September 9, 2021 • 41 mins
Sweetleaf Collective is a donation based charity organization that has provided more than $3.5 million worth of medical cannabis for free to HIV/AIDS & Cancer patients in California as well as the Greater San Francisco Bay Area since 1996. Highway 1 Distribution is a family operated enterprise that promotes small batch, locally sourced cannabis products that support local business and strengthens the community.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's now time for Cannabis Talk one oh one with Blue,
Joe Grande and Mark and Craig Wasserman the Pot Brothers
at Law. We're the world's number one podcast for everything cannabis.
Hello and welcome to Cannabis Talk one on one. My
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(01:06):
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Joe Grand fifty two and today on the show He's
not a ship talker, at least not earlier he was it.
Sweet Leave Joe, He's a man, the myth, the legend
from the Bay Area. The founder and director of Sweet
(01:28):
Leaf Collective sweet Leaf Collective dot org as a spot
along with David King, president of Highway one Distributions. You
could check out his website at Highway one Distributions dot com.
And I just want to tell you guys, everything you
guys are doing is unbelievable. Sweet Leave Joe, I gotta
read this because on your website it just doesn't say
(01:49):
it any sweeter than this. Sweet Leaf Collective is exclusively
a donation based charity organization. Since n when the ground
breaking to fifteen proposition past in California, we have been
providing free medical cannabis to HIV, slash AIDS and cancer patients.
(02:10):
In California and the greater San Francisco Bay Area. You
have been earning your wings, I'm sure even before nineteen six.
Sweet Leave Joe. It is a pleasure to have you
on Cannabis Talk one oh one and have you on
the show with us as long as well as you
David King, thank you guys for joining us. Yeah, I
mean so much things too, even with you Highway one California.
(02:33):
You guys are both in the Bay Area. Let's start
with you, Sweet Leave Joe. Though, as I just mentioned that,
how does one's heart and passion get into doing this
in n six when the taboo was as big as
it gets with cannabis and quote unquote marijuana, weed and
this and that. I mean, you had to be doing
(02:54):
nice things before to fift passed. So how did you
fall in line with all this? Well, you know, I
was a young activist. I was twenty years old participating
in a group called Food Not Bombs and Food Not Bombs.
They have a great structure. They take surplus from supermarkets.
(03:17):
They take you know, food, they cook it up, and
they give it away to homeless people. So the basic
premise is you take surplus from an industry and you
get it to those who need it most. So when
we had Proposition to fifteen pass, I said, why don't
we do this with medical cannabis, And we took surplus
from the cannabis industry and we got it to low income,
(03:38):
terminally ill patients. And that was back then. It changed
with sixty four. We're no longer plant touching. But you know,
that's that's some of the history, you know, through through
that process, you know back, let's list date it back
and pull it back a little bit, you know. Yeah,
because I was in I did the same we're doing
here in l A. It sounds like what you're doing
patients too. Yeah, So it's funny you say that because
(03:59):
when that process happened in nine, um, you know, I
got my tax certificate in Los Angeles to operate under
to to fifteen, and then um, you know, opened up
our you know, our stores, and we were doing the
not for profit doing business as a mutual benefit organization.
And we we went through those different you know, I guess,
uh uh funnels in order to try and operate, and
(04:22):
I found out that wasn't the right way to operate.
This is the right way to operate. And then find
out this isn't the right operation. So did you guys
go through any trials and tribulations to those times, because
I feel like, you know, there was raids for us,
there was shut downs, there was you're doing this illegal,
you're not doing it right. But yet it was in
the state guidelined and the city didn't know what the
fun was going on. I mean, talk about some of
that that stuff, the things that you had going on
(04:45):
back then. Oh yeah, well back then, I mean it
was crazy. You know, the federal government was going after
doctors for talking to their patients about medical cannabis. You know,
we were worried. You know, if we got caught that
we you were facing five to ten years federal time.
And so you know that's one of the reasons we
(05:05):
focused on lower income, terminally ill people. You know, the
need was there, but also that was very defendable in court.
And so another thing that we did too is we
have always been delivery and that was another part of
running tight game. The Feds did not know where to
find us. We didn't have an address online. Now everybody
(05:28):
who was doing storefronts, like, yeah, they were they were scared.
You know, the Feds were coming down on people they
were doing raids, and so I I basically organized the
project in the safest way possible where it would be
the most sustainable for the longest amount of time. And
and you see, we are the oldest medical cannabis group
(05:49):
in the state, which I believe means in the country
now and this is our twenty five anniversary, you know,
And so that model it worked. Now now do you
guys have state licensing or are you still operating under
that same model? So no, we are no longer under
the proposition to fifteen model. Um you know, the Sunset
(06:13):
sbfour twenty and so that took away the collective model, right.
So you know, we take care of a hundred patients,
but I can't pick up a hundred pounds now and
you know, bring it from Humboldt down to the Bay Area,
package it up and get it to the patients because
there is now there there isn't a nonprofit license category.
(06:35):
So you know, that's why we got Dave here. Dave
is handling distribution for us. So we have multiple partners
at every single level of the supply chain and everybody
is permitted and so you know, Dave can speak to this.
You know, he helps us consolidate donations and then we
get it out to a delivery service called Padre Move
(06:59):
in the Bay Area and they personally deliver it to
our patients. So now we're we're more like a patient organization.
We're like weed social workers and um, yeah, you like
that one. And you know what it's like. The last
two decades, not only haven't been given it to low
income but veterans, seniors, the whole nine. You guys are
(07:20):
given over two million dollars worth of compassionate cannabis. I
mean you're doing the lord's work. Yeah, actually that number
now is up to three point five million dollars worth
of cannabis. And then we're also you know, working with
Dave and we have a side project called Team Compassion.
It's basically all the same people, but you know it's
(07:42):
a different organization now. Sweetly, you know, we're trying to
be a five oh one C three. So we're just
working with patients. We're not working with cannabis so to speak.
We help patients access free medical cannabis. And then what
Team Compassion does is we handle that aspect, handles, you know,
supply chain logistics. We're getting a lot of interest in donations,
(08:07):
and so we're actually now sourcing donations for other compassion programs,
like you guys probably know Weed for Warriors, you know,
Sean Kiernan, loved that guy. He also you know Sean
Kiernan Weed for Warriors and Ryan Miller from Operation Evac.
Along with Sweet Leaf, we were the ones who pushed
through SP thirty four and got you know, the law
(08:29):
changed in California so that compassionate cannabis, you know, cannabis
given away to those who need it most is not
taxed anymore. And so it's great, you know, working with
Dave and being able to source these donations. Already this year,
I want to say we've gotten out almost one point
five million dollars worth of cannabis to Sweet Leaf patients,
(08:52):
but also to veterans through Operation Evac and Weed for Warriors.
And then there's a lot of uh, some new programs
come up that are doing BIPOC compassion and so they're
getting compassion out to you know, African American community. We're
working on getting a program going in the Indigenous community,
and we're seeing something we're calling Compassion two point oh
(09:15):
is a consolidation at different aspects of the supply chain
where we are now able to more efficiently create more
access to Compassion. You know, we have donors that hit
us up and instead of them like som Roasts of
Farms is a great example, they have donated a hundred
and ninety pounds of retail ready flower. Yeah, that's incredible.
(09:40):
Definitely give those guys props. And so instead of them
having to find ten Compassion programs and do ten different
deliveries to all those people, we're one stop shop. They
hit up Team Compassion, we get it dropped at Highway
one distribution with Dave and then you know we have
other Compassion donations too. So when we're going to read
(10:03):
for Warriors in Long Beach, you know we're not just
bringing him flower. We're bringing him chocolate from Coda Signature,
you know, tinctures from Humble Harvest. You know, we're we're
consolidating that so each of these brands, they're not having
to do ten runs to ten different programs and when
you have four different donors, that's forty runs. Instead they
(10:24):
call us up, it's only one run to us, and
then we're doing those four donations altogether in one run.
So it's efficient. You know, we're using less gas, it's
costing less money. We're seeing a consolidation where it's becoming
more efficient and creating more access. And for those who
want to donate, Sweet Leaf Collective dot org as the website,
(10:46):
there's a PayPal thing you can click on and see that.
