hey, I've struggled, I've come from here, but
I'm also kind of above a little bit of the
(02:07):
inner fighting that we saw during that time period.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
He was always a source and you can just see it.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
He and he was a weed advocate without trying to
be that.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
It was just who he was.
Speaker 5 (02:16):
Where they were coming from Cyprus Hill. They used to
I remember the shows used to have the big weed leaf,
the skeleton, smoke and a joint.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yeah, and that was back when it was dangerous.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
It is that they were going down to town right
exactly city?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Yeah, yeah, it's not like that cool anymore wherever. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Right, you're right, you got this stigma on you.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
So it's true.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yeah, And so I mean, yeah, he's been an amazing
you know, artists advocate business, I'm true, And a lot
of what we actually talked about was kind of his
entrepreneurship and him working in the cannabis industry and what
that looks like. We think of California as this you
know area. They they got medical and you know, the
first state they legalized in twenty sixteen for recreational. You
(02:55):
think of them as having like, you know, this robust,
you know system, but a lot of it isn't all
what it's cracked up to be. And not only is
it the local stuff that he talks about, but again
we get back to federal regulation and prohibition. He's trying
to own stores in different states, trying to move either
money or the actual products state to state. You can't
(03:15):
move it state to state or else. And now becomes
like a big federal defense. And we even found, you know,
there was a story out of you know, southern California
where you know, Brench trucks full of cash because they
can't work within you know, normal banks of money that
was from a medical store under legal guys under you know,
state law was pulled over by local sheriffs and the
(03:37):
money was diverted over to the Feds. They finally got
it back after there was a big hull of the
Like again, it's this second class business that we've continued
to create and that really allows for all the other
stuff that we want to remove from this, from legalization,
the black market, bad products, you know, allowing business to thrive,
let people who are actually impacted by the drug war
(03:58):
to be able to come back in we're still harming it.
And it was just really cool to talk to him
about some of those things from just he sounded like
a business owner, just any other business of concerned about
his stuff.
Speaker 6 (04:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (04:07):
Yeah, And I think a lot of people look at
you know, California and like it's legal there. Yeah, but
there's so much they still haven't figured out, and there's
so much that still needs to be done. Like once
you get legal weed, you still have to figure out
what are you going to do? From a business aspect,
how are these people gonna put their money in the bank,
(04:29):
how are these people what are the taxes look like?
What are all these things looking like, and what does
it look like to even be a business owner? Because
some of the stuff he was saying, it doesn't make
it look appealing to try to go legal. No, it's
far easier to probably stay in the black market. It's
probably a lot more work to try to go legal,
and it's continuous work.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
That's kind of what we learn from him.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, and I know living in DC right now, there's
been a huge issue because it is a cash market.
It's actually a very attractive business to launder money through
now that to try to make money, like you've seen
that because of licensed caps. You see cronyism where people
putting out bids and bribes for these things.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
You see money laundering being able.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
To go through because not going through regular banks like
prohibition actually creates more crime, right and creates more unsafe
products like be real to talk about that like he is.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
He has stores and things like that.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
He's very you know, passionate about kind of the medical
aspects of it, like how this works.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
He talked to us about that where yea.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Working about it with like how he works out with
you know, it's it's what he's doing. And so when
you you know, he talked about, you go into stores,
there's people there, a nodgeable, but you get so much
other bad stuff on the market, and people are a
knowledge because of prohibition, because things are still in the gray,
and that's disappointing.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
But it was just good to talk about all that
stuff though.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
It as cool as Yeah, you know, I think a
lot of times people look at it from the smoker's approach, yeah, exactly, like, oh,
you're able to smoke weed is legal, what are you
complaining about? And I'm like, I think you got to
look at it from a business own on his approach,
and that's kind of what be Real gave us in
this interview.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
No, I totally agree. We get into all that with them.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Don't want to give too much away right now, but
it was an amazing conversation just talk about you know,
what he was in the hip hop culture, what he's
still doing right now, still putting out stuff, and like
how he's come become this amazing entrepreneur.
Speaker 6 (06:18):
And it's a really cool conversation.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
So excited for you all to hear it.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Yeah, I can't wait.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
Hey that, Me and Greg, our guests and sponsors may
sound smart, we may even make some good points, but
at the end of the day, we're not medical professional.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (06:36):
Please don't get your medical advice from a podcast. Anything
we say on here does not constitute official medical advice. Relax,
consult your doctor before you start any new treatment plans.
Got it well? On drugs podcast. Man, it's Clayton English,
It's Greg Lade.
Speaker 7 (06:54):
Man.
Speaker 5 (06:54):
We somewhere special today Los Angeles, California. Man, we get
be Real studio right here, man with be Real with
doctor Green.
Speaker 7 (07:03):
Throw man on that.
Speaker 5 (07:04):
Hey, man, thank you for doing this with us. Yes,
thanks for having me. Yes, man for the listeners. Just
maybe give us the be Real the jump off story
because Los Angeles right yeah.
Speaker 7 (07:17):
Yeah. I was born and raised here and still here, yeah,
still here.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
You know, I've seen all sorts of craziness from you know,
the time of being a young young buck, growing up
to a team to an adult, you know, and the
evolution of living here in southern California, and it's wow
when you're born and raised here and you and you
live on some of those blocks where it's active or
(07:44):
you're a part of some of those blocks where.
Speaker 7 (07:46):
The activities the fast life ship, if you will.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Yeah, you know, you you grow up quick in that
and you have a different perspective on things, and it's like,
you know, you got to have your head on a swivel,
especially in the eighties, in the eighties before they started
cleaning all of it up and gentrifying the neighborhoods down
there a lot of gangs, right, you know.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
Yeah, man, So when did your journey start with rap?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
You know, we were always fans of music in a
way that is different than that you just appreciate music.
It was in a way that we wanted to do
it as well, you know, so especially with hip hop,
you know that it's something we felt we could do.
I mean, I was writing poetry and stuff when I
got into it, so it was sort of just the
(08:42):
figure out how to flip poetry into writing these rap
songs because it was very similar in certain ways. And
you know, as anything, you know, you're doing it and
you're having fun doing it, and you think you're good
and you're really not. But it was a hobby. Then,
you know, I didn't it was going to be a
career for me. And in the middle of that, I start,
(09:06):
you know, rolling with the gangs and stuff like that.
And you had my experiences and my soldiering in that.
Speaker 6 (09:12):
And how old are you when that first kind of started?
Speaker 7 (09:15):
Very yeah, I was like fifteen at this point.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Fortunately Mellow and his brother Sen were still rocking with Mugs,
so the three of them and myself had that in common,
and when they got an opportunity, they decided, hey, we
should go back and call b see if we can
get him off the street and get him participating in
the music. At first, I was, you know, not willing.
(09:44):
I was totally washed, and you know, I had to
be on the street. And then for some reason I
know what made me do it. I said, you know, yeah,
I'll go to the studio and see what's up. So
I'm seeing these big names rolling through and I'm like,
oh shit, this is kind of cool. And then I'm
hearing some of the music and I'm like, fuck, I
(10:05):
think I could still kind.
Speaker 7 (10:06):
Of do that.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
So it gave me like the appetite for being in
the studio as opposed to being on the street.
Speaker 6 (10:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
So obviously cannabis is a big part of your music
from the get go, and a lot of it is
talking about what you've seen in you know, where you
grew up, you know, kind of how the criminalization of it,
what's it done in your community? Can you kind of
discuss that, like obviously from an early age, like any
shared experiences about like living in the community, like and
then seeing how it the criminalization of cannabis in La
(10:36):
particularly how it's kind of destroyed the community and everything else.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Oh well, yeah, I mean there was such a huge
taboo on it when we came out and started talking
about it on records the way we did, because a
lot of people were going to jail for.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Right, Yeah, for like now like you like, hey, does
anyone want to vape? And everyone's like, no, I got
my own, Yeah, yeah, a lot of joys.