We're gonna take a break real quick and come back
and find out how this relationship came with Highway One
Distribution and David King. As of course you've been doing
this Joe since I can't wait to hear the story
how David gets involved and bring in the distribution. It's
Cannabis Talk one on one. We'll be right back after this.
(11:18):
Welcome back to Cannabis Talk one on one. Check this out, guys,
Check this out the counterculture Houston, Texas guys. George Brown
Convention Center going down. Make sure you check out Bud
Man's two four twenty expressions, turf Pene, Warehouse, Viscus Vapes, guys.
G four bud Tenders Awards going down at resort were
(11:41):
made Swell through the fourteenth guys. What time is it,
Joe dime time? Yes, it is Man Kelly Effects feel
the effects will be there and connector as well. Guys,
and listen right now. We've got an amazing story to
tell you, guys. It goes over to my man, Mr King,
(12:01):
the president of Highway one Distribution. David tell us a
little bit about that story, you know, and how you
and uh Mr Leaf here, sweet Leaf and met how
did you get get involved with this whole organization? It's
really kind of strange. I worked with food, not bombs
as well back around the time he did. But did
(12:22):
you have hair back then? I'm just wondering, because Joe
just test me to ask you that if you had
hair back then? No, I didn't. He didn't remember you.
I'm kidding. So did you do you guys work together there? Huh?
You guys worked together then giving out food for that organization, Yeah,
but we didn't know each other. Yeah. And then from
there I went to working for a place called Project
(12:44):
Open Hand. We delivered a lot of meals for people
that were terminally ill. Um to fifteen came in. We
sort of on the slide delivered a lot of cannabis
for people who are terminally ill as well. Um and
I kind of have always felt uh compelled to help
(13:09):
people in this manner, and uh, well, why David, I
want to elaborate there. You know, I love when people
feel that way. Why why do you have that compassion?
Because not a lot of people do in their heart.
It's not like everyone does. And I know Blues done
it and I always admire him, and I admire you
guys as well, and David, for you to say that
as well as you sweet leave Joe for saying this
(13:29):
and doing that? What made you because how about this
guy's I never did that, you know what I'm saying.
So I admire you guys and take my hat off
to all of you because I'm like, wow, you guys
have done something that's helping a lot of people. What
made your heart feel that way? And go that way? David,
I know it sounds cheesy, but I I feel like it.
(13:50):
It makes the better world. And if more people did it,
you know, I just feel like more people should do it. Hey,
cheesy is good and I want the real truth, like
that's you know, I mean, give me a cracker because
I wanted like you, Joe, I mean, and it's funny
and traig even you yourself. You do a lot of
things that are good for the people. You get a
lot of fat stuff on the on the website you
(14:10):
work with weed for Warrior Sean Kiernan. It was actually
a very very close dear friend of mine and I
general counsel for the last five years now for a
week four years. And when they need any kind of work,
they can call on me and they know I can
get it done, and I take care of him and
they're great people. What was that pro bono you could
(14:31):
say that? Yeah, so once again it's it's that give
back to the communities and give back to organizations that
happened like that. So how did you guys? So you
guys met way back then, We didn't meet work at
another organization. Where did the like, Hey, oh my god,
I'm David King, I have this Highway one distribution. Did
you already have the company or do you already had
(14:52):
the company? Yeah? Uh, this is uh right. When COVID
hit um Joe reached out to me asked if I
could just help with the transfer actually, and I said,
you know what, let me do the whole thing. And
we jumped in early April did our first Compassion run
(15:13):
and it went beautifully. And uh, I've been with the
numb since. You know now, now the way you guys operate.
You know, has there been blowback from the bc C
or any other organization? Yeah, because I mean, you know,
it's a it's a different model, right, And it sounds
like you guys are now thunder Prop thirty four Blue No, no, no,
but but but there's a llegal there's a legal way
(15:34):
to do it now. Unfortunately, prior to that, it was
it was really a funked up situation. And then they
passed Prop thirty four, which gives an avenue for retailers
to be able to supply and donate without getting just
fucked under the old system prior to SP thirty four. So,
(15:54):
and you need a distributor in the loop as well, um,
in order to facilitate that, because everything's got to go
into track and trace and that traded from a licensed provider.
You're and you're the distributor, David, Yes, got you. We
also have processing, So we're gonna start doing some of
some some of our own packaging for uh, for the
(16:17):
legacy that we're doing. Um, yeah, we're gonna be a
legacy when warriors. Yeah what was that. We're gonna be
doing that with weed for warriors as well. So we're
you know, Weed for Warriors, Operation EVAC, and Sweet Leaf.
We all worked on SP thirty four together, and we
worked on it the year before when it was sp
(16:39):
A twenty nine, but it got vetoed by the governor.
We had to lobby for two years to make the
State of California recognize the nonprofit sector of our industry.
So right now we got a bulk donation of one
hundred pounds of flower. It's coming from Elkhorn Farms, really
great farm. They really want to support Passion. So we're
(17:01):
gonna be getting that to Highway one in Santa Cruz.
Operation EVAC is going to be going there. Ryan Miller,
he's gonna be helping do the packaging as well as
Brooke who works with sweet Leaf, and Weed for Warriors
and sweet Leaf are gonna split the costs for purchasing,
the packaging and the labeling, and so we're gonna create
(17:22):
this new Compassion brand. We're not sure what we're gonna
call it yet, maybe Champions of Compassion from the people
that brought you SB thirty four. So it's all of
us that worked on SP thirty four that made this happen,
and now we are going to be making our own
compassion flower and we're gonna split it three ways. A
(17:42):
third of the hundred pound donation is going to Operation Evac,
a third is going to weed for Warriors, and a
third is going to sweet Leaf patients. And this is
you know, we're creating this compassion ecosystem. And this is
compassion two point oh, compassion one point oh. We were
all doing our own thing. Now we're teaming up or
consolidating and we're creating more access. How hard is it
(18:05):
for you guys to make people understand that this is
compassion and this is not for you know, profit. You're
not sitting there making you know, tons of dough off
this when you're sitting there giving away so much cannabis,
you're giving away so much medicine to these sick patients
with aids, this or that or you know what you
name the problem. How hard is it to convince these
(18:26):
people to donate, let alone the laws that you have
to go through and jump through to make sure that
you're safe in doing it properly. Uh, the laws are
a pain in the ass, But getting people to um
to donate has been actually pretty easy. Um. So, when
you know someone, when someone decides to come on and
(18:46):
go ahead and donate. How do they go about that?
I mean do they just you know, send their credit
card information or is it send weed? Yeahounds, I mean,
how how can somebody donate? Well, we definitely were king
for more monetary donations. We are currently fiscally sponsored, so
you know, when you do a donation, you can get
(19:07):
a tax right off. We really need help with that.
You know, there's links on the website and you know,
as far as the cannabis, usually people will hit me
up and then you know, we'll go back and forth
in some emails and then I'll pull Dave in and
we'll usually try to get it delivered to Dave in
Santa Cruz. But you know, if the donation is large enough,
(19:30):
we can potentially, you know, Dave can potentially go and
pick it up. And yeah, you just so you know
how it works, Joe, Joe, How how it works is
I mean, people can buy cannabis and then give it
to anybody they want. What was this case? You asked like, hey, Mark,
(19:51):
you want to put your phone on mute? Mark, you're
on the show there now, welcome, Welcome to the show. Yeah,
that's that was Martimer. Welcome Art. Yeah, it's just first
time trying to explain to Joe and all of our
listeners that we're talking about we're talking about legal, regulated
(20:12):
cannabis being provided and donated to everybody that we're talking about, veterans,
patients and the so forth. It's not that anybody can
do it. It's anybody can buy cannabis and if they
want to donate it, give it away. I mean under
Prop six e four, you can give up to an
ounce away whatever. That's that's one thing. But we're talking
(20:34):
about you. You I can't go buy some of the
score and then go to the store and say here,
give this away from me. It has to come from
a licensed cultivator through the entire system, tracked traced into
the system. So it's not just like you know, anybody
can do it. So what they're saying is for those
(20:56):
of us who aren't regulated cultivators, who can actually make
that move and give up a hundred pounds, we can
donate funds. Yeah, and I want to be specific on
that to donating funds to sweet Leaf. Sweet Leaf is
a patient organization. The funds go to organizing patients to
(21:16):
making sure that their paperwork is up to date. None
of that money purchases cannabis. We are not breaking any
laws here, sweet leaf is uh like we said earlier,
we're weed social workers. Yeah, it's a five O one
three right. Yeah, So it's completely you know, up and
up and and we love that too. And like I said,
(21:38):
I think it's something special that you guys are doing
right now. And and honestly, you know, from us, it's
it's very difficult for a lot of people to to
be the social workers of this industry because most people
are here for a money grab and or they have
no compassion. They don't even care about the patients that
have been out here and in this struggle. And I
(21:59):
you know, I go back to the two fifteen days
when you know, we had uh tons of HIV patients,
cancer patients, people with glaucoma and and different you know elements,
elements that we were dealing with, and we really cared
about them. And I tell everybody you have to remember
when you get in this industry that people from this
(22:20):
industry started from a very compassionate place, you know, And
it's very difficult for people to understand that because you know,
a lot of a lot of people think it's a
cash crap. Like you said, it's so well stated. I mean,
you look at these big companies and look at these
I'm buying a jet, I'm buying this orrom this company,
that company. But when they start from that pure heart,
like what you guys have been doing, and that's why too.