Speaker 7 (10:57):
Yeah, and some folks were doing years.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
I mean, you know there were stories that you got
caught with the seed or a roach in Texas, you're
doing ten to eleven years off top out here in
La It wasn't necessarily as harsh as that, maybe, but
it was still you know, it had people very paranoid
because they treated it like any other drug, and we
(11:19):
know now that it's not like any other drug, and
people don't consider it a drug, they consider it a medicine.
They spent so much money on propaganda and misinformation about
cannabis to demonize it, so, you know, people had the
wrong perception about it. It isn't until you know, the
Internet is now out there for the information Highway to
(11:42):
just be open to everyone to like do their own research.
And it wasn't until people started doing their own research
till they realized, you know what, it's not as bad
as they made it out to be, and a lot
of this shit is wrong. The steps that we went
through to get to hear we're pretty tough, because you know,
(12:03):
talking about this shit early, a lot of opportunities wouldn't
come our way as they would for others because we
were championing this that a lot of people didn't understand yet.
To think about where it's at now, it's like fucking
huge steps in the right direction finally, you know, and
the possibilities are endless. I mean, there's still a lot
(12:25):
of work to be done though, because the taxation is
unfair and the regulations are unfair. I mean, we cannot
operate like let's just say a Coca Cola if we're
trying to do our brands across the whole of the
United States. Like if we wanted to have a nationwide brand,
our packaging has to be different in this state. Then
(12:46):
in this state. We can use this font in this state,
but not in this state. There's no continuity or semblance,
I guess in the rules and regulations of legal cannabis
at this point, in.
Speaker 6 (12:59):
The banking, going into the banking, even staying in the state.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Yeah, the banking and the taxation, it makes it tough,
but it's slowly but surely going to get there. I
think when you think about where we're at now to
where we were thirty years ago. Big lead the history
of myself getting into the cannabis industry in the legal
(13:28):
forum was basically, we've seen all these retail stores pop
up before they had licenses, even you know, when they
were still kind of rogue or they were all rogue
or whatever, and you know, I thought, you know, maybe
we could do that when it becomes legal or something
like this. So it was always a thought in the head,
(13:49):
but it was like whether the other guys were going
to want to do it or not. And you know,
a couple of the guys were skeptical about it, you know,
because it was still up in the air in terms
of legality and all that stuff. So they, you know,
the Cyprus remained hands off on it. But I thought, well,
(14:09):
you know, I could take a chance if I did
it on my own. And so, you know, it started
with just putting a few products out there. I think
it was an edible, and you know, to my surprise,
you know, people found out about the edible. It was
made by a guy named Chris Bliss. To our surprise,
a lot of people reacted and it took a few
(14:33):
years before before anything really happened. But that was like
the first you know, dive into It was like an
infused edible. It was like an oatmeal cookie or some
shit like this. And eventually, you know, because my squad
and myself came from the cultivation background, we thought, well,
eventually maybe we could use this green thumb thing to
(14:56):
put out flower and whatnot.
Speaker 7 (14:59):
Eventually, you know, I.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Partnered up with a couple of people to do a
licensing deal with the first couple of shops that we
opened up, and you know, we got an amazing first
day show of support of what we were doing by
a lot of Cypress Hill fans and a lot of
fans that have like kind of followed this trajectory when
(15:23):
I made the character in a Cypress Hill song and
I started doing parties and events at it, and now
I'm launching you know, a couple of stores and stuff
like that. So the support was overwhelming, and that that
was basically the start. It went from like that cookie
product to possibly doing flour into you know, maybe it's
(15:44):
actually the platform, and then you know, we'll create another
product that goes into the platform. And that's where the
Insane oge which was you know, are at the time
our flower brand that we were putting into the stores, know,
and it was called Insane to tribute Cypress Hill as
for Insane, So that you know, that was basically the
(16:08):
entry and and you know, based off of the support
we got here and the excitement that it caused because
now you had social media everywhere and people you know, are.
Speaker 7 (16:18):
Getting shots in front of it.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
It's like when you're going to open up here when
you're going to open up there and you know, hey,
in a perfect world, yeah, you could just easily open
all these places.
Speaker 7 (16:29):
But it was tough to open up in the first place.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
There's a lot of nimby stuff in California, particularly, like
local control was realy heavy.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Yeah, I was fortunate in that I had operators who
had already been in operation, you know, different names, so
they sort of knew all the you know, all the
nuances that it took to run a shop, right, and
they had done a lot of the groundwork in terms
of having to deal with the city, with the licenses
(17:00):
and like, they had taken care of all that because
they had already been operating and they knew what the
system was, so they had all that in place, which
made it easier. So when we, you know, put the
sign up, people people came to it. And you know,
when was that first year you had your first retail, Yeah,
(17:20):
twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen around that time.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
What has been that experience as like a small you know,
cannabiz owner.
Speaker 6 (17:28):
Is that the term or is that lame?
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Well, it's you know, it's cool again, Yeah, I mean
it's it's it's great, but it has its challenges. You know,
all the hoops you have to jump through with the
city and state that you have to deal with, the regulations,
the penalties, the fees and all that stuff on top
of taxation. It makes the margins hard for an operator,
(17:52):
you know, in this industry. So it's been tough on
big brands and independent brands. The bigger brands that have
you know, funding, you know that they've survived to a degree.
Well some of the independence mom and pop right type
of brands and shops have have went away. Some of
(18:12):
them are still there. But yeah, you know, it's it's uh,
it's been challenging. I mean, it's rewarding in one way
because i mean, you know, hey, listen, we got legalization
and you know for medicinal and recreational and people are
not going to jail for it, and they're starting to
let some of those folks go that had cannabis convictions
(18:35):
and stuff like that.
Speaker 7 (18:36):
So that's great.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
But in terms of the operator and consumer, we're we're
still sort of paying for you know, we're paying to
play right exactly. Because you know a lot of people
thought when when they got into Canabi, the cannabis industry,
they were just going to be making money hand over fist,
and you know, in the beginning maybe it was like that,
(18:58):
but right about now it's it's not that not that easy,
whether you got micro licenses or you're just working with
one license, and.
Speaker 6 (19:07):
That breeds the illegality too, because then they start.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Doing well, which is why the black market flourishes, you know,
because it's like if the consumer thinks, well, I used
to get this for this, and now it's way too
fucking expensive. I'm just gonna call dude around the corner,
who's got some ship.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Jimmy's always been there.
Speaker 7 (19:28):
Jimmy's Jimmy and Timmy and Leimmy. They have always been there.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
You know, can't guarantee that the cannabis is clean, but
it might be.
Speaker 7 (19:37):
Gas too, you know.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
That's yeah, you know, the gas is a term for
really good, you know what I'm saying, And so you're
dealing with that. Then un till the city and state
sort of like come with the fair plan for us.
Speaker 7 (19:56):
It's it's it's.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Still gonna be taking those little bumps and bruises. But
I always believed that that the cannabis needed to create
its own lobby group to go and bring those taxes
down and get like sort of the regulation for most
of these states and stuff done before the other guys
that come in.
Speaker 7 (20:18):
Yeah, with that real.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Money come in and they start funding the lobbyists, and
then they're going to wash a lot of people out
after that.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
They're right, a lot of the ballot measures that go
on there, they indoctrinate the people that have already been
working in the medical industry, and it's a huge issue.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Yeah, and that I always thought the industry should do that,
you know, like band together, because then you're you know,
you're sort of carving your own path as opposed to
waiting for these guys to come do it and believe
that they will, like, you know, when the big money
is able to come in, they're going to lobby that
those taxes down and it's going to benefit them because
(20:55):
they will get it down, but it's going to benefit
them and anyone else isn't necessarily going to be grandfathered
in in the nice way, you know what I mean. So, Yeah,
if they brought the taxes down, it would allow growth
in many areas in terms of job growth. You know,
people would be able to hire more staff in some
of the cultivations because you need staff in the cultivations, right,
(21:20):
and even in the in the storefronts, and in all
aspects you know, from distribution and manufacturing and development and
all that stuff. You'd see all that grow and it
would allow the actual business to make money, and it
would make more money for the state and for the government,
(21:41):
you know what I mean. But when you're punishing, the
margins are very much lower, and then you start losing
businesses and losing those jobs and losing that tax dollar,
which is you know, some of what we're seeing in
the cannabis industry here in California. People have lost their
shops and lost their businesses who took a chance.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Yeah, I'm curious like what you saw during like COVID
during here in the cannabis industry, because it did seem
like a lot opened up.