(22:41):
And I remember hearing about you guys coming on the
show a while back, and I was doing some research
on you guys, going wow, these guys have been doing
it for a long time and they're still doing it.
And your guys have been representing the patient, representing the culture.
I mean, you know, you're out in the Santa Cruz,
You're out in the Humboldt area, You're where californi Arna
has grown some of the best cannabis that is well
(23:03):
known around the world, Like you know what I mean.
Like it's like, oh, and I'm from the Bay Area.
I'm born and raised in San Jose, so we used
to get it from Humble, our Santa Cruz and be like, wow,
some of the best weed ever from both of those locations.
And for those who don't know about California, those two
locations are damn near go hand in hand, one being Humbled,
second being Santa Cruz in my humble opinion of how
(23:26):
I get You know, when I was smoking back then
in the Bay going oh boy, you got the killer.
But you guys are now grabbing it and doing it
out a way where you're helping so many people out
that it should be recognized globally like what you guys
are doing and other people around the world that want
to help out people like this. This is what sweet Leave,
Joe and David King are doing, and once again just
(23:47):
applaud you for it. Jo. Do you work with different
retail outlets? Yeah, right now. You know, we are sourcing
donations for Cornerstone Reese arch in l A for the
Higher Path. Dave's been doing those delivery runs. We're also
working with a therapeutic alternative. We've done some runs down
(24:09):
to LB. Atlantis with weed for warriors. You know, we're
we're starting to be compassion distributors. You know, we're able
to source donations for other people. And you know, I
just want to touch on what you were saying about Humble.
We started another little program. So John Cassally from Huckleberry
Hill Farms and Humble second generation cannabis farmer. He did
(24:33):
almost ten years federal time and he got out. He's
got his own brand. He donated seventy pounds and True
Humboldt and Redwood Roots helped us with the packaging, and
we have a brand, a compassion brand called Humboldt Legacy
Compassion because there's an untold story and Murder Mountain makes
everybody think Humboldt is full of crazy, tweaker growers and
(24:55):
the real story and Humble is that they have supplied
the majority of compassionate cannabis to California's patients for the
last three decades. And that's the real story. And that's
why we made this brand and we're gonna be getting
that out to patients. All the whole seventy towns is
all going to be given away. And this is the
real story. Humble has been supporting this community and we
(25:19):
need to give him props. You know, and John what
was John's last name, John Casali? Check him out. He's great.
I mean Forbes article about him. You know, he did
real time thanks to camp and you know, they took
his family farm and when he got out, the community
rallied together and he got his farm back and he's
(25:41):
permitted now. He just got the first tourism permit. So
they're gonna do a bud in breakfast there, go to
his farm. You go to his farm there you wake
up and you just wake and bake with some humble
or Huckleberry Hill farms. We Yeah, I read a band.
There was an article. I can't remember where I read it,
not that maybe it was a few months ago or
(26:03):
even a little longer. And I'm glad you brought that
up because I definitely have to check that out. Man.
We have to have all your viewers and listeners like
go check him out. John is such a true, true
dude and his farm is beautiful and like I said,
his second generation. He grew up on that farm when
he was like six seven years old, watering pop plants
(26:25):
for his mom. Wow, that's amazing, guys. Well there it is, guys.
It's Cannabis Talk one on one. When we come back
the High five, it's Cannabis Talk. Well right back, take
a hit, get lit, and sit back and enjoy Cannabis
(26:47):
Talk one oh one Mark and Craig, Pop Brothers, that
Law Blue and Joe Grande And it is my favorite
time of the show, the Cannabis Talk one oh one
High five, Joe, you know, thank you, Mark Wasser and
from the Pop Brothers at law, I want to ask
you guys one more question though before we get and
of course if anybody else has another one, But as
I have the two lawyers here, just thinking about the
(27:09):
legal issues that you guys may have come across. Have
you guys been arrested for doing just giving away cannabis
like this? Especially you Joe, I mean in doing that,
I mean I would think, what David King having a
distribution company, it should be fine. But what type of
legal issues did you guys have? And so I haven't
really had any issues, you know, like we talked about
earlier when to fifteen passed and the Feds were coming
(27:31):
down on everyone. I just specifically designed this business model
to be the hardest for them to come after us,
and I designed it so if they did find us,
it would be the most defendable in court. And so
thank god, you know, operating for twenty five years, we
never had any problems illegal. Thank I mean, it's it
(27:54):
sounds like the good old days of uh not only
prop to fifteen, but really if that's before twenty that
gave you the defense if something were to happen. We
set people up in order to defend which in the
old days it was felony first, defend later. So doing
it the proper way, getting to have and everything in line.
So something did go down, It's like here, motherfucker's right. Yeah,
(28:18):
we would. When we would go up to humble and
like you know, pick up fifty pounds a hundred pounds,
we would have a binder of patient paperwork. Now that
binder included a member agreement, so that's what constituted under
s before twenty this collective agreement. We weren't acting as individuals.
We were acting on behalf of these patients. So if
(28:39):
they messed with us, they you know, the cops are
like you know, and we never really had any problems,
but they would have looked at the binder. They're seeing
all these physicians. But Joe, where you're wrong is this
is where you're wrong. Everything you're saying is correct, except
they look at the binder and they go fuck you.
Let the judge look at the binder or even know.
(29:00):
No matter how many you know, We've we had so
many back in the day. We tell them, if you
set up right, you carry your paperwork right, you do
it right. Then you're gonna be good, but you'll probably
be arrested and then we go in with all the
documents that you had on you at the time. They
ignored it with la la la, and then we get
you out. But I mean, you're right, that's how it
(29:20):
used to be done back in the good old days.
And I'm wondering with you, David, did anybody have any
problems when you're going up there and grabbing it? I mean,
I know your distribution, but do you guys ever have
to run into the law and prove everything, uh, to
prove everything? Yes, but it's been pretty pretty straightforward. Um,
not a lot of problems. Um, haven't had any huge
(29:42):
issues other than, you know, shut the funk up and
have a nice day. So you guys know the script, Well,
let's see before we get into the high five, Mark,
let's see if they really do know the script. Test
them quick, Mark, you want want to do the script challenge?
I think we do the script challenge before we do
(30:03):
the high fives and say they're the ones who mentioned
shut the funk up. That's all I know. All you
need to know. That's all you need to know. At
the end of the day, I guess we Back in
the day, we would have little I D Cards and
they would have a picture of us and say, you know,
oh a driver for sweet Leaf. And then on the
(30:23):
back of that card we had two lawyer numbers and
on the back it said two law enforcement call these lawyers,
you know, don't talk to the person in the car
or in the truck. And you know those lawyers were
Patrick Doggan, Yeah, Patrick Goggan and Bill Panser. And Bill
Panzer is one of the guys who was, you know,
co author of Proposition to fifteen. He was one of
(30:45):
our lawyers. Nice, yeah, yeah, No. I mean if any Bill,
anybody worked their salt back in those days, if your
clients didn't have one of those documents, for whatever it
was worth on site or at the you know, point
of arrest, you know, you weren't worth to not you
weren't worth anything if you didn't provide that to your
clients to take these with you. This isn't you know,
(31:08):
if you want a defense. It was really that simple.
Do you want to defense the felonies or not? Well,
there it is. Thank god they didn't have to deal
with it. Let's get to that high five though. You guys,
I'm gonna ask you guys a question. Each of us
will ask you guys a question. You'll answer it the
best you can. We'll start with sweet Leave Joe, and
then David King you'll answer the same exact question right
(31:28):
after him. Question number one of the High five with
cannabis talk one oh one. How are you the first
time you smoke cannabis? And where'd you get it from? Joe?
Oh my god, I love this story. I was saying, Okay,
I was going to high school down in Monterey and
me and some friends, like we didn't know shit about weed.
(31:49):
We scored a bag on the street. It was kind
bud and so our first time getting high, we had
a little soda can. We had actually taped a straw
to the soda can because that somebody told us to
do that. You know, we didn't just hit it. We
had like the straw and we're smoking it in this
little like right next to the safe way. But it
was like, you know, there was like a I don't know,
(32:11):
it was some trees, but it was like kind of
like a spot, you know, homeless people would hang out
and oh my god, we got lit. That's always a
good time. And Who did you get it from? I
don't even know, some dude on the street. It's a
random random what city? What city was this? Was this
in the city of San Francisco? No, this was in Monterey,
(32:32):
I want to say, or good old cannary row out
there in Monterey. Love that area, David King. I was
thirteen and I got it from a person making the clown.
Who the hell's making the clown? My parents booked entertainment
(32:53):
for fairs. I grew up around circus people. Awesome, that's great. Yeah,
he's he's a pretty prominent guy up in Colo Valley.
Still still popping? Is he still clowning around? I think
he's about but he's still around. Nice. We've got a
couple of clowns on this show too, speaking to actually
(33:17):
you're actually now you really Joe, Like, do you really
put the nose on the whole makeup the whole line? Oh?
Hell yeah. I can walk on a rope and juggle
at the same time, unicycle still walking, I do fire performance.
Maybe you could teach Craig how to chew gum and walk.
We've been trying to work on him with that for
a while. But maybe he can get out number two,
Question number two. Joe. Joe, Yeah, no, not you, Joe,
(33:43):
the other job. But see this is what I mean, Joe,
this is how this one is my favorite way. It's
not kidding, I'm I'm playing question number two. What's your
favorite way to use cannabis? That's an idiot. Um, So
I'm taking a little break now. But you know, I
like smoking split if and then for sleep I'll do
some rso because you know the Rick Simpson oil. And
(34:06):
I feel like people don't talk about this enough. Yeah
it helps with cancer, but if you have cancer, but
it can be a preventative for cancer as well and
all things for that matter. Yeah, what about you, David,
I'm very old school. I like flower like a nice joint,
nice hand rolled joint. It's always fun. Question number three
(34:29):
of the High five Craziest place you've ever used or
smoked cannabis joke? Mm hmmm. I don't know. It's been
lots of crazy places. I mean I traveled around the
whole world, and you know I've been in like war
zones and yeah, smoking some weed in like Kosovo or something. Wow,
(34:52):
you know there was there was one time we were
doing a they pulled me on to this tour, we
were going to Mongolia overland from the south of France.
We went overland and we were in Poland, and you know,
at that time, I wasn't smoking splits and everyone else
was and mixing tobacco. I wanted to smoke it pure,
so I had an apple. And we get pulled over
(35:13):
in Poland and everybody's hiding the drugs and they're like, hey, Joe,
what about your fucking apple pipe? And I pulled it
out and I was like, oh, ship and fucking eat
the whole thing right there. I've been using it for days,
just reson all up. It's a chewy apple. Oh god man.
(35:39):
And they didn't even search us. Nice. What about you,
I'm gonna have to say, probably uh abandoned freeway after
the eighty nine earthquake. Oh I remember that earthquake? Well, yeah,
seven point six was it or something like that. We
(35:59):
have had a good one that during the World Series.
I can never forget that. The Giants. Yeah, how was
at football practice when it happened at James Lick High
School in the Bay Area and remember making a play
and I felt like I was just rolling in my
head like what the hell just happened? What a time?
(36:19):
Go ahead, Markey, alright. Question number four of the Cannabis
Talk one on one high five. We're here with sweet
Leaf Joe, founder and director of Sweet Leap Collective, and
David King, president of Highway one Distribution. Guys, Question number four,
what is your go to Munchi's after you get high? Joe?
(36:42):
I love them to Tino's pizza roles. I mean that's
like some teenage high school ship. But I'll tell you what,
I'll still eat that. Alright, that's getting hungry. David, what
do you what do you go for? What are your
much peanut butter or anything you know butter that you know,
(37:02):
those peanut butter pretzels are just death, you know. I
mean you can't just grab one. You gotta just a
big handful and then another little handful and then put
the jar back. On Question number five with a high
five of these two great gentlemen. If you could smoke
cannabis with anyone dead are alive, who would it be
and why? Starting with you Sweet Leaf Joe. That's a
(37:25):
good one to think of. I see even pondering. I know, Dave,
do you have an answer? Because it's almost like I
want to one of my favorite artists, Genesis Peorge. He
was are they actually uh sang for Robbing Gristle Psychic
TV did a ton of crazy yard around the Bay Area.
(37:48):
I think he'd be a lot of fun. And why
why do you think that? Just because he like his
way he sings? Is it? I love everything he's ever.
I'm sorry they have ever done? Oh so it's a band. Well,
they being the um the person, they being the person nice, Okay,
(38:10):
you it's the and it is. I have actually smoked
with them, but I'm gonna have to say Dennis Perrone
and I would throw I throw Brownie Mary in there too.
I never actually got to meet Brownie Mary, but I
would love to get high, you know, with both of
them together. You know, in two thousand and eight Team,
(38:33):
when we started doing SBA twenty nine, Dennis was gonna
be our spokesperson and I had met with him and
he wound up passing a couple of months after that,
and uh, yeah, that that guy. That's the dude that
is the number one person who has done the most
for cannabis ever about Alan Alda, No, Dennis prow Mann.
(38:57):
Dennis started compassion. You know, he was in a way
cannabis the low income AIDS patients in the eighties, like
he's he's I mean, he's my inspiration. Are you? Are
you guys both born and raised in the Bay Area?
Actually I was. I was born in the Midwest, but
I've moved out here when I was two, Okay, she
(39:20):
and then Bay Area the whole life like between sant
Okay and you too, Joe and so me. I was
born in Europe, but my family on both sides, like
all my great grandparents came to northern California and my
dad got moved around a bunch. So I I lived
in the Bay like three different times for like probably
about a third of my childhood. But once I was eighteen,
(39:44):
you know, I've been I've been in the Bay wella
in California. Now I'm up here in Trinity County, but yeah,
for decades. And when you went to Trinity County, did
you realize that it was the mecca for cannabis or
what led you to get there to be like, oh
my god, uh, well, I moved up here two and
(40:04):
a half years ago, and you know it's this is
there's the Emerald Triangle. Everybody knows Humble everybody knows Mendocino,
and then they don't realize that triangle means three and
Trinity counties that other counties. So actually, I live at
a spot. We we grew two seasons here during proposition
to fifteen days. We got this as a you know,
(40:25):
as an income property, and then we stopped growing here
but still paying the mortgage, and I kind of got
tired of the day, and I was like, you know what,
I'm gonna move to this tiny ast town of three
people and just like kick back, you know, from living
in the Mission District in San Francisco for like twenty
years to coming up here, it's like it's a breath
of fresh air. I know that struggle. I mean, the
(40:46):
Bay Area is no joke. San Francisco's as crazy as
it gets. Well, for those who want to see the
website once again, go check it out Sweet Leaf Collective
dot o RG and David King, the president of Highway
one Distribute, which is Highway one Distribution dot com. Go
check out his If you need his services, go check
those out as well. Is there anything else that we're
(41:07):
missing for you guys that you guys want to promote.
I think you did a wonderful job. Yeah, I think
you did a great job to definitely the whole thing
about financial contributions, that's the biggest thing that's holding us
back from expanding more. And so anybody who wants to
make a tax deductible contribution, any cannabis brands out there
(41:29):
that want to be a partner or a sponsor, hit
us up. You know. There it is guys as Cannabis
Talk one on one, and we want you all to
remember this. If no one else loves you, we do.
Thank you for listening to Cannabis Talk one on one
on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
you get your podcasts.