Speaker 6 (22:09):
People on cash.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Maybe and then yeah, I mean there was an influx
of money spending and in the dispensaries, you know when
they got deemed as essential businesses, which they were, Yeah,
and people were getting that little bit of extra money
to spend, so they'd go off to every dispensary was
up at that time from the legal dispensaries to the
(22:30):
rogue shops.
Speaker 7 (22:31):
Like I was, Yeah, I was all.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
They all made a lot of money in that time,
rogue shop and license shop both, you know, and when
whenever they came back and those checks went away and
that extra money was gone, You've seen the dip everywhere. Yeah,
and then you know, the taxes became what they were
(22:55):
at what thirty eight percent like that, Yeah, and then
it made it hard for everybody.
Speaker 7 (23:00):
And you know, you had a lot of guys.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Over producing cannabis too that couldn't get rid of it
as they were, you know previously, because now no one
had that extra money.
Speaker 6 (23:09):
Right, particularly in bulk larger orders, and.
Speaker 7 (23:13):
Now everything's taxed a little bit higher.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
So it just kind of put the industry in a
you know, yeah, slowed the pace down a little bit.
Cannabis still gets discriminated on on many different levels. I mean,
you look at some of these platforms like YouTube and
(23:35):
that we broadcast on ig which we post content on Facebook,
which we were posting more content on in the past,
but not so much these days. They all discriminate against
cannabis accounts. So let's just say you have a business
and you don't have marketing dollar. All you have is
(23:57):
the social media networks to try and you know, get
some people, get some attention onto your brand, onto your
shop or product whatever. You know, immediately you got these
guys putting the hammer down on your account where you
know they'll they'll what do they call it, ghost shadow
band shadow ban your account, which I've gone through that
(24:20):
with Instagram and Facebook, right, I still go through it
because I'm a cannabis activist and advocate and obviously business
owner and consumer and connoisseur, right, all these different labels
in the cannabis industry. They don't look at it like
I'm an artist, like a musician from this smell. Yeah,
(24:41):
they're looking at me this way, and so you know,
my content, right's a fine line for them. So you know,
in the past, I've had to like go and take
off all my cannabis content so that they'd stop limiting
my content distribution. So like they make it if you
have a brand in your to like you know, get
(25:01):
some attention on it, just fucking squash it out. And
you know they do that with a lot of cannabis accounts.
It's not just mine, it's like the whole of us,
you know, what I mean, And it makes it hard,
especially when you're dealing with the margins you're dealing with
and you can't you don't have a budget to like
market like a corporation might. You don't have the marketing
(25:23):
and promotion, and you don't have the staff. All you
got is this. They won't even let you live there,
and so it's it's tough, but you know, it can
be done in spite of all these trials and tribulations
they're putting us through. If you've got a brand that
people trust and they trust you and you put out
quality shit, they will sustain you through the hard times
(25:45):
and support you, you know what I mean. So it
can be done. You just got to be able to
survive the wave of bullshit. It's happening right now, and
it might change in the next couple of years, you
never know, but like you've got to be able to
survive that wave. And fortunately we're one of the ones,
you know, surviving right now.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Right So you're not only in California, you're in multiple states,
Like how many people are you employing in what are
the difficulties of like managing operations in a multi state
you know area with cannabis like that's yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Well we're here, We're here in California and we're in
Michigan right now, and we're currently you know, trying to
expand to other states. And again, you know, one of
the stores stores, yes, and product and product, you know,
so we're expanding our product line and and Aura and
Aura dispensaries trying to because it's not easy being that again,
(26:39):
you know what we spoke about earlier. Every state has
a different set of regulations as to what you can
use for the logo of your dispensary. And then you know,
do you have a farm that you're going to get
your product from for the dispensary. You know, there's all
these different sorts of things to navigate. So it's something
(27:00):
that we definitely are planning on doing more of. But
it's just trying to figure out how we navigate that
with without.
Speaker 7 (27:10):
Losing our fucking minds.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
They make it They make it tough for all of us,
you know what I mean, especially when you're trying to
do multi state operations, you.
Speaker 7 (27:20):
Know what i mean.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
So if they had, you know, one set of regulations
and rules that we go by as opposed to you know,
having to do it this way in Arizona, doing it
this way in Florida, doing it this way in Colorado,
and this way in California. I mean, it makes it
tough because if you have any if you're trying to
have any continuity in meaning that like whenever you go
(27:42):
to McDonald's, you see the same colors and the same
golden arches, you see jack in the boxes that reddish white. Yeah,
so like what you're trying to put up a shop
that's very brand driven and not necessarily just product driven,
and you cannot use elements of that brand that people know, right,
(28:03):
it makes it tough. So you know, we're still we're
still growing here in California and we're you know, trying
to grow outside of that.
Speaker 7 (28:11):
But it's it's tough.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
And you know, we got we got some things in
the works where we're you know, trying to get some
new shops open in twenty five in different states. And
I do know that when we open up in different places,
you know, people get excited about it, and you know,
it does end up opening opportunities for others who want
(28:34):
to work for the brand. And whether it's in Michigan
or Arizona or Nevada or places like this.
Speaker 5 (28:42):
Job creation is important. They're always talking about that.
Speaker 7 (28:45):
Yeah, and we know that our brand does that.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
So it's it's just about you know, landing in the
right places and dealing with all with all the red
tape within those fucking places.
Speaker 7 (28:58):
And with cannabis, it's a lot.
Speaker 5 (29:01):
You were talking about the lobbying. The cannabis industry needs
to lobby together. Everything you just said sound like you
need to head up the lobb You can go down
there because everything you said made since job creation, all
that type of stuff. What can you say about, you know,
people getting together and actually doing that or making that happen.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
I would that.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Look well, you know, it takes everybody to be willing
to put the egos aside, in the competitive nature of
the cannabis business aside, because it became competitive and cut
throat out of nowhere, to put all that aside and
put their money together and do this before the big
(29:40):
money comes and does it for them, because if they
come and do it for us, a lot of us
are going to get shut out and it's going to
still be hard to operate for us while they reap
all the benefits. So you know, I've said this in
different interviews and with different people, but it just takes
the action, you know, people that actually have that kind
(30:04):
of finance, you know, that kind of funding to say,
all right, let's start this fucking lobby. Let's let's find
one of these politicians that we can get to get
down with us, because I mean, it's all about money
and in that network.
Speaker 7 (30:21):
Unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Yeah, hey, Biro, this has been absolutely awesome, appreciated. Any
place that you want to plug anything you want to
shout out before we go, uh.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
You know, just for Cypress Hill shows, check out cypresshill
dot com. And if you want to check out the
Doctor Green Thumb podcast or show whatever you know, check
it out, just look it up.
Speaker 6 (30:40):
Awesome, It's been great.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
Thanks all right.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Amazing, especially thanks to be Real for opening up a
studio all the way open.
Speaker 7 (30:55):
Now.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
But I think you know, talking to him, you know,
we these things get voted on and passed through the
legislature or you get to the ballot box, you see
it passes. You're all excited, and sometimes it does not
come to fruition. And we're seeing that with the cannabis
industry that there's a lot more work to be done
and this is multi layered and very complicated.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
But legalization, decriminalization, that's just the start of Yeah, because
it especially for people who you know, look at the
crime aspect of it. They're trying to they want it
to not increase crime in their area. Well, when it's
decriminalized or legalized like this, it's going to increase crime
because it's a cash business. Like that's one thing I'll say, Yeah,
(31:41):
marijuana is peaceful, but money never. And so when you
have a lot of money on hand, it doesn't matter
what you're selling, you're going to attract people that are
going to try to get I've known people in the
industry who've been you know, in violent robberies, you know,
involved it because they don't have a place to put
(32:02):
their money like they should, or regulations aren't in place
to accept the money.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Yeah, and to try to get into this industry is
such an overwhelming impediment for so many people. You know,
I've talked to you know, growers and retailers and a
lot of different places. Because we've been actively working took
at the federal level to kind of at least make
this industry like other industries. Like if your business touches
(32:28):
cannabis in any way, you could be susceptible to incredibly
heavy fines and taxes. So I've heard retailers say sometimes
it's seventy to eighty percent of gross sales can actually
be threatened by the irs to come in and take that.