It's now time for Cannabis Talk one oh one with Blue,
Joe Grande and Mark and Craig Wasserman the Pot Brothers
at Law. We're the world's number one podcast for everything cannabis.
Hello and welcome to Cannabis Talk one on one. My
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(00:23):
number one source for everything cannabis. Is that we are Blue.
Thank you so much, Mr Christopher right, it's always a
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Make sure you follow us on all social media at
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(01:06):
brothers at the Pot Underscore Brothers Underscore at Underscore Law,
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dog Blue is at one. Christopher writes, I am at
Joe Grand fifty two and today on the show He's
not a ship talker, at least not earlier he was it.
Sweet Leave Joe, He's a man, the myth, the legend
from the Bay Area. The founder and director of Sweet
(01:28):
Leaf Collective sweet Leaf Collective dot org as a spot
along with David King, president of Highway one Distributions. You
could check out his website at Highway one Distributions dot com.
And I just want to tell you guys, everything you
guys are doing is unbelievable. Sweet Leave Joe, I gotta
read this because on your website it just doesn't say
(01:49):
it any sweeter than this. Sweet Leaf Collective is exclusively
a donation based charity organization. Since n when the ground
breaking to fifteen proposition past in California, we have been
providing free medical cannabis to HIV, slash AIDS and cancer patients.
(02:10):
In California and the greater San Francisco Bay Area. You
have been earning your wings, I'm sure even before nineteen six.
Sweet Leave Joe. It is a pleasure to have you
on Cannabis Talk one oh one and have you on
the show with us as long as well as you
David King, thank you guys for joining us. Yeah, I
mean so much things too, even with you Highway one California.
(02:33):
You guys are both in the Bay Area. Let's start
with you, Sweet Leave Joe. Though, as I just mentioned that,
how does one's heart and passion get into doing this
in n six when the taboo was as big as
it gets with cannabis and quote unquote marijuana, weed and
this and that. I mean, you had to be doing
(02:54):
nice things before to fift passed. So how did you
fall in line with all this? Well, you know, I
was a young activist. I was twenty years old participating
in a group called Food Not Bombs and Food Not Bombs.
They have a great structure. They take surplus from supermarkets.
(03:17):
They take you know, food, they cook it up, and
they give it away to homeless people. So the basic
premise is you take surplus from an industry and you
get it to those who need it most. So when
we had Proposition to fifteen pass, I said, why don't
we do this with medical cannabis, And we took surplus
from the cannabis industry and we got it to low income,
(03:38):
terminally ill patients. And that was back then. It changed
with sixty four. We're no longer plant touching. But you know,
that's that's some of the history, you know, through through
that process, you know back, let's list date it back
and pull it back a little bit, you know. Yeah,
because I was in I did the same we're doing
here in l A. It sounds like what you're doing
patients too. Yeah, So it's funny you say that because
(03:59):
when that process happened in nine, um, you know, I
got my tax certificate in Los Angeles to operate under
to to fifteen, and then um, you know, opened up
our you know, our stores, and we were doing the
not for profit doing business as a mutual benefit organization.
And we we went through those different you know, I guess,
uh uh funnels in order to try and operate, and
(04:22):
I found out that wasn't the right way to operate.
This is the right way to operate. And then find
out this isn't the right operation. So did you guys
go through any trials and tribulations to those times, because
I feel like, you know, there was raids for us,
there was shut downs, there was you're doing this illegal,
you're not doing it right. But yet it was in
the state guidelined and the city didn't know what the
fun was going on. I mean, talk about some of
that that stuff, the things that you had going on
(04:45):
back then. Oh yeah, well back then, I mean it
was crazy. You know, the federal government was going after
doctors for talking to their patients about medical cannabis. You know,
we were worried. You know, if we got caught that
we you were facing five to ten years federal time.
And so you know that's one of the reasons we
(05:05):
focused on lower income, terminally ill people. You know, the
need was there, but also that was very defendable in court.
And so another thing that we did too is we
have always been delivery and that was another part of
running tight game. The Feds did not know where to
find us. We didn't have an address online. Now everybody
(05:28):
who was doing storefronts, like, yeah, they were they were scared.
You know, the Feds were coming down on people they
were doing raids, and so I I basically organized the
project in the safest way possible where it would be
the most sustainable for the longest amount of time. And
and you see, we are the oldest medical cannabis group
(05:49):
in the state, which I believe means in the country
now and this is our twenty five anniversary, you know,
And so that model it worked. Now now do you
guys have state licensing or are you still operating under
that same model? So no, we are no longer under
the proposition to fifteen model. Um you know, the Sunset
(06:13):
sbfour twenty and so that took away the collective model, right.
So you know, we take care of a hundred patients,
but I can't pick up a hundred pounds now and
you know, bring it from Humboldt down to the Bay Area,
package it up and get it to the patients because
there is now there there isn't a nonprofit license category.
(06:35):
So you know, that's why we got Dave here. Dave
is handling distribution for us. So we have multiple partners
at every single level of the supply chain and everybody
is permitted and so you know, Dave can speak to this.
You know, he helps us consolidate donations and then we
get it out to a delivery service called Padre Move
(06:59):
in the Bay Area and they personally deliver it to
our patients. So now we're we're more like a patient organization.
We're like weed social workers and um, yeah, you like
that one. And you know what it's like. The last
two decades, not only haven't been given it to low
income but veterans, seniors, the whole nine. You guys are
(07:20):
given over two million dollars worth of compassionate cannabis. I
mean you're doing the lord's work. Yeah, actually that number
now is up to three point five million dollars worth
of cannabis. And then we're also you know, working with
Dave and we have a side project called Team Compassion.
It's basically all the same people, but you know it's
(07:42):
a different organization now. Sweetly, you know, we're trying to
be a five oh one C three. So we're just
working with patients. We're not working with cannabis so to speak.
We help patients access free medical cannabis. And then what
Team Compassion does is we handle that aspect, handles, you know,
supply chain logistics. We're getting a lot of interest in donations,
(08:07):
and so we're actually now sourcing donations for other compassion programs,
like you guys probably know Weed for Warriors, you know,
Sean Kiernan, loved that guy. He also you know Sean
Kiernan Weed for Warriors and Ryan Miller from Operation Evac.
Along with Sweet Leaf, we were the ones who pushed
through SP thirty four and got you know, the law
(08:29):
changed in California so that compassionate cannabis, you know, cannabis
given away to those who need it most is not
taxed anymore. And so it's great, you know, working with
Dave and being able to source these donations. Already this year,
I want to say we've gotten out almost one point
five million dollars worth of cannabis to Sweet Leaf patients,
(08:52):
but also to veterans through Operation Evac and Weed for Warriors.
And then there's a lot of uh, some new programs
come up that are doing BIPOC compassion and so they're
getting compassion out to you know, African American community. We're
working on getting a program going in the Indigenous community,
and we're seeing something we're calling Compassion two point oh
(09:15):
is a consolidation at different aspects of the supply chain
where we are now able to more efficiently create more
access to Compassion. You know, we have donors that hit
us up and instead of them like som Roasts of
Farms is a great example, they have donated a hundred
and ninety pounds of retail ready flower. Yeah, that's incredible.
(09:40):
Definitely give those guys props. And so instead of them
having to find ten Compassion programs and do ten different
deliveries to all those people, we're one stop shop. They
hit up Team Compassion, we get it dropped at Highway
one distribution with Dave and then you know we have
other Compassion donations too. So when we're going to read
(10:03):
for Warriors in Long Beach, you know we're not just
bringing him flower. We're bringing him chocolate from Coda Signature,
you know, tinctures from Humble Harvest. You know, we're we're
consolidating that so each of these brands, they're not having
to do ten runs to ten different programs and when
you have four different donors, that's forty runs. Instead they
(10:24):
call us up, it's only one run to us, and
then we're doing those four donations altogether in one run.
So it's efficient. You know, we're using less gas, it's
costing less money. We're seeing a consolidation where it's becoming
more efficient and creating more access. And for those who
want to donate, Sweet Leaf Collective dot org as the website,
(10:46):
there's a PayPal thing you can click on and see that.
We're gonna take a break real quick and come back
and find out how this relationship came with Highway One
Distribution and David King. As of course you've been doing
this Joe since I can't wait to hear the story
how David gets involved and bring in the distribution. It's
Cannabis Talk one on one. We'll be right back after this.