And so it obviously stemies everything you hear industry after
industry and business person after business per se. If this
provision was removed, we could do a lot more things.
(32:51):
And that's just one tiny little aspect. It's also that
it's a federal you know, it's still first you know,
Schedule one drug and all the other little things that
that does to the actual industry. And so, like you
talked about, people can't put their money in there, so
that increases crime and it makes people go away. People
are going to get all their revenue, all their hard
work is going to get potentially taken by their government
(33:12):
or tax to death, so they stay away from it.
You're seeing all these complications just because we've decided to say,
at the program, this is still in this schedule in
the same place where heroin is pretty remarkable.
Speaker 5 (33:25):
Yeah, And I think another thing politicians always talk about
is job creation. Those types of things when you're doing
things like this, you're limiting the jobs that's allowed to
be created.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Absolutely, I mean be real saying, so how many work
could he create and others creating.
Speaker 5 (33:41):
Yes, and we're not just talking about at the dispensary.
Sure he might have a dispensary and they hire a
few people, but it goes all the way to the
grow operation, It goes to the it goes to everything.
Everything is impacted by any way a normal business would function.
He also brought up the point where he said, if
it was a normal business that had to do all
of these things, you would never see that.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
Product, not in a million years.
Speaker 7 (34:05):
If it was a.
Speaker 5 (34:05):
Soda, if it was Coca cola, if it was something
like that that we are familiar with that we use,
if they had to go through all of these regulations,
they would have never made it as a company.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
No, And you can't even ship it across state lines.
And so you thought you had like this, you know,
farm or whatever else you're growing. You're doing all these
things and your only way to like make profits is
essentially in your little area, right, and then your little
area might say, like in California, we've seen this, Hey,
you can't do that here or if you are, we're
(34:36):
going to cap it and good luck trying to compete.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
For these bids. Who do you think is going to
get the bits.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
It's the people that have the money, post of the money,
and the most of the things that are being written
are by people that already have direct investment into the
industry and they're going to make these things in ways
that allow for them to profit.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
And maybe we saw it very.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Similarly with alcohol when post prohibition, if you go in
your states, it's very difficult if you're or small craft brewer,
a lot of places to actually get your products out.
And why because the big guys when they made the
laws in nineteen thirty said all this.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
And we're seeing the same thing happen here.
Speaker 6 (35:09):
Yes.
Speaker 5 (35:09):
Well, yeah, the preferential treatment like we talked about would
be real.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
The mom and.
Speaker 5 (35:13):
Pops get pushed out for these bigger corporations that are
in other things. And we see politicians moving into the
space too. We see politicians who were against, you know,
drugs in every way when they come around and there's
money to be made, Hey, maybe this could work.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
It's constructive story. Yeah, right now I'm seeing the light.
Speaker 5 (35:33):
Yeah, So Greg Man you in policy what needs to
be done? Man, Because every time we get to this point,
I'm like, all right, I'm looking at you.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
What needs to be done? But I always remember.
Speaker 5 (35:44):
You say the classification, the rescheduling.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Yeah, I mean everything trickles down from that, and then
there's a lot more other stuff to do. But you know,
we were talking to be real after the interview and
just kind of discussing like what can be done because
it does seem very insurmountable, and a lot of what
he was saying is like we have to kind of
come together and come to a coalition. So I know
we were chatting about maybe doing some op eds and
(36:11):
getting together to kind of talk about this and kind
of getting people together to raise these issues, because I
do think it's all the little stuff that really hinders this,
because it's.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Like, hey, you guys, be quiet.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Now you got your stuff, and now we're going to
regulate this thing the way we want. And I think
people have to stand up to say no. But first
things first, it really is trying to remove some of
those provision aspects at the federal level, because everything trickles
down from You can't have a thriving business when the
federal government says the product you're selling is the worst thing.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
It's the worst thing, right, is illegal?
Speaker 3 (36:46):
Is we don't it's super leategy.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
Yeah no, So you know we're gonna kind of keep
monitoring this and as updates come, you know, be sure
to check out all our pages and things like that.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
Like I'm gonna we're going.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
To keep find of this and what we'll see there
might be some opportunity used to to really start to
kind of remove some of these you know, burdens to people,
because all we're asking let's make it a fair ball game.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
And allow for people.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
If we're gonna have this industry, to stop kicking it
under the leg You've.
Speaker 5 (37:11):
Got to get be real here in Washington, absolutely real
to talk to Congress or something.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
He's gonna marschtalls of Congress.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
We'll get him out right, yeah a post.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Uh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
He will be going through general security interests and everything else.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
So now again specially thanks to be real.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
And then we have another great artist coming in now
leave in LA going into Nashville. Personal favorite of mine,
John Osborne from the Brothers Osbourne. There he's a Maryland boy.
So the the my Maryland White Tress accent comes out
pretty good in this UH interview.
Speaker 4 (37:46):
We did a couple of times it did.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
It does.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Yeah, the ols and the ow's and and all that,
we're starting to thread pretty good. He was an amazing,
amazing conversation about mental health. You know, again, being at
the peak of your powers all these things is still
a human inaction.
Speaker 5 (38:02):
It is is the human condition. It's the human way. Yeah,
if you're not struggling, you're probably not doing that.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
And he has an amazing story and how you know,
psychedelics and other things have helped him and how it's
helped some of his friends potentially save their lives. So
you're not gonna want to miss that, So thank you again.
Speaker 8 (38:18):
And UH with that, take care the Season two The
War on Drugs is a production of Lava for Good
and Stand Together Music and association with Signal Company Number one.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
Stand Together Music unites musicians.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
And their teams with proven change makers to co create
solutions to some of the most pressing issues in our country,
including criminal justice, for foreign addiction recovery, mental health, education,
free speech, and ending the War on drugs. Learn more
at Stand Together Music dot org. Be sure to follow
Lava for Good on Instagram, Facebook, and threads at Lava
(38:54):
for Good. You can follow Clayton English on Instagram, NX
at Clayton English, and you can follow Craig Laude on
Instagram and on ex at greg Lot. Executive producers Jason Flamm,
Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wardis, and Collette Wintraub. Senior producers Kelsey Stenecker,
Zak Huffman, and Nick Stump. Post production by ten ten,
(39:15):
Audio talent booking by Dan Resnik. Rez Entertainment Head of
Marketing and Operations, Jeff Cleiburn, Social media director Ismadi Gudarama,
social media manager Sarah Gibbons, and art director Andrew Nelson
You know all the hoops you have to jump through
with the city and state that you have to deal with,
the regulations, the penalties, de fees and all that stuff
on top of taxation. It makes the margins hard for
an operator.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Lava for Good and Stand Together Music present The War
on Drugs Podcast, Season two. This season, we're diving deeper
into the real stories behind the War on Drugs, its impact,
its failures, and the people offering a better path forward
today on the show. Founder and lead MC of multi
platinum seminal West Coast hip hop group Cyprus Hill, with
over twenty million albums sold worldwide for hits like Insane
(00:37):
in the Brain, I Ain't Going Out like That and
throw your Set in the Air, and first hip hop
group to have their own star.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
On the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Cannabis advocate and entrepreneur The One and Only Be Real.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Welcome back to Season two War on Drugs Podcast. I'm
Clayton English.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I'm Greg Laud. Yes, we're back, Yes, and then we're
going back yeah, going.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Back back back to Charlie. Yeah, it's gonna be, it's
gonna be. It's gonna be one of those ones.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
This was super cool, for those that don't know, we
went out to California. Yeah, sat down with uh Cypress
Hill's own be Real. Yeah yeah, he had us at
a studio, which was amazing. I think you said that
you were like, yeah, this is everything thirteen fourteen year
old me you would expect out of a Cypress Hill. Think.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, like close your eyes and you're like, Cypress Hill
is in the cannabis and podcasting game. Now where do
you think this is going on? And then up here
and you're like, yeah, I'm in Southsage, Los Angeles.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Yeah, we're in a car studio, smoke.
Speaker 5 (01:41):
He's got a lowrider that he shoots the hot Box
show out of.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
You get to see that.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Laven three D be Real just is a absolute source
on everything we talked about during the interview. You know,
just reading back on history and things like that. Like
he was always like this like arbiter in the in
like the hip hop community, where because he was seeing
someone that hey, I've struggled, I've come from here, but
I'm also kind of above a little bit of the
(02:07):
inner fighting that we saw during that time period.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
He was always a source and you can just see it.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
He and he was a weed advocate without trying to
be that.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
It was just who he was.
Speaker 5 (02:16):
Where they were coming from Cyprus Hill. They used to
I remember the shows used to have the big weed leaf,
the skeleton, smoke and a joint.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yeah, and that was back when it was dangerous.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
It is that they were going down to town right
exactly city?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Yeah, yeah, it's not like that cool anymore wherever. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
Right, you're right, you got this stigma on you.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
So it's true.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yeah, And so I mean, yeah, he's been an amazing
you know, artists advocate business, I'm true, And a lot
of what we actually talked about was kind of his
entrepreneurship and him working in the cannabis industry and what
that looks like. We think of California as this you
know area. They they got medical and you know, the
first state they legalized in twenty sixteen for recreational. You
(02:55):
think of them as having like, you know, this robust,
you know system, but a lot of it isn't all
what it's cracked up to be. And not only is
it the local stuff that he talks about, but again
we get back to federal regulation and prohibition. He's trying
to own stores in different states, trying to move either
money or the actual products state to state. You can't
(03:15):
move it state to state or else. And now becomes
like a big federal defense. And we even found, you know,
there was a story out of you know, southern California
where you know, Brench trucks full of cash because they
can't work within you know, normal banks of money that
was from a medical store under legal guys under you know,
state law was pulled over by local sheriffs and the
(03:37):
money was diverted over to the Feds. They finally got
it back after there was a big hull of the
Like again, it's this second class business that we've continued
to create and that really allows for all the other
stuff that we want to remove from this, from legalization,
the black market, bad products, you know, allowing business to thrive,
let people who are actually impacted by the drug war
(03:58):
to be able to come back in we're still harming it.
And it was just really cool to talk to him
about some of those things from just he sounded like
a business owner, just any other business of concerned about
his stuff.
Speaker 6 (04:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (04:07):
Yeah, And I think a lot of people look at
you know, California and like it's legal there. Yeah, but
there's so much they still haven't figured out, and there's
so much that still needs to be done. Like once
you get legal weed, you still have to figure out
what are you going to do? From a business aspect,
how are these people gonna put their money in the bank,
(04:29):
how are these people what are the taxes look like?
What are all these things looking like, and what does
it look like to even be a business owner? Because
some of the stuff he was saying, it doesn't make
it look appealing to try to go legal. No, it's
far easier to probably stay in the black market. It's
probably a lot more work to try to go legal,
and it's continuous work.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
That's kind of what we learn from him.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, and I know living in DC right now, there's
been a huge issue because it is a cash market.
It's actually a very attractive business to launder money through
now that to try to make money, like you've seen
that because of licensed caps. You see cronyism where people
putting out bids and bribes for these things.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
You see money laundering being able.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
To go through because not going through regular banks like
prohibition actually creates more crime, right and creates more unsafe
products like be real to talk about that like he is.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
He has stores and things like that.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
He's very you know, passionate about kind of the medical
aspects of it, like how this works.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
He talked to us about that where yea.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Working about it with like how he works out with
you know, it's it's what he's doing. And so when
you you know, he talked about, you go into stores,
there's people there, a nodgeable, but you get so much
other bad stuff on the market, and people are a
knowledge because of prohibition, because things are still in the gray,
and that's disappointing.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
But it was just good to talk about all that
stuff though.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
It as cool as Yeah, you know, I think a
lot of times people look at it from the smoker's approach, yeah, exactly, like, oh,
you're able to smoke weed is legal, what are you
complaining about? And I'm like, I think you got to
look at it from a business own on his approach,
and that's kind of what be Real gave us in
this interview.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
No, I totally agree. We get into all that with them.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Don't want to give too much away right now, but
it was an amazing conversation just talk about you know,
what he was in the hip hop culture, what he's
still doing right now, still putting out stuff, and like
how he's come become this amazing entrepreneur.
Speaker 6 (06:18):
And it's a really cool conversation.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
So excited for you all to hear it.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Yeah, I can't wait.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
Hey that, Me and Greg, our guests and sponsors may
sound smart, we may even make some good points, but
at the end of the day, we're not medical professional.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (06:36):
Please don't get your medical advice from a podcast. Anything
we say on here does not constitute official medical advice. Relax,
consult your doctor before you start any new treatment plans.
Got it well? On drugs podcast. Man, it's Clayton English,
It's Greg Lade.
Speaker 7 (06:54):
Man.
Speaker 5 (06:54):
We somewhere special today Los Angeles, California. Man, we get
be Real studio right here, man with be Real with
doctor Green.
Speaker 7 (07:03):
Throw man on that.
Speaker 5 (07:04):
Hey, man, thank you for doing this with us. Yes,
thanks for having me. Yes, man for the listeners. Just
maybe give us the be Real the jump off story
because Los Angeles right yeah.
Speaker 7 (07:17):
Yeah. I was born and raised here and still here, yeah,
still here.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
You know, I've seen all sorts of craziness from you know,
the time of being a young young buck, growing up
to a team to an adult, you know, and the
evolution of living here in southern California, and it's wow
when you're born and raised here and you and you
live on some of those blocks where it's active or
(07:44):
you're a part of some of those blocks where.
Speaker 7 (07:46):
The activities the fast life ship, if you will.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Yeah, you know, you you grow up quick in that
and you have a different perspective on things, and it's like,
you know, you got to have your head on a swivel,
especially in the eighties, in the eighties before they started
cleaning all of it up and gentrifying the neighborhoods down
there a lot of gangs, right, you know.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
Yeah, man, So when did your journey start with rap?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
You know, we were always fans of music in a
way that is different than that you just appreciate music.
It was in a way that we wanted to do
it as well, you know, so especially with hip hop,
you know that it's something we felt we could do.
I mean, I was writing poetry and stuff when I
got into it, so it was sort of just the
(08:42):
figure out how to flip poetry into writing these rap
songs because it was very similar in certain ways. And
you know, as anything, you know, you're doing it and
you're having fun doing it, and you think you're good
and you're really not. But it was a hobby. Then,
you know, I didn't it was going to be a
career for me. And in the middle of that, I start,
(09:06):
you know, rolling with the gangs and stuff like that.
And you had my experiences and my soldiering in that.
Speaker 6 (09:12):
And how old are you when that first kind of started?
Speaker 7 (09:15):
Very yeah, I was like fifteen at this point.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Fortunately Mellow and his brother Sen were still rocking with Mugs,
so the three of them and myself had that in common,
and when they got an opportunity, they decided, hey, we
should go back and call b see if we can
get him off the street and get him participating in
the music. At first, I was, you know, not willing.
(09:44):
I was totally washed, and you know, I had to
be on the street. And then for some reason I
know what made me do it. I said, you know, yeah,
I'll go to the studio and see what's up. So
I'm seeing these big names rolling through and I'm like,
oh shit, this is kind of cool. And then I'm
hearing some of the music and I'm like, fuck, I
(10:05):
think I could still kind.