(11:18):
Welcome back to Cannabis Talk one on one. Check this out, guys,
Check this out the counterculture Houston, Texas guys. George Brown
Convention Center going down. Make sure you check out Bud
Man's two four twenty expressions, turf Pene, Warehouse, Viscus Vapes, guys.
G four bud Tenders Awards going down at resort were
(11:41):
made Swell through the fourteenth guys. What time is it,
Joe dime time? Yes, it is Man Kelly Effects feel
the effects will be there and connector as well. Guys,
and listen right now. We've got an amazing story to
tell you, guys. It goes over to my man, Mr King,
(12:01):
the president of Highway one Distribution. David tell us a
little bit about that story, you know, and how you
and uh Mr Leaf here, sweet Leaf and met how
did you get get involved with this whole organization? It's
really kind of strange. I worked with food, not bombs
as well back around the time he did. But did
(12:22):
you have hair back then? I'm just wondering, because Joe
just test me to ask you that if you had
hair back then? No, I didn't. He didn't remember you.
I'm kidding. So did you do you guys work together there? Huh?
You guys worked together then giving out food for that organization, Yeah,
but we didn't know each other. Yeah. And then from
there I went to working for a place called Project
(12:44):
Open Hand. We delivered a lot of meals for people
that were terminally ill. Um to fifteen came in. We
sort of on the slide delivered a lot of cannabis
for people who are terminally ill as well. Um and
I kind of have always felt uh compelled to help
(13:09):
people in this manner, and uh, well, why David, I
want to elaborate there. You know, I love when people
feel that way. Why why do you have that compassion?
Because not a lot of people do in their heart.
It's not like everyone does. And I know Blues done
it and I always admire him, and I admire you
guys as well, and David, for you to say that
as well as you sweet leave Joe for saying this
(13:29):
and doing that? What made you because how about this
guy's I never did that, you know what I'm saying.
So I admire you guys and take my hat off
to all of you because I'm like, wow, you guys
have done something that's helping a lot of people. What
made your heart feel that way? And go that way? David,
I know it sounds cheesy, but I I feel like it.
(13:50):
It makes the better world. And if more people did it,
you know, I just feel like more people should do it. Hey,
cheesy is good and I want the real truth, like
that's you know, I mean, give me a cracker because
I wanted like you, Joe, I mean, and it's funny
and traig even you yourself. You do a lot of
things that are good for the people. You get a
lot of fat stuff on the on the website you
(14:10):
work with weed for Warrior Sean Kiernan. It was actually
a very very close dear friend of mine and I
general counsel for the last five years now for a
week four years. And when they need any kind of work,
they can call on me and they know I can
get it done, and I take care of him and
they're great people. What was that pro bono you could
(14:31):
say that? Yeah, so once again it's it's that give
back to the communities and give back to organizations that
happened like that. So how did you guys? So you
guys met way back then, We didn't meet work at
another organization. Where did the like, Hey, oh my god,
I'm David King, I have this Highway one distribution. Did
you already have the company or do you already had
(14:52):
the company? Yeah? Uh, this is uh right. When COVID
hit um Joe reached out to me asked if I
could just help with the transfer actually, and I said,
you know what, let me do the whole thing. And
we jumped in early April did our first Compassion run
(15:13):
and it went beautifully. And uh, I've been with the
numb since. You know now, now the way you guys operate.
You know, has there been blowback from the bc C
or any other organization? Yeah, because I mean, you know,
it's a it's a different model, right, And it sounds
like you guys are now thunder Prop thirty four Blue No, no, no,
but but but there's a llegal there's a legal way
(15:34):
to do it now. Unfortunately, prior to that, it was
it was really a funked up situation. And then they
passed Prop thirty four, which gives an avenue for retailers
to be able to supply and donate without getting just
fucked under the old system prior to SP thirty four. So,
(15:54):
and you need a distributor in the loop as well, um,
in order to facilitate that, because everything's got to go
into track and trace and that traded from a licensed provider.
You're and you're the distributor, David, Yes, got you. We
also have processing, So we're gonna start doing some of
some some of our own packaging for uh, for the
(16:17):
legacy that we're doing. Um, yeah, we're gonna be a
legacy when warriors. Yeah what was that. We're gonna be
doing that with weed for warriors as well. So we're
you know, Weed for Warriors, Operation EVAC, and Sweet Leaf.
We all worked on SP thirty four together, and we
worked on it the year before when it was sp
(16:39):
A twenty nine, but it got vetoed by the governor.
We had to lobby for two years to make the
State of California recognize the nonprofit sector of our industry.
So right now we got a bulk donation of one
hundred pounds of flower. It's coming from Elkhorn Farms, really
great farm. They really want to support Passion. So we're
(17:01):
gonna be getting that to Highway one in Santa Cruz.
Operation EVAC is going to be going there. Ryan Miller,
he's gonna be helping do the packaging as well as
Brooke who works with sweet Leaf, and Weed for Warriors
and sweet Leaf are gonna split the costs for purchasing,
the packaging and the labeling, and so we're gonna create
(17:22):
this new Compassion brand. We're not sure what we're gonna
call it yet, maybe Champions of Compassion from the people
that brought you SB thirty four. So it's all of
us that worked on SP thirty four that made this happen,
and now we are going to be making our own
compassion flower and we're gonna split it three ways. A
(17:42):
third of the hundred pound donation is going to Operation Evac,
a third is going to weed for Warriors, and a
third is going to sweet Leaf patients. And this is
you know, we're creating this compassion ecosystem. And this is
compassion two point oh, compassion one point oh. We were
all doing our own thing. Now we're teaming up or
consolidating and we're creating more access. How hard is it
(18:05):
for you guys to make people understand that this is
compassion and this is not for you know, profit. You're
not sitting there making you know, tons of dough off
this when you're sitting there giving away so much cannabis,
you're giving away so much medicine to these sick patients
with aids, this or that or you know what you
name the problem. How hard is it to convince these
(18:26):
people to donate, let alone the laws that you have
to go through and jump through to make sure that
you're safe in doing it properly. Uh, the laws are
a pain in the ass, But getting people to um
to donate has been actually pretty easy. Um. So, when
you know someone, when someone decides to come on and
(18:46):
go ahead and donate. How do they go about that?
I mean do they just you know, send their credit
card information or is it send weed? Yeahounds, I mean,
how how can somebody donate? Well, we definitely were king
for more monetary donations. We are currently fiscally sponsored, so
you know, when you do a donation, you can get
(19:07):
a tax right off. We really need help with that.
You know, there's links on the website and you know,
as far as the cannabis, usually people will hit me
up and then you know, we'll go back and forth
in some emails and then I'll pull Dave in and
we'll usually try to get it delivered to Dave in
Santa Cruz. But you know, if the donation is large enough,
(19:30):
we can potentially, you know, Dave can potentially go and
pick it up. And yeah, you just so you know
how it works, Joe, Joe, How how it works is
I mean, people can buy cannabis and then give it
to anybody they want. What was this case? You asked like, hey, Mark,
(19:51):
you want to put your phone on mute? Mark, you're
on the show there now, welcome, Welcome to the show. Yeah,
that's that was Martimer. Welcome Art. Yeah, it's just first
time trying to explain to Joe and all of our
listeners that we're talking about we're talking about legal, regulated
(20:12):
cannabis being provided and donated to everybody that we're talking about, veterans,
patients and the so forth. It's not that anybody can
do it. It's anybody can buy cannabis and if they
want to donate it, give it away. I mean under
Prop six e four, you can give up to an
ounce away whatever. That's that's one thing. But we're talking
(20:34):
about you. You I can't go buy some of the
score and then go to the store and say here,
give this away from me. It has to come from
a licensed cultivator through the entire system, tracked traced into
the system. So it's not just like you know, anybody
can do it. So what they're saying is for those
(20:56):
of us who aren't regulated cultivators, who can actually make
that move and give up a hundred pounds, we can
donate funds. Yeah, and I want to be specific on
that to donating funds to sweet Leaf. Sweet Leaf is
a patient organization. The funds go to organizing patients to
(21:16):
making sure that their paperwork is up to date. None
of that money purchases cannabis. We are not breaking any
laws here, sweet leaf is uh like we said earlier,
we're weed social workers. Yeah, it's a five O one
three right. Yeah, So it's completely you know, up and
up and and we love that too. And like I said,
(21:38):
I think it's something special that you guys are doing
right now. And and honestly, you know, from us, it's
it's very difficult for a lot of people to to
be the social workers of this industry because most people
are here for a money grab and or they have
no compassion. They don't even care about the patients that
have been out here and in this struggle. And I
(21:59):
you know, I go back to the two fifteen days
when you know, we had uh tons of HIV patients,
cancer patients, people with glaucoma and and different you know elements,
elements that we were dealing with, and we really cared
about them. And I tell everybody you have to remember
when you get in this industry that people from this
(22:20):
industry started from a very compassionate place, you know, And
it's very difficult for people to understand that because you know,
a lot of a lot of people think it's a
cash crap. Like you said, it's so well stated. I mean,
you look at these big companies and look at these
I'm buying a jet, I'm buying this orrom this company,
that company. But when they start from that pure heart,
like what you guys have been doing, and that's why too.