Speaker 7 (10:06):
Of do that.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
So it gave me like the appetite for being in
the studio as opposed to being on the street.
Speaker 6 (10:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
So obviously cannabis is a big part of your music
from the get go, and a lot of it is
talking about what you've seen in you know, where you
grew up, you know, kind of how the criminalization of it,
what's it done in your community? Can you kind of
discuss that, like obviously from an early age, like any
shared experiences about like living in the community, like and
then seeing how it the criminalization of cannabis in La
(10:36):
particularly how it's kind of destroyed the community and everything else.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Oh well, yeah, I mean there was such a huge
taboo on it when we came out and started talking
about it on records the way we did, because a
lot of people were going to jail for.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Right, Yeah, for like now like you like, hey, does
anyone want to vape? And everyone's like, no, I got
my own, Yeah, yeah, a lot of joys.
Speaker 7 (10:57):
Yeah, and some folks were doing years.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
I mean, you know there were stories that you got
caught with the seed or a roach in Texas, you're
doing ten to eleven years off top out here in
La It wasn't necessarily as harsh as that, maybe, but
it was still you know, it had people very paranoid
because they treated it like any other drug, and we
(11:19):
know now that it's not like any other drug, and
people don't consider it a drug, they consider it a medicine.
They spent so much money on propaganda and misinformation about
cannabis to demonize it, so, you know, people had the
wrong perception about it. It isn't until you know, the
Internet is now out there for the information Highway to
(11:42):
just be open to everyone to like do their own research.
And it wasn't until people started doing their own research
till they realized, you know what, it's not as bad
as they made it out to be, and a lot
of this shit is wrong. The steps that we went
through to get to hear we're pretty tough, because you know,
(12:03):
talking about this shit early, a lot of opportunities wouldn't
come our way as they would for others because we
were championing this that a lot of people didn't understand yet.
To think about where it's at now, it's like fucking
huge steps in the right direction finally, you know, and
the possibilities are endless. I mean, there's still a lot
(12:25):
of work to be done though, because the taxation is
unfair and the regulations are unfair. I mean, we cannot
operate like let's just say a Coca Cola if we're
trying to do our brands across the whole of the
United States. Like if we wanted to have a nationwide brand,
our packaging has to be different in this state. Then
(12:46):
in this state. We can use this font in this state,
but not in this state. There's no continuity or semblance,
I guess in the rules and regulations of legal cannabis
at this point, in.
Speaker 6 (12:59):
The banking, going into the banking, even staying in the state.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Yeah, the banking and the taxation, it makes it tough,
but it's slowly but surely going to get there. I
think when you think about where we're at now to
where we were thirty years ago. Big lead the history
of myself getting into the cannabis industry in the legal
(13:28):
forum was basically, we've seen all these retail stores pop
up before they had licenses, even you know, when they
were still kind of rogue or they were all rogue
or whatever, and you know, I thought, you know, maybe
we could do that when it becomes legal or something
like this. So it was always a thought in the head,
(13:49):
but it was like whether the other guys were going
to want to do it or not. And you know,
a couple of the guys were skeptical about it, you know,
because it was still up in the air in terms
of legality and all that stuff. So they, you know,
the Cyprus remained hands off on it. But I thought, well,
(14:09):
you know, I could take a chance if I did
it on my own. And so, you know, it started
with just putting a few products out there. I think
it was an edible, and you know, to my surprise,
you know, people found out about the edible. It was
made by a guy named Chris Bliss. To our surprise,
a lot of people reacted and it took a few
(14:33):
years before before anything really happened. But that was like
the first you know, dive into It was like an
infused edible. It was like an oatmeal cookie or some
shit like this. And eventually, you know, because my squad
and myself came from the cultivation background, we thought, well,
eventually maybe we could use this green thumb thing to
(14:56):
put out flower and whatnot.
Speaker 7 (14:59):
Eventually, you know, I.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Partnered up with a couple of people to do a
licensing deal with the first couple of shops that we
opened up, and you know, we got an amazing first
day show of support of what we were doing by
a lot of Cypress Hill fans and a lot of
fans that have like kind of followed this trajectory when
(15:23):
I made the character in a Cypress Hill song and
I started doing parties and events at it, and now
I'm launching you know, a couple of stores and stuff
like that. So the support was overwhelming, and that that
was basically the start. It went from like that cookie
product to possibly doing flour into you know, maybe it's
(15:44):
actually the platform, and then you know, we'll create another
product that goes into the platform. And that's where the
Insane oge which was you know, are at the time
our flower brand that we were putting into the stores, know,
and it was called Insane to tribute Cypress Hill as
for Insane, So that you know, that was basically the
(16:08):
entry and and you know, based off of the support
we got here and the excitement that it caused because
now you had social media everywhere and people you know, are.
Speaker 7 (16:18):
Getting shots in front of it.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
It's like when you're going to open up here when
you're going to open up there and you know, hey,
in a perfect world, yeah, you could just easily open
all these places.
Speaker 7 (16:29):
But it was tough to open up in the first place.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
There's a lot of nimby stuff in California, particularly, like
local control was realy heavy.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Yeah, I was fortunate in that I had operators who
had already been in operation, you know, different names, so
they sort of knew all the you know, all the
nuances that it took to run a shop, right, and
they had done a lot of the groundwork in terms
of having to deal with the city, with the licenses
(17:00):
and like, they had taken care of all that because
they had already been operating and they knew what the
system was, so they had all that in place, which
made it easier. So when we, you know, put the
sign up, people people came to it. And you know,
when was that first year you had your first retail, Yeah,
(17:20):
twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen around that time.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
What has been that experience as like a small you know,
cannabiz owner.
Speaker 6 (17:28):
Is that the term or is that lame?
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Well, it's you know, it's cool again, Yeah, I mean
it's it's it's great, but it has its challenges. You know,
all the hoops you have to jump through with the
city and state that you have to deal with, the regulations,
the penalties, the fees and all that stuff on top
of taxation. It makes the margins hard for an operator,
(17:52):
you know, in this industry. So it's been tough on
big brands and independent brands. The bigger brands that have
you know, funding, you know that they've survived to a degree.
Well some of the independence mom and pop right type
of brands and shops have have went away. Some of
(18:12):
them are still there. But yeah, you know, it's it's uh,
it's been challenging. I mean, it's rewarding in one way
because i mean, you know, hey, listen, we got legalization
and you know for medicinal and recreational and people are
not going to jail for it, and they're starting to
let some of those folks go that had cannabis convictions
(18:35):
and stuff like that.
Speaker 7 (18:36):
So that's great.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
But in terms of the operator and consumer, we're we're
still sort of paying for you know, we're paying to
play right exactly. Because you know a lot of people
thought when when they got into Canabi, the cannabis industry,
they were just going to be making money hand over fist,
and you know, in the beginning maybe it was like that,
(18:58):
but right about now it's it's not that not that easy,
whether you got micro licenses or you're just working with
one license, and.
Speaker 6 (19:07):
That breeds the illegality too, because then they start.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Doing well, which is why the black market flourishes, you know,
because it's like if the consumer thinks, well, I used
to get this for this, and now it's way too
fucking expensive. I'm just gonna call dude around the corner,
who's got some ship.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Jimmy's always been there.
Speaker 7 (19:28):
Jimmy's Jimmy and Timmy and Leimmy. They have always been there.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
You know, can't guarantee that the cannabis is clean, but
it might be.
Speaker 7 (19:37):
Gas too, you know.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
That's yeah, you know, the gas is a term for
really good, you know what I'm saying, And so you're
dealing with that. Then un till the city and state
sort of like come with the fair plan for us.
Speaker 7 (19:56):
It's it's it's.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Still gonna be taking those little bumps and bruises. But
I always believed that that the cannabis needed to create
its own lobby group to go and bring those taxes
down and get like sort of the regulation for most
of these states and stuff done before the other guys
that come in.