(22:41):
And I remember hearing about you guys coming on the
show a while back, and I was doing some research
on you guys, going wow, these guys have been doing
it for a long time and they're still doing it.
And your guys have been representing the patient, representing the culture.
I mean, you know, you're out in the Santa Cruz,
You're out in the Humboldt area, You're where californi Arna
has grown some of the best cannabis that is well
(23:03):
known around the world, Like you know what I mean.
Like it's like, oh, and I'm from the Bay Area.
I'm born and raised in San Jose, so we used
to get it from Humble, our Santa Cruz and be like, wow,
some of the best weed ever from both of those locations.
And for those who don't know about California, those two
locations are damn near go hand in hand, one being Humbled,
second being Santa Cruz in my humble opinion of how
(23:26):
I get You know, when I was smoking back then
in the Bay going oh boy, you got the killer.
But you guys are now grabbing it and doing it
out a way where you're helping so many people out
that it should be recognized globally like what you guys
are doing and other people around the world that want
to help out people like this. This is what sweet Leave,
Joe and David King are doing, and once again just
(23:47):
applaud you for it. Jo. Do you work with different
retail outlets? Yeah, right now. You know, we are sourcing
donations for Cornerstone Reese arch in l A for the
Higher Path. Dave's been doing those delivery runs. We're also
working with a therapeutic alternative. We've done some runs down
(24:09):
to LB. Atlantis with weed for warriors. You know, we're
we're starting to be compassion distributors. You know, we're able
to source donations for other people. And you know, I
just want to touch on what you were saying about Humble.
We started another little program. So John Cassally from Huckleberry
Hill Farms and Humble second generation cannabis farmer. He did
(24:33):
almost ten years federal time and he got out. He's
got his own brand. He donated seventy pounds and True
Humboldt and Redwood Roots helped us with the packaging, and
we have a brand, a compassion brand called Humboldt Legacy
Compassion because there's an untold story and Murder Mountain makes
everybody think Humboldt is full of crazy, tweaker growers and
(24:55):
the real story and Humble is that they have supplied
the majority of compassionate cannabis to California's patients for the
last three decades. And that's the real story. And that's
why we made this brand and we're gonna be getting
that out to patients. All the whole seventy towns is
all going to be given away. And this is the
real story. Humble has been supporting this community and we
(25:19):
need to give him props. You know, and John what
was John's last name, John Casali? Check him out. He's great.
I mean Forbes article about him. You know, he did
real time thanks to camp and you know, they took
his family farm and when he got out, the community
rallied together and he got his farm back and he's
(25:41):
permitted now. He just got the first tourism permit. So
they're gonna do a bud in breakfast there, go to
his farm. You go to his farm there you wake
up and you just wake and bake with some humble
or Huckleberry Hill farms. We Yeah, I read a band.
There was an article. I can't remember where I read it,
not that maybe it was a few months ago or
(26:03):
even a little longer. And I'm glad you brought that
up because I definitely have to check that out. Man.
We have to have all your viewers and listeners like
go check him out. John is such a true, true
dude and his farm is beautiful and like I said,
his second generation. He grew up on that farm when
he was like six seven years old, watering pop plants
(26:25):
for his mom. Wow, that's amazing, guys. Well there it is, guys.
It's Cannabis Talk one on one. When we come back
the High five, it's Cannabis Talk. Well right back, take
a hit, get lit, and sit back and enjoy Cannabis
(26:47):
Talk one oh one Mark and Craig, Pop Brothers, that
Law Blue and Joe Grande And it is my favorite
time of the show, the Cannabis Talk one oh one
High five, Joe, you know, thank you, Mark Wasser and
from the Pop Brothers at law, I want to ask
you guys one more question though before we get and
of course if anybody else has another one, But as
I have the two lawyers here, just thinking about the
(27:09):
legal issues that you guys may have come across. Have
you guys been arrested for doing just giving away cannabis
like this? Especially you Joe, I mean in doing that,
I mean I would think, what David King having a
distribution company, it should be fine. But what type of
legal issues did you guys have? And so I haven't
really had any issues, you know, like we talked about
earlier when to fifteen passed and the Feds were coming
(27:31):
down on everyone. I just specifically designed this business model
to be the hardest for them to come after us,
and I designed it so if they did find us,
it would be the most defendable in court. And so
thank god, you know, operating for twenty five years, we
never had any problems illegal. Thank I mean, it's it
(27:54):
sounds like the good old days of uh not only
prop to fifteen, but really if that's before twenty that
gave you the defense if something were to happen. We
set people up in order to defend which in the
old days it was felony first, defend later. So doing
it the proper way, getting to have and everything in line.
So something did go down, It's like here, motherfucker's right. Yeah,
(28:18):
we would. When we would go up to humble and
like you know, pick up fifty pounds a hundred pounds,
we would have a binder of patient paperwork. Now that
binder included a member agreement, so that's what constituted under
s before twenty this collective agreement. We weren't acting as individuals.
We were acting on behalf of these patients. So if
(28:39):
they messed with us, they you know, the cops are
like you know, and we never really had any problems,
but they would have looked at the binder. They're seeing
all these physicians. But Joe, where you're wrong is this
is where you're wrong. Everything you're saying is correct, except
they look at the binder and they go fuck you.
Let the judge look at the binder or even know.
(29:00):
No matter how many you know, We've we had so
many back in the day. We tell them, if you
set up right, you carry your paperwork right, you do
it right. Then you're gonna be good, but you'll probably
be arrested and then we go in with all the
documents that you had on you at the time. They
ignored it with la la la, and then we get
you out. But I mean, you're right, that's how it
(29:20):
used to be done back in the good old days.
And I'm wondering with you, David, did anybody have any
problems when you're going up there and grabbing it? I mean,
I know your distribution, but do you guys ever have
to run into the law and prove everything, uh, to
prove everything? Yes, but it's been pretty pretty straightforward. Um,
not a lot of problems. Um, haven't had any huge
(29:42):
issues other than, you know, shut the funk up and
have a nice day. So you guys know the script, Well,
let's see before we get into the high five, Mark,
let's see if they really do know the script. Test
them quick, Mark, you want want to do the script challenge?
I think we do the script challenge before we do
(30:03):
the high fives and say they're the ones who mentioned
shut the funk up. That's all I know. All you
need to know. That's all you need to know. At
the end of the day, I guess we Back in
the day, we would have little I D Cards and
they would have a picture of us and say, you know,
oh a driver for sweet Leaf. And then on the
(30:23):
back of that card we had two lawyer numbers and
on the back it said two law enforcement call these lawyers,
you know, don't talk to the person in the car
or in the truck. And you know those lawyers were
Patrick Doggan, Yeah, Patrick Goggan and Bill Panser. And Bill
Panzer is one of the guys who was, you know,
co author of Proposition to fifteen. He was one of
(30:45):
our lawyers. Nice, yeah, yeah, No. I mean if any Bill,
anybody worked their salt back in those days, if your
clients didn't have one of those documents, for whatever it
was worth on site or at the you know, point
of arrest, you know, you weren't worth to not you
weren't worth anything if you didn't provide that to your
clients to take these with you. This isn't you know,
(31:08):
if you want a defense. It was really that simple.