Speaker 7 (20:18):
Yeah, with that real.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Money come in and they start funding the lobbyists, and
then they're going to wash a lot of people out
after that.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
They're right, a lot of the ballot measures that go
on there, they indoctrinate the people that have already been
working in the medical industry, and it's a huge issue.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Yeah, and that I always thought the industry should do that,
you know, like band together, because then you're you know,
you're sort of carving your own path as opposed to
waiting for these guys to come do it and believe
that they will, like, you know, when the big money
is able to come in, they're going to lobby that
those taxes down and it's going to benefit them because
(20:55):
they will get it down, but it's going to benefit
them and anyone else isn't necessarily going to be grandfathered
in in the nice way, you know what I mean. So, Yeah,
if they brought the taxes down, it would allow growth
in many areas in terms of job growth. You know,
people would be able to hire more staff in some
of the cultivations because you need staff in the cultivations, right,
(21:20):
and even in the in the storefronts, and in all
aspects you know, from distribution and manufacturing and development and
all that stuff. You'd see all that grow and it
would allow the actual business to make money, and it
would make more money for the state and for the government,
(21:41):
you know what I mean. But when you're punishing, the
margins are very much lower, and then you start losing
businesses and losing those jobs and losing that tax dollar,
which is you know, some of what we're seeing in
the cannabis industry here in California. People have lost their
shops and lost their businesses who took a chance.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Yeah, I'm curious like what you saw during like COVID
during here in the cannabis industry, because it did seem
like a lot opened up.
Speaker 6 (22:09):
People on cash.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Maybe and then yeah, I mean there was an influx
of money spending and in the dispensaries, you know when
they got deemed as essential businesses, which they were, Yeah,
and people were getting that little bit of extra money
to spend, so they'd go off to every dispensary was
up at that time from the legal dispensaries to the
(22:30):
rogue shops.
Speaker 7 (22:31):
Like I was, Yeah, I was all.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
They all made a lot of money in that time,
rogue shop and license shop both, you know, and when
whenever they came back and those checks went away and
that extra money was gone, You've seen the dip everywhere. Yeah,
and then you know, the taxes became what they were
(22:55):
at what thirty eight percent like that, Yeah, and then
it made it hard for everybody.
Speaker 7 (23:00):
And you know, you had a lot of guys.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Over producing cannabis too that couldn't get rid of it
as they were, you know previously, because now no one
had that extra money.
Speaker 6 (23:09):
Right, particularly in bulk larger orders, and.
Speaker 7 (23:13):
Now everything's taxed a little bit higher.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
So it just kind of put the industry in a
you know, yeah, slowed the pace down a little bit.
Cannabis still gets discriminated on on many different levels. I mean,
you look at some of these platforms like YouTube and
(23:35):
that we broadcast on ig which we post content on Facebook,
which we were posting more content on in the past,
but not so much these days. They all discriminate against
cannabis accounts. So let's just say you have a business
and you don't have marketing dollar. All you have is
(23:57):
the social media networks to try and you know, get
some people, get some attention onto your brand, onto your
shop or product whatever. You know, immediately you got these
guys putting the hammer down on your account where you
know they'll they'll what do they call it, ghost shadow
band shadow ban your account, which I've gone through that
(24:20):
with Instagram and Facebook, right, I still go through it
because I'm a cannabis activist and advocate and obviously business
owner and consumer and connoisseur, right, all these different labels
in the cannabis industry. They don't look at it like
I'm an artist, like a musician from this smell. Yeah,
(24:41):
they're looking at me this way, and so you know,
my content, right's a fine line for them. So you know,
in the past, I've had to like go and take
off all my cannabis content so that they'd stop limiting
my content distribution. So like they make it if you
have a brand in your to like you know, get
(25:01):
some attention on it, just fucking squash it out. And
you know they do that with a lot of cannabis accounts.
It's not just mine, it's like the whole of us,
you know, what I mean, And it makes it hard,
especially when you're dealing with the margins you're dealing with
and you can't you don't have a budget to like
market like a corporation might. You don't have the marketing
(25:23):
and promotion, and you don't have the staff. All you
got is this. They won't even let you live there,
and so it's it's tough, but you know, it can
be done in spite of all these trials and tribulations
they're putting us through. If you've got a brand that
people trust and they trust you and you put out
quality shit, they will sustain you through the hard times
(25:45):
and support you, you know what I mean. So it
can be done. You just got to be able to
survive the wave of bullshit. It's happening right now, and
it might change in the next couple of years, you
never know, but like you've got to be able to
survive that wave. And fortunately we're one of the ones,
you know, surviving right now.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Right So you're not only in California, you're in multiple states,
Like how many people are you employing in what are
the difficulties of like managing operations in a multi state
you know area with cannabis like that's yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Well we're here, We're here in California and we're in
Michigan right now, and we're currently you know, trying to
expand to other states. And again, you know, one of
the stores stores, yes, and product and product, you know,
so we're expanding our product line and and Aura and
Aura dispensaries trying to because it's not easy being that again,
(26:39):
you know what we spoke about earlier. Every state has
a different set of regulations as to what you can
use for the logo of your dispensary. And then you know,
do you have a farm that you're going to get
your product from for the dispensary. You know, there's all
these different sorts of things to navigate. So it's something
(27:00):
that we definitely are planning on doing more of. But
it's just trying to figure out how we navigate that
with without.
Speaker 7 (27:10):
Losing our fucking minds.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
They make it They make it tough for all of us,
you know what I mean, especially when you're trying to
do multi state operations, you.
Speaker 7 (27:20):
Know what i mean.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
So if they had, you know, one set of regulations
and rules that we go by as opposed to you know,
having to do it this way in Arizona, doing it
this way in Florida, doing it this way in Colorado,
and this way in California. I mean, it makes it
tough because if you have any if you're trying to
have any continuity in meaning that like whenever you go
(27:42):
to McDonald's, you see the same colors and the same
golden arches, you see jack in the boxes that reddish white. Yeah,
so like what you're trying to put up a shop
that's very brand driven and not necessarily just product driven,
and you cannot use elements of that brand that people know, right,
(28:03):
it makes it tough. So you know, we're still we're
still growing here in California and we're you know, trying
to grow outside of that.
Speaker 7 (28:11):
But it's it's tough.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
And you know, we got we got some things in
the works where we're you know, trying to get some
new shops open in twenty five in different states. And
I do know that when we open up in different places,
you know, people get excited about it, and you know,
it does end up opening opportunities for others who want
(28:34):
to work for the brand. And whether it's in Michigan
or Arizona or Nevada or places like this.
Speaker 5 (28:42):
Job creation is important. They're always talking about that.
Speaker 7 (28:45):
Yeah, and we know that our brand does that.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
So it's it's just about you know, landing in the
right places and dealing with all with all the red
tape within those fucking places.
Speaker 7 (28:58):
And with cannabis, it's a lot.
Speaker 5 (29:01):
You were talking about the lobbying. The cannabis industry needs
to lobby together. Everything you just said sound like you
need to head up the lobb You can go down
there because everything you said made since job creation, all
that type of stuff. What can you say about, you know,
people getting together and actually doing that or making that happen.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
I would that.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Look well, you know, it takes everybody to be willing
to put the egos aside, in the competitive nature of
the cannabis business aside, because it became competitive and cut
throat out of nowhere, to put all that aside and
put their money together and do this before the big
(29:40):
money comes and does it for them, because if they
come and do it for us, a lot of us
are going to get shut out and it's going to
still be hard to operate for us while they reap
all the benefits. So you know, I've said this in
different interviews and with different people, but it just takes
the action, you know, people that actually have that kind
(30:04):
of finance, you know, that kind of funding to say,
all right, let's start this fucking lobby. Let's let's find
one of these politicians that we can get to get
down with us, because I mean, it's all about money
and in that network.
Speaker 7 (30:21):
Unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Yeah, hey, Biro, this has been absolutely awesome, appreciated. Any
place that you want to plug anything you want to
shout out before we go, uh.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
You know, just for Cypress Hill shows, check out cypresshill
dot com. And if you want to check out the
Doctor Green Thumb podcast or show whatever you know, check
it out, just look it up.
Speaker 6 (30:40):
Awesome, It's been great.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
Thanks all right.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Amazing, especially thanks to be Real for opening up a
studio all the way open.
Speaker 7 (30:55):
Now.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
But I think you know, talking to him, you know,
we these things get voted on and passed through the
legislature or you get to the ballot box, you see
it passes. You're all excited, and sometimes it does not
come to fruition. And we're seeing that with the cannabis
industry that there's a lot more work to be done
and this is multi layered and very complicated.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
But legalization, decriminalization, that's just the start of Yeah, because
it especially for people who you know, look at the
crime aspect of it. They're trying to they want it
to not increase crime in their area. Well, when it's
decriminalized or legalized like this, it's going to increase crime
because it's a cash business. Like that's one thing I'll say, Yeah,
(31:41):
marijuana is peaceful, but money never. And so when you
have a lot of money on hand, it doesn't matter
what you're selling, you're going to attract people that are
going to try to get I've known people in the
industry who've been you know, in violent robberies, you know,
involved it because they don't have a place to put
(32:02):
their money like they should, or regulations aren't in place
to accept the money.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Yeah, and to try to get into this industry is
such an overwhelming impediment for so many people. You know,
I've talked to you know, growers and retailers and a
lot of different places. Because we've been actively working took
at the federal level to kind of at least make
this industry like other industries. Like if your business touches
(32:28):
cannabis in any way, you could be susceptible to incredibly
heavy fines and taxes. So I've heard retailers say sometimes
it's seventy to eighty percent of gross sales can actually
be threatened by the irs to come in and take that.
And so it obviously stemies everything you hear industry after
industry and business person after business per se. If this
provision was removed, we could do a lot more things.
(32:51):
And that's just one tiny little aspect. It's also that
it's a federal you know, it's still first you know,
Schedule one drug and all the other little things that
that does to the actual industry. And so, like you
talked about, people can't put their money in there, so
that increases crime and it makes people go away. People
are going to get all their revenue, all their hard
work is going to get potentially taken by their government
(33:12):
or tax to death, so they stay away from it.
You're seeing all these complications just because we've decided to say,
at the program, this is still in this schedule in
the same place where heroin is pretty remarkable.
Speaker 5 (33:25):
Yeah, And I think another thing politicians always talk about
is job creation. Those types of things when you're doing
things like this, you're limiting the jobs that's allowed to
be created.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Absolutely, I mean be real saying, so how many work
could he create and others creating.
Speaker 5 (33:41):
Yes, and we're not just talking about at the dispensary.
Sure he might have a dispensary and they hire a
few people, but it goes all the way to the
grow operation, It goes to the it goes to everything.
Everything is impacted by any way a normal business would function.
He also brought up the point where he said, if
it was a normal business that had to do all
of these things, you would never see that.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
Product, not in a million years.
Speaker 7 (34:05):
If it was a.
Speaker 5 (34:05):
Soda, if it was Coca cola, if it was something
like that that we are familiar with that we use,
if they had to go through all of these regulations,
they would have never made it as a company.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
No, And you can't even ship it across state lines.
And so you thought you had like this, you know,
farm or whatever else you're growing. You're doing all these
things and your only way to like make profits is
essentially in your little area, right, and then your little
area might say, like in California, we've seen this, Hey,
you can't do that here or if you are, we're
(34:36):
going to cap it and good luck trying to compete.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
For these bids. Who do you think is going to
get the bits.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
It's the people that have the money, post of the money,
and the most of the things that are being written
are by people that already have direct investment into the
industry and they're going to make these things in ways
that allow for them to profit.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
And maybe we saw it very.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Similarly with alcohol when post prohibition, if you go in
your states, it's very difficult if you're or small craft brewer,
a lot of places to actually get your products out.
And why because the big guys when they made the
laws in nineteen thirty said all this.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
And we're seeing the same thing happen here.
Speaker 6 (35:09):
Yes.
Speaker 5 (35:09):
Well, yeah, the preferential treatment like we talked about would
be real.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
The mom and.
Speaker 5 (35:13):
Pops get pushed out for these bigger corporations that are
in other things. And we see politicians moving into the
space too. We see politicians who were against, you know,
drugs in every way when they come around and there's
money to be made, Hey, maybe this could work.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
It's constructive story. Yeah, right now I'm seeing the light.
Speaker 5 (35:33):
Yeah, So Greg Man you in policy what needs to
be done? Man, Because every time we get to this point,
I'm like, all right, I'm looking at you.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
What needs to be done? But I always remember.
Speaker 5 (35:44):
You say the classification, the rescheduling.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Yeah, I mean everything trickles down from that, and then
there's a lot more other stuff to do. But you know,
we were talking to be real after the interview and
just kind of discussing like what can be done because
it does seem very insurmountable, and a lot of what
he was saying is like we have to kind of
come together and come to a coalition. So I know
we were chatting about maybe doing some op eds and
(36:11):
getting together to kind of talk about this and kind
of getting people together to raise these issues, because I
do think it's all the little stuff that really hinders this,
because it's.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Like, hey, you guys, be quiet.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
Now you got your stuff, and now we're going to
regulate this thing the way we want. And I think
people have to stand up to say no. But first
things first, it really is trying to remove some of
those provision aspects at the federal level, because everything trickles
down from You can't have a thriving business when the
federal government says the product you're selling is the worst thing.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
It's the worst thing, right, is illegal?
Speaker 3 (36:46):
Is we don't it's super leategy.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
Yeah no, So you know we're gonna kind of keep
monitoring this and as updates come, you know, be sure
to check out all our pages and things like that.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
Like I'm gonna we're going.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
To keep find of this and what we'll see there
might be some opportunity used to to really start to
kind of remove some of these you know, burdens to people,
because all we're asking let's make it a fair ball game.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
And allow for people.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
If we're gonna have this industry, to stop kicking it
under the leg You've.
Speaker 5 (37:11):
Got to get be real here in Washington, absolutely real
to talk to Congress or something.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
He's gonna marschtalls of Congress.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
We'll get him out right, yeah a post.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Uh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
He will be going through general security interests and everything else.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
So now again specially thanks to be real.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
And then we have another great artist coming in now
leave in LA going into Nashville. Personal favorite of mine,
John Osborne from the Brothers Osbourne. There he's a Maryland boy.
So the the my Maryland White Tress accent comes out
pretty good in this UH interview.
Speaker 4 (37:46):
We did a couple of times it did.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
It does.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Yeah, the ols and the ow's and and all that,
we're starting to thread pretty good. He was an amazing,
amazing conversation about mental health. You know, again, being at
the peak of your powers all these things is still
a human inaction.
Speaker 5 (38:02):
It is is the human condition. It's the human way. Yeah,
if you're not struggling, you're probably not doing that.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
And he has an amazing story and how you know,
psychedelics and other things have helped him and how it's
helped some of his friends potentially save their lives. So
you're not gonna want to miss that, So thank you again.
Speaker 8 (38:18):
And UH with that, take care the Season two The
War on Drugs is a production of Lava for Good
and Stand Together Music and association with Signal Company Number one.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
Stand Together Music unites musicians.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
And their teams with proven change makers to co create
solutions to some of the most pressing issues in our country,
including criminal justice, for foreign addiction recovery, mental health, education,
free speech, and ending the War on drugs. Learn more
at Stand Together Music dot org. Be sure to follow
Lava for Good on Instagram, Facebook, and threads at Lava
(38:54):
for Good. You can follow Clayton English on Instagram, NX
at Clayton English, and you can follow Craig Laude on
Instagram and on ex at greg Lot. Executive producers Jason Flamm,
Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wardis, and Collette Wintraub. Senior producers Kelsey Stenecker,
Zak Huffman, and Nick Stump. Post production by ten ten,
(39:15):
Audio talent booking by Dan Resnik. Rez Entertainment Head of
Marketing and Operations, Jeff Cleiburn, Social media director Ismadi Gudarama,
social media manager Sarah Gibbons, and art director Andrew Nelson
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