Do you want to defense the felonies or not? Well,
there it is. Thank god they didn't have to deal
with it. Let's get to that high five though. You guys,
I'm gonna ask you guys a question. Each of us
will ask you guys a question. You'll answer it the
best you can. We'll start with sweet Leave Joe, and
then David King you'll answer the same exact question right
(31:28):
after him. Question number one of the High five with
cannabis talk one oh one. How are you the first
time you smoke cannabis? And where'd you get it from? Joe?
Oh my god, I love this story. I was saying, Okay,
I was going to high school down in Monterey and
me and some friends, like we didn't know shit about weed.
(31:49):
We scored a bag on the street. It was kind
bud and so our first time getting high, we had
a little soda can. We had actually taped a straw
to the soda can because that somebody told us to
do that. You know, we didn't just hit it. We
had like the straw and we're smoking it in this
little like right next to the safe way. But it
was like, you know, there was like a I don't know,
(32:11):
it was some trees, but it was like kind of
like a spot, you know, homeless people would hang out
and oh my god, we got lit. That's always a
good time. And Who did you get it from? I
don't even know, some dude on the street. It's a
random random what city? What city was this? Was this
in the city of San Francisco? No, this was in Monterey,
(32:32):
I want to say, or good old cannary row out
there in Monterey. Love that area, David King. I was
thirteen and I got it from a person making the clown.
Who the hell's making the clown? My parents booked entertainment
(32:53):
for fairs. I grew up around circus people. Awesome, that's great. Yeah,
he's he's a pretty prominent guy up in Colo Valley.
Still still popping? Is he still clowning around? I think
he's about but he's still around. Nice. We've got a
couple of clowns on this show too, speaking to actually
(33:17):
you're actually now you really Joe, Like, do you really
put the nose on the whole makeup the whole line? Oh?
Hell yeah. I can walk on a rope and juggle
at the same time, unicycle still walking, I do fire performance.
Maybe you could teach Craig how to chew gum and walk.
We've been trying to work on him with that for
a while. But maybe he can get out number two,
Question number two. Joe. Joe, Yeah, no, not you, Joe,
(33:43):
the other job. But see this is what I mean, Joe,
this is how this one is my favorite way. It's
not kidding, I'm I'm playing question number two. What's your
favorite way to use cannabis? That's an idiot. Um, So
I'm taking a little break now. But you know, I
like smoking split if and then for sleep I'll do
some rso because you know the Rick Simpson oil. And
(34:06):
I feel like people don't talk about this enough. Yeah
it helps with cancer, but if you have cancer, but
it can be a preventative for cancer as well and
all things for that matter. Yeah, what about you, David,
I'm very old school. I like flower like a nice joint,
nice hand rolled joint. It's always fun. Question number three
(34:29):
of the High five Craziest place you've ever used or
smoked cannabis joke? Mm hmmm. I don't know. It's been
lots of crazy places. I mean I traveled around the
whole world, and you know I've been in like war
zones and yeah, smoking some weed in like Kosovo or something. Wow,
(34:52):
you know there was there was one time we were
doing a they pulled me on to this tour, we
were going to Mongolia overland from the south of France.
We went overland and we were in Poland, and you know,
at that time, I wasn't smoking splits and everyone else
was and mixing tobacco. I wanted to smoke it pure,
so I had an apple. And we get pulled over
(35:13):
in Poland and everybody's hiding the drugs and they're like, hey, Joe,
what about your fucking apple pipe? And I pulled it
out and I was like, oh, ship and fucking eat
the whole thing right there. I've been using it for days,
just reson all up. It's a chewy apple. Oh god man.
(35:39):
And they didn't even search us. Nice. What about you,
I'm gonna have to say, probably uh abandoned freeway after
the eighty nine earthquake. Oh I remember that earthquake? Well, yeah,
seven point six was it or something like that. We
(35:59):
have had a good one that during the World Series.
I can never forget that. The Giants. Yeah, how was
at football practice when it happened at James Lick High
School in the Bay Area and remember making a play
and I felt like I was just rolling in my
head like what the hell just happened? What a time?
(36:19):
Go ahead, Markey, alright. Question number four of the Cannabis
Talk one on one high five. We're here with sweet
Leaf Joe, founder and director of Sweet Leap Collective, and
David King, president of Highway one Distribution. Guys, Question number four,
what is your go to Munchi's after you get high? Joe?
(36:42):
I love them to Tino's pizza roles. I mean that's
like some teenage high school ship. But I'll tell you what,
I'll still eat that. Alright, that's getting hungry. David, what
do you what do you go for? What are your
much peanut butter or anything you know butter that you know,
(37:02):
those peanut butter pretzels are just death, you know. I
mean you can't just grab one. You gotta just a
big handful and then another little handful and then put
the jar back. On Question number five with a high
five of these two great gentlemen. If you could smoke
cannabis with anyone dead are alive, who would it be
and why? Starting with you Sweet Leaf Joe. That's a
(37:25):
good one to think of. I see even pondering. I know, Dave,
do you have an answer? Because it's almost like I
want to one of my favorite artists, Genesis Peorge. He
was are they actually uh sang for Robbing Gristle Psychic
TV did a ton of crazy yard around the Bay Area.
(37:48):
I think he'd be a lot of fun. And why
why do you think that? Just because he like his
way he sings? Is it? I love everything he's ever.
I'm sorry they have ever done? Oh so it's a band. Well,
they being the um the person, they being the person nice, Okay,
(38:10):
you it's the and it is. I have actually smoked
with them, but I'm gonna have to say Dennis Perrone
and I would throw I throw Brownie Mary in there too.
I never actually got to meet Brownie Mary, but I
would love to get high, you know, with both of
them together. You know, in two thousand and eight Team,
(38:33):
when we started doing SBA twenty nine, Dennis was gonna
be our spokesperson and I had met with him and
he wound up passing a couple of months after that,
and uh, yeah, that that guy. That's the dude that
is the number one person who has done the most
for cannabis ever about Alan Alda, No, Dennis prow Mann.
(38:57):
Dennis started compassion. You know, he was in a way
cannabis the low income AIDS patients in the eighties, like
he's he's I mean, he's my inspiration. Are you? Are
you guys both born and raised in the Bay Area?
Actually I was. I was born in the Midwest, but
I've moved out here when I was two, Okay, she
(39:20):
and then Bay Area the whole life like between sant
Okay and you too, Joe and so me. I was
born in Europe, but my family on both sides, like
all my great grandparents came to northern California and my
dad got moved around a bunch. So I I lived
in the Bay like three different times for like probably
about a third of my childhood. But once I was eighteen,
(39:44):
you know, I've been I've been in the Bay wella
in California. Now I'm up here in Trinity County, but yeah,
for decades. And when you went to Trinity County, did
you realize that it was the mecca for cannabis or
what led you to get there to be like, oh
my god, uh, well, I moved up here two and
(40:04):
a half years ago, and you know it's this is
there's the Emerald Triangle. Everybody knows Humble everybody knows Mendocino,
and then they don't realize that triangle means three and
Trinity counties that other counties. So actually, I live at
a spot. We we grew two seasons here during proposition
to fifteen days. We got this as a you know,
(40:25):
as an income property, and then we stopped growing here
but still paying the mortgage, and I kind of got
tired of the day, and I was like, you know what,
I'm gonna move to this tiny ast town of three
people and just like kick back, you know, from living
in the Mission District in San Francisco for like twenty
years to coming up here, it's like it's a breath
of fresh air. I know that struggle. I mean, the
(40:46):
Bay Area is no joke. San Francisco's as crazy as
it gets. Well, for those who want to see the
website once again, go check it out Sweet Leaf Collective
dot o RG and David King, the president of Highway
one Distribute, which is Highway one Distribution dot com. Go
check out his If you need his services, go check
those out as well. Is there anything else that we're
(41:07):
missing for you guys that you guys want to promote.
I think you did a wonderful job. Yeah, I think
you did a great job to definitely the whole thing
about financial contributions, that's the biggest thing that's holding us
back from expanding more. And so anybody who wants to
make a tax deductible contribution, any cannabis brands out there
(41:29):
that want to be a partner or a sponsor, hit
us up. You know. There it is guys as Cannabis
Talk one on one, and we want you all to
remember this. If no one else loves you, we do.
Thank you for listening to Cannabis Talk one on one
on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Hosts And Creators
Joe Grande
Marc Wasserman
Craig Wasserman
Christopher Wright (Blue)
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